Louisiana AHGP

Part of the American History and Genealogy Project

Prof. Thomas A. Coleman

Prof. Thomas A. Coleman is a native of Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, born February 9, 1857, and as he has lived here all his life he is thoroughly well known, and commands the respect and esteem of all. His father, Ben E. Coleman, was a native of South Carolina, who removed to Alabama when a lad of thirteen years, going with his father, William G. Coleman, and settling in Perry County.

The latter was also born in South Carolina, was of Irish descent, and was a captain under Gen. Scott in the Mexican War. About 1850 he removed to Louisiana, and settled, in what is now Claiborne Parish, which he represented in the State Legislature, dying here in 1888, at the age of eighty-three years, having been a very active and prominent man throughout his entire life.

Ben E. Coleman was a young man on coming to this parish, but had been married in Alabama to Miss Fidelia Melton, a native of Alabama, and a sister of Rev. John Melton, of Lisbon. After his marriage he settled on a farm near Homer, and here still makes his home. Although he was given some advantages for acquiring an education in his youth, he is principally self-educated, and is well posted on all the general questions of the day. He served as a clerk of the court, for two terms of four years each, and at the present time is parish surveyor, and at all times and in every duty in life he has shown that he is a man of far more than average intelligence and culture. Prof. T. A. Coleman was educated in Arizona and Baton Rouge, and was appointed professor of mathematics in Homer College, in which capacity he served with ability for one session.

He was married here on January, 23, 1887, to Miss Ida Simmon, a daughter of one of the prominent farmers of the parish, who was educated at Homer Institute. After his nuptials were celebrated he settled on the plantation of 600 acres which he now owns, and by industry has succeeded in putting 300 acres under cultivation, raising annually about sixty bales of cotton. He and his wife have one daughter, Laura D., one year old. They are members of the Missionary Baptist Church, and he belongs to the Farmers Union, and for three years has been its secretary.

Biographical Sketches| Claiborne Parish

Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana, Southern Publishing Company, 1890