Fountain County IN Archives Biographies.....Coen, Isaac M. 1817 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com November 16, 2006, 6:25 am

Author: H. W. Beckwith (1881)

   Isaac M. Coen, farmer, Newtown, was born in Knox county, Ohio, December 11,
1817. His father, John Coen, was born in Steuben county, Ohio. His mother,
Asenath Mills, was born in Pennsylvania. They removed to Knox county in early
life, and were united in marriage January 15, 1815. In his thirteenth year he
removed with his parents to Marion county, Ohio, a new and heavily timbered
country, and a large portion of his time until he was twenty-one years old was
spent in clearing and fencing land. He helped his father clear three farms in
the heavy timber on Shaw creek, in Marion county then, and Morrow county now,
and was considered an expert with the axe, mattock and maul. What education he
has was obtained in the old-fashioned log school-houses and vacant dwelling
houses, obtained now and then, before the log school-house was built. He
attended no school after he was twelve years old until he was fifteen. Then he
attended the common schools eight months. Afterward, in his sixteenth and
seventeenth years, he attended an academy, Huron Institute, at Milan, Huron
county, Ohio, about one year, with the intention of taking a regular classical
course; but, his health failing, he was forced to suspend his studies, and they
were not resumed. One winter he taught an evening school in the district or
neighborhood school-house, for the study of arithmetic, and found lights
(tallow-candles) for the school for 25 cents an evening. Another winter he
taught a four-months school for $13 per month, boarded himself, and walked two
and a half miles to school, and thought he was getting high wages. He was
married to Miss Rachel Sayers July 20, 1837. They have nine children: Theresa,
John J., Marilla A., Mary E., Charlotte A., Frances A., Alice M., Rhoda C, and
Isaac L. Seven are living. Frances A. and Isaac L. are dead. He removed to
Richland township, Fountain county, Indiana, in the fall of 1840, and has lived
here now just forty years. His business during this time has been chiefly
farming, raising and handling stock. He taught school four months the first
winter he lived here; seven months the second fall and winter, and occasionally
afterward. He has held the office of township trustee several times; represented
his county in the legislature in 1854 and 1855; was a democrat until the Kansas
and Nebraska excitement in 1853 and 1854; has since been a decided republican.
He has done a considerable amount of business for others in settling estates,
guardianships, assisting in division of estates, arbitrations, etc. He has been
a frequent and acceptable contributor to the county papers during the past
twenty-five years. He has been connected with the Presbyterian church since his
fifteenth year; united with the Coal Creek Presbyterian church by letter in
1842, and soon after was elected ruling elder. In 1858, owing to the
inconvenience of the Coal Creek church, some seven miles distant, he and family
changed their membership to the Newtown Presbyterian church. He was shortly
after chosen by that church as elder, and holds that relation at the present
time. He has twice been a delegate to the general assembly of the Presbyterian
church; in 1864 to the New School assembly, at Dayton, Ohio, and in 1874 to the
assembly of the reunited churches, which met in Baltimore, Maryland. He has
taken a deep interest in the cause of education, temperance, Sabbath-school and
all christian work, and has been at all times the friend and advocate of every
measure that has for its object the best interests of the community in which he
lives. He has spent a good deal of time and money in connection with others,
trying to secure a railroad to Newtown and through the township, and was a
director and vice-president of the La Fayette, Rockville & Terre Haute Railroad
Company. He was a member of two or three other companies, but so far they have
not been able to secure a road. He has reduced his farm to 180 acres, except
some wild lands in Iowa, believing that to be enough for him and his wife to
care for and manage in their declining years.

Additional Comments:
Richland Township

Extracted from:

HISTORY OF FOUNTAIN COUNTY,

TOGETHER WITH
HISTORIC NOTES ON THE WABASH VALLEY,

GLEANED FROM EARLY AUTHORS, OLD MAPS AND MANUSCRIPTS
PRIVATE AND OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE, AND OTHER AUTHENTIC, THOUGH, FOR THE MOST
PART, OUT-OF-THE-WAY SOURCES.

BY H. W. BECKWITH,
OF THE DANVILLE BAR; CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETIES OF
WISCONSIN AND CHICAGO.

WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

CHICAGO: H. H. HILL AND N. IDDINGS, PUBLISHERS.
1881.

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