1905 History of Crawford County Kansas

Norman Coughenour, prominent liveryman and real estate owner of Pittsburg, Kansas, has been in the livery business in this city for a longer period than any of his competitors, and in fact, established his first enterprise of the kind when the city was in its first stages of rapid growth. He has been a successful man in his business, and has a good financial standing in Pittsburg and Crawford county. He has known this county from pioneer times, and has been both a witness and a co-worker in the marvelous progress that has placed Pittsburg among the leading industrial centers of the state and the county up with the banner agricultural sections.

Mr. Coughenour was born in Gallia county, Ohio, in 1851, and is a son of William and Clara (Scott) Coughenour, the former of whom is one of the oldest men in the city of Pittsburg, and has the distinction of having experienced pioneer life in three different states of the Mississippi valley. William Coughenour was born in 1824, in the most picturesque part of Old Virginia, Rockbridge county. At the age of six years he was brought across the Alleghanies by his parents, who crossed the Ohio in 1830 and settled in Gallia county, where his father cleared a farm from the dense forest and made his home for many years. He was reared and educated there, but in 1870 came further west, locating on a farm near Harrisonville, Cass county, Missouri. About 1875 the entire family moved over into Crawford county, Kansas, and located on a farm northeast of Girard. William Coughenour lived there for several years, and then moved into Pittsburg, where he is still living, at the advanced age of eighty years.

Norman Coughenour was reared and educated in Ohio, and was nineteen years old when he moved to Missouri. He soon afterward moved from Cass county into Barton county, Missouri, which was then but sparsely settled, and there he broke up several hundred acres of raw prairie with teams of oxen. He moved to Kansas with the rest of the family in 1875, but after a short time returned to Barton county and farmed his place for two years. He then took up what has proved to be his permanent place of residence in Crawford county. In 1881, when Pittsburg was just beginning its rapid growth, he decided to come to this city and engage in business. He established a livery stable with Mr. Miller, whose interests he afterward bought, and has conducted the concern ever since. The name of the firm is now Coughenour and Company, his sons being associated with him now. He also carries on a transfer business, and the two together compose an important local industry. The present substantial building was erected in 1891, at 110 West Fifth street. In 1901 Mr. Coughenour completed the Coughenour block on the northeast corner of Fifth and Broadway. This is a business building, with stores on the first floor and offices on the second, and is one of the best and most modern commercial blocks in Pittsburg. He also owns other real estate interests, and through his good business judgment and foresight has become very prosperous.

Mr. Coughenour is a Republican in principle, but has usually voted independently and for the best man for the office. He served one term as a member of the city council. By his wife, Nannie (Stephenson) Coughenour, he has five children, Charles E., Franklin E., Myrtle, Agnes and Emma.