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Submitted by Cheryl VanWormer 






				ELI A. AND HANNAH J. (SMITH) COLEMAN

	Mr. Coleman's father, Becket Coleman, was a native of Connecticut, and a farmer by 
occupation.  He was married to Harriet Stratton, a native of the State of New York, and for a 
number of years resided in Jefferson County, in the latter State, finally removing to Ohio.  In 
the spring of 1844 they came to Michigan and settled on section 26 in the township of Orange, 
Ionia Co., where Mrs. Coleman died in June, 1858, and Mr. Coleman in May, 1874.
	Eli A. Coleman, son of the above couple, was born Sept. 20, 1827, in Jefferson Co., N. Y.,
being the oldest in a family of nine children.  He was quite young when his parents settled in 
Ohio, and but seventeen years of age when they removed to Michigan.  He assisted his father in 
the care of the homestead until he became of age, when he entered the employ of Hopkins & Co., of
Ottawa County, and worked at lumbering for three years.  In the spring of 1851 he purchased 
eighty acres of land in Orange township, which composes a part of his present farm.  It was what 
is familiarly known as "wild land," and he set about the task of clearing and improving it.  On 
the 2d of December, 1855, he was married to Miss Hannah J. Smith, daughter of E. F. Smith, St., 
and Nancy Smith.  She was born in Oakland Co., Mich., June 25, 1837, and was the fifth in a 
family of eight children.  Her father was a native of New York, and her mother (Nancy Merryfield 
Smith) of Massachusetts.  They were numbered among the pioneers of Oakland County, but removed to
Orange township, Ionia Co., when the daughter was but seven years old.  Both died in the township
named, Mr. Smith in June, 1862, and his wife in December, 1866.
	Mr. and Mrs. Coleman are the parents of two children,--Ella S., born Nov. 6, 1861, and 
now Mrs. Edmond Harwood, living at home, and Ida A., born July 15, 1863, and died at the age of 
six months.  Mr. Coleman and his wife began their wedded life on the farm upon which they now 
reside.  It has been enlarged from eighty acres of woodland to three hundred and twenty acres,--
all improved and under a fine state of cultivation except forty acres.  In place of the humble 
log cabin is seen a much more pretentious dwelling.  Mr. Coleman is an admirer of fine stock, and
is the owner of some excellent cattle and sheep.  In 1863 his patriotism asserted itself, and he 
enlisted in the First Regiment Michigan Engineers and Mechanics.  He served twenty-three months, 
and returned to his home in 1865.  In politics he is a Republican, and he and his wife are both 
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, with which they united in 1865.  Mr. Coleman has held 
several important township offices,--! highway commissioner, drain commissioner, etc.



This biography is taken from "HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN" 
by John S. Schenck. Philadelphia:  D. W. Ensign & Co., 1881.  Pages 303-304.  Orange.