Meeker County MN Archives Biographies.....Coombs, Vincent 1841 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 December 22, 2019, 11:19 am

Source: Alden, Ogle & Co.
Author: See Below

    VINCENT COOMBS. The subject of this sketch, a successful farmer and stock
raiser, residing on section 11, Cedar Mills township, is one of the oldest settler’s
in the southern portion of the county. He is a native of Indiana, and was born on
April 30, 1841.

   He arrived in Meeker county, Minn., on the 7th of July, 1857, with his parents,
Milton and Elizabeth Coombs, he being at the time only sixteen years of age. The
father, Milton Coombs, took a claim in the town of Ellsworth, but only remained on
it a few days; not being satisfied with the location, packed up his goods,
preparatory to starting for Iowa. Upon arriving at Cedar City he was persuaded to
take a claim in Cedar Mills township, and he accordingly selected 160 acres of land
on section 2. For some time they lived at Cedar City, working the farm in the
meantime, however, and in 1859 they moved to the place. When the Indian outbreak
occurred, they with others went to the “Point” in Cedar Lake, where they built
fortifications, and later went to Hutchinson. In the spring of 1863, they, with
George Nichols and family, returned to Cedar Mills —they being the first to return.

   The family of Milton Coombs remained in Cedar Mills township until 1865; when
they moved to the town of Greenleaf.

   In the fall of 1869 the family moved to Delano and later to Minneapolis, and
thence to Hinckley, where they now reside.

   In the fall of 1862, Vincent Coombs enlisted in Captain Herrington’s three months
State Militia, and served during his term of enlistment. In the following spring he
enlisted [is a scout under General Sibley, and served with the Sibley expedition
through the West. He was one of the scouts who picked up the son of Little Crow to
the south of Devil’s Lake. Mr. Coombs was in the Indian country during most of the
time while the trouble lasted. Hie was one of the four men who went into the timber
to look after Caleb Sanborn, and found his body where the Indians had killed him,
near his own house. He was also one of the party that went from Hutchinson to
recover the body of Daniel Cross, who was killed by the Indians north of Cedar
Lake.

   In the fall of 1864 Vincent Coombs sold the farm in Cedar Mills and took a
homestead in Greenleaf township. In the spring of 1869 he was married to Miss Lydia
A. Abbott, of Forest Prairie. Mrs. Coombs died on the 18th of November, 1878,
leaving her husband five small children to care for, her last request being that her
children be kept together, and it has been faithfully fulfilled.

   Mr. Coombs was again married in the spring of 1883, when Sarah J. Jordan of Cedar
Mills, became his wife. Our subject resided in the town of Greenleaf until the
spring of 1887, when he sold his place and purchased the Pitman farm, of a fraction
over 332 acres, located on sections 2 and 11, Cedar Mills township. While in
Greenleaf, Mr. Coombs held many offices of a local nature, and took an active and
prominent part in politics, township matters and educational affairs. He is a member
of the Masonic order, having joined Golden Fleece lodge, No. 89, A. F. & A, M., in
1872, and Rabboni chapter, No. 37, Royal Arch, in 1S87. When the Grange movement
started he was one of the leading members in the organization and was master of the
Greenleaf lodge.

   Mr. Coombs has now one of the best farms in the town of Cedar Mills, he and his
wife together owning 412 acres of the finest land in this region. Mr. Coombs has
good substantial buildings and a nice artificial grove, set out by Rev. J. M. Pitman
about twenty years ago. In conversation with Mr. Coombs, he said: “I am my mother’s
best boy—being the only boy in ten children.”


Additional Comments:
Illustrated Album of Biography
Meeker and McLeod Counties, Minnesota
1888


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