COFFMAN, George B. - Putnam

The family which the subject of this sketch has the honor to represent is an old and esteemed one and since the pioneer period has been closely identified with the historv of Putnam County. According to the most reliable data obtainable. William Coffman, the subject's grandfather, a native of western Tennessee, appears to have migrated to Indiana prior to 1830 and entered land in Clay County. His son, David, accompanied him and shortly after his arrival married Charlotte Coltharp, who, with her widowed mother, two brothers and one sister, also from eastern Tennessee, came about the same time or perhaps a little earlier and settled in northern Owen County, the husband and father having died while serving his country in the war of 1812. He entered the army at the beginning of that struggle, was with General Jackson at the battle of New Orleans and his death a little later occurred shortly before the birth of his youngest daughter, who became the wife of David Coffman.

David Coffman was born near the present site of Knoxville, Tennessee, on the 21st of March, 1809. and was about twenty-one years old when he accompanied his parents to Indiana. Mrs. Coffman, whose birth occurred on October 31, 1814, came from the same neighborhood in which her husband was reared and was a young lady in her teens when the family sought a new home in the wilds of Owen County. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Coffman settled on a tract of land in Owen County, which the former purchased from the government, but after a brief residence and finding that the locality was inimical to his health Mr. Coffman sold the land and entered two hundred and forty acres in the western part of what is now Cloverdale township in the County of Putnam. Moving to the latter, he at once addressed himself to the task of its improvement and in due time his labors were rewarded, the farm which he cleared and developed being among the best and most valuable in that locality. David Coffman was not only a man of great industry and energy, but possessed more than ordinary intelligence and business ability. By well directed and judicious management he succeeded in adding to his holdings until at one time he was among the largest land owners of his township as well as one of the most enterprising farmers and highly esteemed citizens.

When David Coffman moved to Putnam County there was but one family living between his place and Putnamville, while the population of Cloverdale and the immediate vicinity consisted of only four householders. He assisted in the contruction of the old National road through this part of the state and with the money thus earned was enabled to meet the payments on his land when they became due. He always manifested a lively interest in the settlement of the County and the development of its resources and used his influence to further all laudable means for the material and moral advancement of the community. His religious belief, which was one of the controlling influences of his long and useful life, was based upon the creed of the Primitive Baptist church, to which both himself and wife belonged, and in the faith of which they passed to the unseen world, the former February 16, 1888, the latter on March 4. 1883. The children of this worthy couple were eight in number, eventually divided between the sexes, the oldest, John W. Coffman. dying in 1905, leaving ten children, namely: Sarah C, Mary J., Irene. Elizabeth. Eliza A., Margaret Ellen. Andrew J., Albert E., Ada B., Ida Belle and Lily A. Zilpha C, the second in order of birth, with Mary A. and Elizabeth, the third and fifth respectively, live on the old homestead, with their brother George, who is the youngest member of the family. James S., the fourth, is a leading agriculturist and representative citizen, owns a beautiful farm about two miles southeast of Cloverdale and is one of the popular men of his community. He married Martha E. Morrison and is the father of two sons and four daugliters. Henry N., Lee Otis. Minnie F., Effie M. and Gilbert C. Joseph L., the next in succession, departed this life August 7, 1908, leaving a widow. Ann E. (nee Swartz), and one child, Ollie M., to mourn their loss. Nancy M., who married Evan Cline and lives near the family homestead is the fourth in order of birth. (See sketch of Evan Cline.) George B. Coffman, the eighth and youngest of the above children, was born October 29, 1836, in the western part of Cloverdale township, Putnam County, Indiana, and grew to maturity in close touch with nature on the farm of his father redeemed from the wilderness. He was reared to habits of industry and early bore his share in the planting and cultivating of the crops, in the meantime attending school during the fall and winter months until acquiring a practical education. Selecting the honorable vocation of agriculture for his life work, he became familiar with the same while still with his parents and since reaching the years of manhood has devoted himself with gratifying results to his chosen calling.

Emma A. Turner, to whom Mr. Coffman was united in the bonds of wedlock on October 7, 1876, was born in Owen County, Indiana, where her parents. Abram and Eliza (Hubbard) Turner, natives of Kentucky, settled a number of years ago. In the fall of 1893, Mr. Coffman went to Kansas, where he followed farming for one year, but a disastrous fire in which he lost much of his property, together with ill health, induced him to dispose of his interests in that state, at the expiration of which period he returned to Indiana, from which time until 1902 he lived in his native township, near the family homestead. In the early part of the above mentioned year he moved to Sullivan County, this state, where he remained until the death of his wife, on the 8th of August ensuing, when he returned to Putnam County and took charge of the home farm, which he has since managed.

Mr. Coffman devotes considerable attention to agriculture and stock raising and, being a man of progressive ideas and employing advanced methods in his labors, he is fully up-to-date and, as already indicated, ranks among the successful men of his vocation in the township honored by his citizenship. In the spring of 1909 he was elected assessor of Cloverdale township for a term of four years, a position for which his sound judgment and knowledge of values especially fit him, although he has never aspired to official honors nor sought any kind of public distinction. In his relations with his fellows he has always been governed by a high sense of justice and as a consistent member of the Primitive Baptist church he exemplifies in his daily walk the sincerity of his religious profession and the beauty and worth of Christianity as practically applied to the affairs of men.

Nine children blessed the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Coffman, three of whom died in infancy, those living being as follows: Homer D., Otto E., Wilbur R., William W., Jesse I. and Lola M. Homer is homesteading in Oklahoma, and has before him a bright and promising future. Otto has a claim in North Dakota and is doing well, likewise Wilbur, who has taken land in South Dakota, the other children being still under the parental roof.