Isaac Jackson Coleman, who is a descendant of the oldest
pioneer families in the county, is the son of Isaac and Elenor (Boyd) Coleman;
subject's father was born in Woodford County, Kentucky, in 1796, and married in
Fayette County when young. In 1830 he moved to this county where he died,
November 17, 1872, aged seventy-six years, Mr. Coleman was one of Union's best
citizens, a man of ability and the will to do right by his fellow man.
Subject's mother was born in Fayette County, February 22, 1800, and died June
15, 1879; subject's paternal grandparents were Thomas and ------ (Johnson)
Coleman, born in Virginia. Thomas was one of the first settlers of the county
and once lived on the old Waggner tract of land in Shiloh Precinct, twenty-two
hundred acres in all, that was said to have been won by a man from New Orleans
from old Colonel John Waggener, of this county, on a horse race. Thomas was
conscripted in the War of 1812, but his place was taken by his brother,
William; subject's maternal grandparents were John and ----- (Smith) Boyd of
Virginia.
Subject was born in Union County March 11, 1835; he was
educated principally under his father, who was one of Union County's first
school teachers, having gone in all, about ten years.
Subject in 1880 was married to Miss Ellis Walker Garr, who
was born in Jefferson County, Kentucky, in 1854, and is the daughter of Abram
Murray and Mary (Simms) Garr, of Jefferson County, Kentucky. They have four
children, Mary Ellen, Mattie Annie, Emma and Xantippe. Subject enlisted in the
Confederate army in June 1862, in Richeson's company, Tenth Kentucky Cavalry,
and was in many of the hardest fought battles. He was captured at Gallipolis,
Ohio, and imprisoned on Johnson' Island whence he made his escape. Our subject
made a brave and fearless Southern soldier; his comrades say he was never known
to shrink from duty; in politics he is a Democrat. For three years he taught
school in this county, but is now farming and owns one hundred and thirteen and
a half acres of good land near Morganfield; at present he is farming in Shiloh
Precinct with his brother-in-law, Benjamin F. Garr; subject also is one of the
stockholders in the Ohio Valley Railroad. He has been a member of the Baptist
Church for twenty-one years. Mr. Coleman makes a good farmer and raises
everything that the fair land of old Union will produce.
