Bio: Prof. Thomas A. 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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Prof. Thomas A. Coleman is a native of Claiborne Parish, La., born February 9,
1857, and as he has lived all his life he is thoroughly well known, and
commands the respect and esteem of all.  His father, Ben R. 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 R. 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 is 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 Simmons, 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 Farmer's
Union, and for three years has been its secretary.

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