Elisha Spaulding Coon, one
of Delaware county's representative farmers, residing in
Delaware township, about five miles north and east of
Manchester, is a native of Allen county, Ind., and was born
March 3, 1840. He is a son of Amos F. Coon, one of Delaware
county's most honored citizens, a sketch of whom will be found
elsewhere in this work. Reference is here made to that sketch
for the facts pertaining to the ancestral history of the subject
of this notice.
Elisha Spaulding Coon, with whom this article is concerned, was
reared in Allen county, Ind., to the age of seventeen, coming
then to Iowa as a member of his father's family in 1857, and
locating in Delaware county, where he has since resided. He was
reared a farmer and has followed agricultural pursuits all his
life. He now owns one of the best farms in Delaware township,
consisting of four hundred acres, most of which is in
cultivation and all of which is improved, and yielding a revenue
in some shape. Mr. Coon settled on this place in 1866 and has
done all the improving on it. He is a painstaking, industrious,
economical farmer, and the many evidences of his intelligent
labor and business like management are to be easily seen around
his place.
Mr. Coon has been twice married,
and the father of five children. He married first on April 26,
1863, his wife's maiden name being Sarah J. Hunt, she being a
resident at that time of Delaware county. This lady died June 3,
1876, leaving two children, as follows: Eddie E., who was born
May 11, 1864, and who died October 2, 1887; and Llewellyn L.,
who was born July 23, 1866. Mr. Coon's second marriage took
place June 17, 1877, and his wife's maiden name was Ettie A.
Coleson, a daughter of William Coleson, of Delaware county, a
sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this volume. Mrs. Coon is a
native of Delaware county, and was born May 18, 1856. To Mr.
Coon and his present wife have been born three children, as
follows-S. Mertie, born April 5, 1879; Susannah V., born March
22, 1883, and Wayne S., born May 16, 1888, and died November 30,
1888.
Mr. Coon has filled the usual number of local offices in his
township and has borne his share of the responsibility of
conducting the public affairs of the township. Reared a
democrat, he has always voted the democratic ticket, having cast
his first presidential vote for George B. McClellan in 1864, and
has lived up to the doctrines of his party on all national and
state questions. |