Bio: Benjamin Ryan Coleman, Claiborne Parish, LA
Source:  Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana
The Southern Publishing Company, Chicago & Nashville, 1890
Submitted for the LAGenWeb Archives by: Gwen Moran-Hernandez, Jan. 2000


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Benjamin Ryan Coleman, parish surveyor and planter, was born on May 12, 1832,
in Edgefield District, S. C., and is descended from Revolutionary ancestry,
his great-grandfather, Benjamin Ryan, a native of Virginia, being a captain
under Gen. Marion.  His father, W. G. Coleman, was a captain in the Mexican
War from Alabama, and was at one time a member of the Legislature of
Louisiana.  The latter was married to Miss Frances A. Johnson, of South
Carolina, a daughter of William S. Johnson, whose parents were Virginians.  He
was a learned man, very intelligent, and was a contributor to Nicholson
Encyclopedia and the secular press of South Carolina.  Mrs. Coleman, the
mother of the subject of this sketch, died when he was but eight years old,
leaving three younger children.  He was educated in Edgefield Academy until he
was thirteen years of age, then moved with his father to Perry County, Ala.,
where he labored on the farm, and attended the best schools in the county for
seven years. In 1850 he moved to Claiborne Parish, La., and was married three
years later to Miss Fidelia N. Melton, of Perry County, Ala., a daughter of
William Allen Melton, a native of South Carolina, and one of the first
families of the State of Alabama.  They have lived thirty-seven years
together, and the issue of their marriage has been eleven children, six of
whom are living.  In his twenty-first year he was elected school director for
his ward, and from that time until 1859 he was engaged in school teaching and
planting, being then appointed clerk of the district court, to fill a vacancy
caused by the death of Enoch B. Whitson.  At the end of four years he was
re-elected, but at the close of the war was removed from office by J. Madison
Wells, Radical, governor of Louisiana.  He was then appointed notary public in
partnership with J. R. Ramsey, was enabled to support his family for twelve
months.  The loss of his slave property and position as clerk left him poor
indeed, but he soon turned to his first occupation of teaching and farming, at
which he made a fair living.  In 1872 he was appointed parish surveyor, which
position he is holding at the present time.  In 1876 he was elected minute
clerk of the Legislature, which position he filled three years, and in 1882
was appointed assistant engineer of the fifth residence of the Vicksburg,
Shreveport & Pacific Railroad, and helped to build twelve miles west of
Arcadia, and in 1880 and 1890 he was census enumerator.  He is a member of the
Missionary Baptist Church, a Council Mason, a member of the I. O. O. F, and in
his political views is a Democrat of the Jeffersonian stamp.  He is a clear
and rapid penman, is skillful with his pencil, is a fine amateur musician, and
is well versed in parliamentary usages.  On of his greatest gifts is his
knowledge of woodcraft and surveying, being one of the most competent of North
Louisiana, where he is universally and favorably known.  He is the possessor
of an abundance of humor and good nature, and has for a number of years been a
contributor to the newspapers of his parish and State.  He has been successful
in the accumulation of worldly goods, and now has a beautiful home and a fine
plantation.  He holds commissions for every governor of Louisiana for
thirty-five years past.  He has lived a very active life, and with the
assistance of a splendid library which he possesses, and the newspapers that
he reads, he keeps fully apace with this progressive age.  Possessing the
proverbial hospitality of those of his nativity, his is loved by all, and has
the esteem and respect of the community at large.

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