Indiana Historical Society - Manuscripts & Archives
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Historical Sketch
Scope and Content Note
Cataloguing Information
Processed by
Charles Latham
20 May 1996
VOLUME OF COLLECTION: 5 items
COLLECTION DATES: 1852-1892
PROVENANCE: Unknown; possibly from Mrs. Fred Claxton (Hattie Coleman)
RESTRICTIONS: None
REPRODUCTION RIGHTS: Permission to reproduce or publish material in this collection must be obtained in writing from the Indiana Historical Society
ALTERNATE FORMATS: None
OTHER FINDING AIDS: None
RELATED HOLDINGS: None
ACCESSION NUMBER: 94.0517x
This collection contains items from the Coleman family, living mainly in Union Township, Rush County, Indiana, during the 1860s. The only member of the family appearing in available county histories is Joseph F. Coleman, listed in the 1879 Beers Atlas as a farmer living in Section 15, who settled in Union Township in 1852 and was a patron of the Beers book. He wrote some poems in a family album, one dated 1830 and the rest from about 1860. Other family members appearing in the album are John P. Coleman, W. J. Coleman, and Harriet P. Coleman.
About 1865 a member of the family wrote to the local paper about the location of a station on the Columbus-Cambridge City branch of the Jeffersonville, Madison & Indianapolis Railroad. It had been "noised around" that the station was to be located near the residence of Jonathan Noble; the writer suggested alternative locations. In the event, there was in 1879 a station at M. Ging's, halfway between Rushville and Falmouth; at that time Thomas Coleman owned 194 acres along the right of way close to Rushville.
Albert Coleman, living in Boone County in 1892, took the pledge of the Cousins' Temperance Union.
Sources: Materials in collection
Beers, Atlas of Rush County (1879), p. 46
Rush County History 1872-1972, p. 76
This collection contains five items, dating 1852-1892, and mainly concerning the Coleman family of Rush County, Indiana.
The first item is a letter of 18 June 1852, written by M. C. Hare of Bracken County, Kentucky, to a sister, Angelina E. Coleman, after the death of a relative. Most of the letter is quoted verse .
The second item is a hand-stitched album of writings from about 1860-1865. It begins with a chapter from a romantic novel, then shifts to verse written mainly by members of the Coleman family. Some are signed and a few are dated. Several of the verses show Union sympathy during the Civil War, particularly "The Volunteer's Wife to her Husband" and "The Faded Coat of Blue."
The third and fourth items are letters written in the same hand. One, dated 1867 from "Pleasant Hill," Union Township, is incomplete; it promises some items of local news to the editor of the Republican. The other, undated, concerns the placement of a station on the railroad from Rushville through Falmouth to Cambridge City.
The fifth item is a temperance pledge signed by Albert Coleman in 1892.
MAIN ENTRY: Coleman Family Papers, 1852-1892
SUBJECT ENTRIES: Coleman family
Railroads--Indiana--Rush County
Temperance--Indiana--Rush County
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Poetry
Rush County (Ind.)--History--Sources
END