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AMOS F. COON. June,
1854, is the date when Amos F. Coon first came to Delaware
county. He was then on a prospecting tour, but acquired
interests here which, three years later, led to his
becoming a resident of the county, and he has remained a
resident since. He may justly be called an old settler,
and, as he has been an unusually successful citizen, a
sketch of him fills an appropriate place in this work.
Mr. Coon is a native of
New York, as were also his parents, Samuel W. and Phoebe
(Freeman) Coon. Of his father’s ancestry, little or
nothing has been preserved in the traditions of the
family. It is known, however, that the mother was a
daughter of Stephen Freeman, a patriotic citizen and
soldier in the American Revolution. The elder Coon was
reared, and probably born, in Washington county, N. Y.
He lived there and in Wyoming county, that state, the
greater part of his life, spending his last twenty years,
however, in the home of his son, our subject, partly in
Indiana and partly in Iowa, dying in Allen county, Ind.,
while on a visit there, August 2, 1865, aged eighty five
years and a few months. He was a carpenter and joiner, and
in his earlier years worked actively at his trade. He was
a plain, unostentatious man, leading an industrious,
useful life, and leaving at his |
death a reputation for which his
descendants had no reason to be ashamed of. The mother
Phoebe Coon, passed away in middle life, dying at the age of
thirty-seven, in 1825, while the family was still residing in
New York.
In the family to which Amos
F. Coon belonged there were nine children, seven of whom reached
maturity, but only one of whom is now living, that being the
subject of this sketch. The eldest, Francis, died at the age of
twenty-two. Annie, who afterwards became the wife of David
Battey, died, leaving no family. William, who spent the most of
his life in Washington county, N. Y., engaged at his trade as a
carpenter, died September 28, 1887, well advanced in years.
Preserved B. became an early settler of Washington county, Iowa,
and died at his home in that county, June 24, 1887, having been
an industrious, successful farmer all his life. Elisha entered
the Union army in 1861, and died in the service of his country,
at Vicksburg, Miss., two years later. Phoebe became the wife of
Galutia Potter, and died June 14, 1888, in Allen county, Ind.,
where she had spent most of her wedded life. And the two who
never reached maturity died unnamed in infancy. Amos. F., our
subject, was the fourth child of the family in point of age. He
was born in Washington county, N. Y., April 8, 1815. When he was
two years old his parents moved to Genesee, now Wyoming, county,
that state, where his childhood and youth were passed. He grew
up on the farm and, in accordance with the custom of the times,
resided with his father, giving him the benefit of his labors
till he was twenty one years old having learned the tanner and
currier’s trade when a youth, he began work at that when he left
home to seek his fortunes in the world, receiving for his
services as a journeyman workman $12 per month. He worked at his
trade only a few months, saving, how ever, all his earnings,
and, in the mean time, having borrowed enough to swell his funds
to $100, he started West, casting his lot in Allen county, Ind.,
where, September 17, 1836, he entered eighty acres of government
land, on which he located and lived for twenty years, adding
other lands thereto by purchase, until he succeeded in making a
large and valuable farm. Coming to this county from Indiana in
1854, Mr. Coon entered under the laws of that date a full
section, it being according to the government survey section
23, township 89, range 5 west, lying in Delaware township, and
being four miles east and north of the present town of
Manchester. He paid yearly visits to this county to look after
his land till 1857, when, tiring of these visits, he decided to
come and locate permanently on his place, and having done this
has resided there since. He did not sell his farm in Indiana on
coming to Iowa, but held and traded it some years later for a
farm in this county, lying three miles south of Manchester in
Milo township. Mr. Coon has acquired considerable landed
interests since coming to Delaware county, owning now as much as
a thousand acres in this county, besides six hundred and forty
acres in Dickinson county, this state, having also purchased
smaller tracts from time to time, which he has given to his
children as they have become grown and required to be settled
off in life. It is not necessary to add any thing in this
connection as to his success, since these facts speak fully and
to the point in reference to that. But it is proper to say that
Mr. Coon has not given his whole energies to the business of
accumulating land possessions. He has contributed his full share
to the development of his adopted county, never having owned a
tract of land, however small, which he has not made the better
by reason of his proprietorship. His home place, already
mentioned as lying four miles east and north of Manchester, is
one of the handsomest and best improved farms in Delaware
county. All of it is under cultivation, furnished with neat and
comfortable buildings and surrounded by a splendid artificial
grove of about eighteen acres, the cultivated part being divided
into plow lands, pastures and hay land, and yielding an
abundance of Iowa’s sovereign products, corn and grass. Mr. Coon
has taken much interest in local matters in his township, having
held one office or another in connection with the administration
of the civil affairs of his township for the past twenty years.
Being head of a family, he, of course, has taken much interest
in the schools of his locality and all the social organizations
affecting the peace and happiness of his home. He has taken but
little part in politics, none further than every good citizen is
expected to take. He is an uncompromising democrat, and has
voted the democratic ticket all his life. Indeed it is doubtful
if any man in the county can show such a record of steady
allegiance to his party as he can. Mr. Coon cast his first
presidential vote for Martin Van Buren in 1836. He voted for him
again in 1840. He voted for James K. Polk in 1844; for Lewis
Cass in 1848; he failed to get a vote in 1852, being West on a
prospecting tour; in 1836 he voted for Buchanan; in 1860 for
Douglas; in 1864 for McClellan; in 1868 for Seymour; in 1872 for
Greeley; in 1876 for Tilden; in 1880 for Hancock; and in 1884
and 1888 for Cleveland. Fifty-four years a democrat! A fact that
he has emphasized in a quiet but effectual manner.
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January 5, 1837, Mr. Coon
married, taking to wife Miss Susanna Wheeler, then of
Wyoming county, N. Y., but a native of Otsego county, that
state. The wife of his youth bore him an affectionate
companionship for fifty one years, sharing his fortunes in
all his early struggles and giving him that aid which only
a good wife can give. She died January 6, 1888. To this
union were born six children, only four (two sons and two
daughters) reaching maturity. The eldest was a daughter,
Phoebe Ann, who was horn October 31, 1838, in Allen
county, Ind. She married Stephen J. Edmunds, April 26,
1862, and died February 1, 1875. The eldest son, Elisha
Spaulding, was born March 3, 1840, in Allen county, Ind.
He married Sarah Hunt, of Delaware county, Iowa, April 26,
1863, and now resides near the old homestead in Delaware
township, being one of this county’s most enterprising and
successful farmers. The second son, Allen S., was born in
Allen county, Ind., October 5, 1843, married Delilah
Andrews, January 19, 1875, his wife being a native also of
Allen county, Ind., born September 15, 1851, and the
mother of three children: Luella A., now deceased; Theron
A. and Harlow. Mr. Coon’s youngest child, who became
grown, was a daughter, Adelia who was born July 2, 1850,
and died May 6, 1875. Two children died in infancy
unnamed. |
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In all the relations of life,
whether as parent, neighbor, or citizen, Mr. Coon comes up to
the full stature of a man, and the people of his adopted county
point to him as one whose character and career are in every way
worthy of emulation. |
