My Genealogy Hound

James H. Coleman, is one of the sturdy tillers of the soil of Ouachita County, and is now successfully engaged in the management of his farm, which comprises 480 acres, 125 acres being under cultivation, his principal crops being corn and cotton. He was born in Alabama, May 7, 1845, and is a son of Willis E. and Maria P. (Gernigan) Coleman, the former born in Halifax County, N. C, March 20, 1818, and the latter in Wayne County, N. C, January 3, 1814. Willis E. Coleman was taken to Alabama, at a very early day, and was there married February 10, 1837, moving in 1859 to Arkansas, and settling in Ouachita County, where he bought, and improved an excellent tract of land. He was of Irish-English descent, and for a number of years was justice of the peace, in Ouachita County. Of a family of six sons and six daughters born to himself and wife James H. Coleman, the subject of his sketch, is the only one now living. The parents were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in this faith the father passed from life March 15, 1880, his wife still surviving him, being seventy-six years of age. James H. Coleman received very few advantages for acquiring an education in his youth, but these advantages he improved to the utmost, and is now a well-posted and intelligent man. On June 28, 1868, Miss Mary A. Duncan became his wife, her birth occurring in Washington County, Tenn., February 13, 1854, both her parents William D. and Lydia Duncan, being also born in that State, the former a farmer by occupation. James H. Coleman and his wife are the parents of three sons and one daughter: James E., William P., George M. and Lydia B. In 1863 Mr. Coleman enlisted in Company D., under Capt. Oliver H. Overstreet, (Arkansas Infantry), and was in the battles of Pleasant Hill and Jenkins’ Ferry, serving until the close of the war. All the property he had accumulated prior to the war was destroyed during that time, and what he now has, has been acquired through his own earnest endeavors since he left the army. He and wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, he is a Democrat, politically, and for the last eight years he has served as justice of the peace, of Red Hill Township.