My Genealogy Hound

Robert L. Coleman, proprietor of Piggott Hotel, Piggott, Ark., and the son of Col. David and Sarah (Love) Coleman, was born in Haywood County, N. C., March 26, 1823. Col. David Coleman was a native of North Carolina, but moved to Tennessee at an early day, locating in Carroll County, where he followed farming, and there remained until his death. He served as colonel of the State militia. His wife, Sarah Love, was also a native of North Carolina. Her father, Gen. Thomas Love, was in the Revolutionary War as well as the War of 1812. Robert L. Coleman was reared to manhood on a farm in Tennessee, read law in Carroll County, and was admitted to the bar, after which he practiced there until his removal to Missouri in 1851. He then located at Hartsville, Wright County, practiced there for three years and upon returning to Tennessee, engaged in mercantile pursuits until the breaking out of the late war, when he enlisted in the Confederate service, in 1862, in Col. Napier’s regiment. He remained in this regiment for about eight months, afterward being in Col. Green’s regiment, where he was promoted to adjutant and served in that capacity. He was captured at Parke’s Cross Roads by Gen. Sullivan, was held a prisoner at Camp Douglas for over three months, and was then exchanged. He then returned to Tennessee and did not enter the service again. He resumed the practice of law in Carroll County for about three years, but finally gave up law. He has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, for many years and was licensed to preach in 1868. He was a local preacher in his church for some years. He was ordained deacon in 1870 at Trenton, Tenn., by Bishop McTyre, and followed his ministerial duties in Tennessee up to 1875, when he moved to Arkansas, settling at Oak Bluff in Clay County, and there resided for a number of years. He taught school for nine months, and then engaged in the manufacture of tobacco in 1878, which occupation he has followed up to the present date. He built his hotel in the fall of 1888 and moved in December. His is the first and last and only hotel in Piggott. Mr. Coleman was married in Carroll County, Tenn., December 4, 1850, to Miss Harriet E. Norman, a native of Carroll County, and the daughter of Judge John Norman. To this union were born three children, two daughters and a son: Sarah N., wife of Albert Hubbard, of Piggott; Mollie A., widow, and John R., who died May 7, 1883, in his twenty-fifth year. Mr. Coleman was ordained local elder here in 1881 by the same bishop that ordained him deacon in Tennessee.