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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Lawrence County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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James W. Coffman, M. D., a gentleman well known throughout Northeastern Arkansas as one of its leading physicians, and a fruit grower of well-deserved reputation, was born in 1847 on a farm in what is now known as McLean County, Ky. He is the son of Jacob N. and Nancy (Gish) Coffman, both natives of Pennsylvania, who removed to the State of Kentucky in 1808, when they were children. In 1857 Mr. Coffman and his family removed to Arkansas, and settled in Lawrence County, where he entered into the cultivation of cotton on an extensive scale. His death occurred in 1879, at the age of sixty-seven years, fourteen years after the demise of his wife. Ten children were born to them, of whom two only are living, one of them being a daughter, Mrs. Mary S. Bennefield, and James W. Coffman. Mr. Coffman resided in Lawrence County until the age of sixteen years, when he enlisted in the Confederate army under Gen. Price during the declining years of the late war, participating in some of the daring raids through Missouri and Kansas. At the close of that conflict he returned home, and engaged in the more peaceful avocation of cotton planting. In 1868 he commenced the study of medicine, with his brother (now deceased), who was a graduate of the University of Louisville, Ky., as his preceptor. He entered the same university in the fall of 1869, from which he graduated in 1871, and later on entered the Jefferson Medical College, of Philadelphia, graduating in 1883. He commenced the practice of medicine at Powhatan in 1871, and removed to Black Rock in 1883, where his personal popularity and large practice attest to his efficiency as a skillful physician. His wife, a pleasant and attractive lady, was formerly Miss Mollie F. Warner. The Doctor embarked in general merchandising in 1883-84 at Black Rock, and has been deservedly fortunate, being the owner of considerable property in that town and the outlying district. He has one of the finest fruit orchards in the northeastern portion of this State, comprising twenty-five acres of young trees just producing fruit, which he planted in the fall of 1885 as an experiment, and which have proven a success beyond his most sanguine expectations. They will yield on an average one and one-half bushels to the tree this year. Besides this, he has planted out small fruits in proportion, and has been equally successful with them. He is a strong Democrat; one of the most industrious and energetic citizens of Black Rock, and takes an active part in all public and private enterprises that tend toward the advancement of his county.

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This family biography is one of 111 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Lawrence County, Arkansas published in 1889.  View the complete description here: Lawrence County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

View additional Lawrence County, Arkansas family biographies here: Lawrence County, Arkansas Biographies

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