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From: "Cathy Joynt Labath" <>
Subject: [IA-IRISH] Coleman Bio
Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2006 12:25:16 -0600

A History of Montana by Helen Fitzgerald Sanders. 2 vols. Chicago & New
York: Lewis Publishing Co., 1913.

JOHN A. COLEMAN, now one of the best-known and most successful lawyers
in the city of Lewistown, Montana, where he has been established since 1909,
has seen a varied existence since he first began to fend for himself at the
tender age of ten years. Ambition and perseverance have constituted the
keynote of his life, and he has never been a stranger to hard work. He saw
to the acquiring of an education without assistance from family or friends,
and the position which he occupies today in Lewistown is the direct result
of his own concerted effort.
Mr. Coleman was born in Allamakee county, Iowa, on the 27th of June,
1877, and is the seventh child of the fourteen born to his parents, Michael
and Margaret (Corcoran) Coleman. Michael Coleman was born in County Galway,
Ireland, while the mother was a native of Covington, Kentucky.
When Michael Coleman was two years of age he came with his parents to
America. He was a youth of fifteen years when the Civil war broke out, and
straightaway his combative and heroic spirit manifested itself in a
compelling desire to enlist. His youth caused his parents to resist his
impulse and determination but nothing daunted, the young patriot did not
hesitate to take "French leave" of his home and family. He was so
unfortunate as to be apprehended before he was able to enlist, and was taken
home, much to his disgust. His ardor was not dampened by this slight check,
however, and it is of record that the boy ran away a second and a third time
before he finally accomplished his purpose and succeeded in joining the
Union forces, in which he served honorably until the close of the war. For a
full quarter century Michael Coleman Montana and followed the business of
railroading, but at present he is living on his ranch in North Dakota. His
wife died at Livingston, Montana, in 1901, in the fifty-seventh year of her
life. Two of the daughters make their homes in this state. Elizabeth, the
wife of John J. O'Connor, lives in Butte, and Stella, who married Michael
Crowley, lives in Logan, Montana.
In 1881, four years after the birth of John Coleman in Allamakee
county, Iowa, he was brought to North Dakota by his parents, but the stay of
the family there was a short one, as it was their desire to locate in the
extreme west, or at least, to a more distant part of the west than is
represented by the Dakotas. Their next move took them to Eastern Montana,
which was their home until 1891, and from there they moved to Livingston.
The family continued to reside there until the death of the mother in 1901.
John Coleman early began to care for himself and at the age of ten he found
his first employment in the selling of fancy autograph cards, which will be
remembered as being immensely popular in those days. He soon gave up that
work to take a regular job as herder for the Hatchet Company, at a salary of
forty-five dollars, a month. This money he gave to his mother to assist in
the support of the large family of which he was one. When they moved to
Livingston, he was fourteen years old , and there he secured work with the
Northern Pacific Railroad as clerk in their store room department. During
these years the boy attended school whenever he found it in any way
possible, as he had a determination to secure something of an education, at
whatever cost. He succeeded in completing the high school course in
Livingston when he was nineteen and he straightaway left that city and went
to Minneapolis, where he entered the University of Minnesota after
completing his entrance requirements at St. Thomas college in St. Paul. His
passage through the University was made possible through his own efforts, as
he worked his own way, and in 1900 was graduated from the University. He
then returned to Montana and entered the law office of A.J. Campbell of
Butte, with whom he was associated for about two years. He was then
appointed deputy county attorney for Silver bow county, spending two years
in that office, after which he engaged in private practice in Butte. He was
one of the attorneys for the Heinze Company, of western fame, and also for
the Fusion party. In 1904 Mr. Coleman was sent to the legislature from
Silver Bow county, and served one term, and he has since then taken a
particularly active part in the field of politics, the ranks of the
Democratic party finding in him a fighter of strength and courage, and one
of the best of organizers. Although he is a Democrat in his politics, Mr.
Coleman is a warm personal friend of Colonel Roosevelt, with whom he became
acquainted on a cattle ranch in North Dakota.
On June 15, 1908, Mr. Coleman married Miss Anna Maguire, who is the
daughter of Charles and Rosanna Maguire, of Boulder, Montana. The marriage
was solemnized in the city of Bozeman. Three sons have been born to them:
John M., the eldest, was born in Butte; Don C., was born in Lewistown in
1910, and Joseph B was also born in Lewistown in 1912.
Mr. and Mrs. Coleman are devout communicants of the Roman Catholic
church, and are very active in its work. Mr. Coleman is a member of the
Knights of Columbus, and in both Butte and Lewistown has been prominent in
that organization. He has been Grand Knight in the lodge of both cities, and
has been especially active in the work of the order. He is also a member of
the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, and is a member of the Judith Club
and Elks Club of Lewistown.

Cathy Joynt Labath
Irish in Iowa
http://www.celticcousins.net/irishiniowa/index.htm

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