Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 296 - 297  

ANDREW J. COFFMAN, a representative farmer of Valley Center Township, is finely located on section 5, where he is maintaining his place among the progressive and intelligent men around him, engaging in farming and keeping a choice assortment of graded stock. He landed in this county on the 7th of March, 1873, and first located on section 4, where he remained nine years. 

     Mr. Coffman removed from his first location in this State to Harvey County, but two years later returned to Sedgwick and purchased the forty acres of land to which he has since given his careful attention, bringing the soil to a fine state of cultivation, and erecting the buildings which form a pleasant feature of the landscape at that point. He owns in all 320 acres. A grove of from 2,500 to 3,000 trees provides a grateful shade in summer and assists in breaking the winter winds, and nature in other respects has contributed to make the Coffman farm one of the most desirable in the township. None of the land has been allowed to go to waste, and on this account has yielded to its owner proportionate returns.

     Our subject is native of Owen County, Ind., where his birth took place Sept. 26, 1837. His parents, Samuel and Sylvia (Hatcher) Coffman, were natives of Tennessee, and the mother is still living, having arrived at the advanced age of seventy-three years, and making her home with her daughter, Mrs. Thomas Owens, of Eagle Township. The father departed this life at the old homestead in Owen County, Ind., in the spring of 1860, when about fifty-five years old. He was a pronounced Democrat, politically, and with his estimable wife had identified himself with the Baptist Church, of which he remained a member until his death, and with which the mother continues. Mr. C. officiated as Deacon a good many years, and was prominent in his township as a farmer and cattle-raiser, being numbered among its most enterprising men. 

     Of the nine children born to Samuel and Sylvia Coffman, two died in infancy and seven lived to become men and women. They were named respectively: Andrew J., William D., Eliza Jane, Sarah Ann, Lewis, John and Mary. John and William are now deceased. The latter during the late Rebellion enlisted in August, 1862, in the 97th Indiana Infantry, and was promoted to Corporal. After fifteen months service he was seized with inflammatory rheumatism, which resulted in his death in the spring of 1864. 

     Mr. Coffman, when twenty-two years of age was married, in 1859, to Miss Josephine, daughter of William and Sarah Wiley, who were natives of North Carolina, but are now deceased, They spent their last days in Iowa and Illinois. Our subject and his wife became the parents of eleven children, one of whom died in infancy unnamed. Their eldest son, Charles H., was married in 1885 to Miss Jennie, daughter of Jesse Burson, a well-to-do farmer of Valley Center Township. The other children, who are unmarried and at home, are Rosa D., Marietta, George, Dora, William, Minnie, Dawson, Bertha Ellen, John and Grover. 

     In August, 1862, there appearing no immediate prospect of settlement of the difficulties between the North and the South, Mr. Coffman enlisted as a Union soldier in the 97th Indiana Infantry, in which he was promoted to First Sergeant, and served until in June, 1865, when he was no longer needed. He participated in many of the principal battles of the war, including the fight at Jackson, Miss., Missionary Ridge, the siege and capture of Atlanta, and marched with the troops of Gen. Sherman to the sea. 

     After the final grand review of troops in Washington, Mr. Coffman received his honorable discharge at Indianapolis, Ind., and returned to his old home in Owen County. From there, in June, 1867, he removed to Champaign County, Ill., where he resided five years, and then crossed the Mississippi into Southern Kansas which, it is his private opinion, is about as fine a tract of country as there is on the face of the globe. He is an uncompromising Democrat, politically, and socially, a member in good standing of the G. A. R. He was elected Treasurer of School District No. 131, in 1884, and has served since that time by re-election. 

     The Coffman farm residence and its surroundings will be noticed on another page of this work as bearing fair comparison with the homes of the other well-to-do citizens of Valley Center Township, who are leaving their "footprints on the sands of time."

[ Home ]