Kentucky: A History of the State, Perrin, Battle, Kniffin, 4th ed., 1887,
Mercer County.

ROBERT E. COLEMAN, the proprietor of the largest livery stable in
Harrodsburg, is a native of Mercer County, and was born July 14, 1836. His
father, James H. Coleman, was born in Spotsylvania County, Va., October 6,
1809, and when a boy of twelve years of age was brought by his parents to
Mercer County, where he spent most of his life.  He was a successful
business man, and acquired in the course of his business career a very good
English education, being an expert penman at his death, although he could
not legibly write when twenty-one.  He owned twenty-three slaves and a farm
east of Harrodsburg of 300 acres, being worth before the war $20,000, but
lost his property on account of sympathizing with the Confederacy.  He was
married October 8, 1833, to Miss Martha A., daughter of Henry and Linda
(Linthacomb) Lewis, both Virginians.  Linda Lewis was a daughter of Thomas
Linthacomb, a Virginian of great wealth, who immigrated to Bardstown, Ky.,
where he died and is buried.  To the marriage of James H. and Martha
Coleman were born ten children: Robert E.; Rev. Thomas H., a Baptist
minister living near Georgetown, Ky.; Sally Ann, who died at St.
Catherine's Academy at the age of thirteen; Elinda L., wife of James E.
Conrad, deceased; Rev. James M., a Baptist minister living in Lincoln
County; Simeon Burton, a farmer living near Bardstown, in Nelson County;
Susan Elizabeth, wife of Mr. Simpson, and living in Bardstown; Burr H.,
farmer in Nelson County; Ellen B., wife of Julius Bukey of Nelson County,
and a daughter Sally, who died in infancy.  Of these children, Sally Ann
and Linda are now dead.  James  M. Coleman enlisted in Capt. Gabe
Alexander's company, of Morgan's cavalry, but lost his health and resigned.
He did not recover for several years after the war.  James H. Coleman was a
member of the Baptist Church, and departed this life January 23, 1876.
Mrs. Coleman, who has been a member of the Baptist Church since sixteen
years of  age, is living with her daughter, Ellen, in Nelson County, in the
sixty-ninth year of her age.  James Coleman, grandfather of Robert Coleman,
was a Virginian, owning his farm and slaves.  He was married in Virginia to
Miss Mary Penny, and all of their children, eleven in number, except one,
were born in Virginia.  Their names were Meredith R., a farmer and trader
in the South in horses and mules; John L., a farmer and trader in horses;
Bozell W., same occupation; Robert E., a slave trader; James H., Mary R.
(Daniel); George D., Linsfield, Jane Amanda (Sorral); Maria (Dedman), and
Thomas C., of whom George D. and Thomas C. are now living in Mercer County,
and Thomas C., is in affluent circumstances.  Their brother, Robert E.
Coleman, began life with no property except a sow and pigs, and in 1833,
when he was killed by his slaves and a white man, was worth $30,000.  The
negroes were hung, but the white man, because negro evidence was not valid
in Kentucky courts, escaped punishment.  James Coleman immigrated to Mercer
County in 1820, and at his death owned a farm of 300 acres.  The Coleman
family are of English-Irish origin.  Robert E. Coleman, subject of these
lines, received a fair business education in youth, at country schools,
attending Bacon College one five months' term.  He left home at the age
of nineteen, and began a life of agriculture, trading at the same time in
horses in the South, both of which he engaged in for the first seven
years.  At the age of twenty, March 6, 1856, he was united in marriage to
Miss Margaret A., daughter of Stephen and Mary C. (Alexander) Hughes,
both Virginians and of English-Scotch origin.  Stephen Hughes, who was a
veteran of the war of 1812, enlisting when only seventeen years of age,
was a farmer and trader during life.  Mr. Coleman carried on agriculture
until 1874, and during this time traded extensively in blooded horses,
and bred and raised them.  By the panic in 1873 he lost very heavily,
having nothing left when he embarked in the livery business in 1879.  He
owned three horses and two vehicles at that time, and no other earthly
possessions, and now runs one of the largest livery stables in the State,
the building being 260 feet long, and forty-two feet wide, in which he
has horses and vehicles to the amount of $6,000.  Mr. Coleman was the
first man in Mercer County who sold a pair of horses as high as $1,200
and the first who sold a trotting horse as high as $2,000.  Three times
has he failed and begun on nothing, and during this time has not received
a dollar that he did not earn.  To Mr. and Mrs. Coleman have been born
seven children: Stevana A., wife of L. D. Cardwell of Harrodsburg; Clara,
wife of Edward Rosser, railroad contractor.  To them was born one child,
Robert E. Rosser, born November 11, 1882; Thomas H. Jr., a partner of
R. E. Coleman in the livery business; Mamie, wife of John M. Moberly, a
bookkeeper in Harrodsburg--have one child, a boy; James H., a farmer in
Reeder, Kiowa County, Kas.; Roberta and Robert, twins, of whom Robert
died aged four years.  Mrs. Coleman is a member of the Baptist Church in
Harrodsburg, and Mr. Coleman, who has always been Democratic in politics,
is a member of no organization except the I.O.O.F. and K. of H.  His son,
Thomas H. Jr., was married in April, 1884, to Miss Dixie, a daughter of
Henry Cohen, a trader who lives near Georgetown, Ky.  To this marriage
has been born one child, Rosser.

Coleman Linthacomb Conrad Simpson Bukey Penny Daniel Sorral
Dedman Alexander Hughes Cardwell Rosser Moberly Cohen Lewis
=
Lincoln-KY Bardstown-Nelson-KY Georgetown-Scott-KY
Spotsylvania-VA Kiowa-KS

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/mercer/coleman.re.txt