Mingo County, West Virginia Biography of Herbert McClellan COLEMAN, M.D. This file was submitted by Pat Johns, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II Pg. 471 HERBERT McCLELLAN COLEMAN, M.D., who is established in the general practice of his profession at Thacker, Mingo County, was born at Hurley, Buchanan County, Virginia, March 12, 1880, and he gained his early education principally in the public schools of West Virginia, where also he attended the Concord State Normal School at Athens. He next passed one year as a student in the law department of the University of West Virginia, and in 1901 was graduated in the law department of Southwest University at Jackson, Tennessee. He then engaged in the practice of law in his native county in Virginia, and there he was elected prosecuting attorney. He made an excellent record as a successful young lawyer, but his tastes and ambition led him soon to abandon the legal profession, resign his office of prosecuting attorney and turn his attention to the study of medicine. In 1904 he entered the medical department of the University of Louisville, Kentucky, and in this institution he was graduated in 1909, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He then became associated with Doctor Campbell in practice at Beckley, Raleigh County, West Virginia, and later he became contract physician in the service of the Norfolk & Western Railroad, in connection with construction work in double-tracking its line between War Eagle and Devon. The doctor established his residence at this time in the Village of Matewan, Mingo County, and in his general practice since that period he has continued his effective service as one of the able and representative physicians and surgeons of Mingo County. While in medical school he specialized in study of obstetrics and gynecology, but while having authoritative status in such connection he has gained specially high reputation as a skilled surgeon. In Mingo County he was associated in practice with Doctor Walden until the death of the latter, and Doctor Campbell is now his assistant. Doctor Coleman has the practice of the Thacker Coal & Coke Company, the Thacker Coal Mining Company, the Lynn Coal Company, the Allburn Coal Company, the Stone Mountain Coal Corporation, and is local surgeon for the Norfolk & Western Railroad. He gives professional supervision also in connection with the operations of the North Matewan Coal Company, of which he is president. During the recent mine troubles, when the Mingo County coal fields were being invaded by outsiders, Doctor Coleman shouldered his rifle and stood ready to protect the interests of the mine operators and their employes. He removed from Matewan to Thacker in the fall of 1921. Doctor Coleman is a member of the Mingo County Medical Society, the West Virginia State Medical Society, the Southern Medical Association and the American Medical Association. His political allegiance is given to the republican party, he and his wife are members respectively of the Presbyterian Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and in the Masonic fraternity he is affiliated with the Blue Lodge at Thacker, the Chapter and Commandery at Tazewell, Virginia, and the Consistory of the Scottish Rite in the City of Louisville, Kentucky. He is a member also of the lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks at Huntington. January 14, 1911, recorded the marriage of Doctor Coleman and Miss Nell Lambert, daughter of E. H. Lambert, of Williamson, Mingo County, and the one child of this union is a son, Herbert McClellan Coleman, Jr. Doctor Coleman is a son of Joseph and Arminda (Stacey) Coleman, the former of whom died at Hellier, Pike County, Kentucky, in July, 1911, aged sixty-nine years, and the latter of whom likewise attained to the age of sixty-nine years, her death occurring in August, 1915. Joseph Coleman was born and reared in Pike County, Kentucky, a representative of an old and influential family of that section of the Blue Grass State, and he was a gallant soldier of the Union in the Civil war, as a member of the Thirty-ninth Kentucky Mounted Infantry. His wife was born in Buchanan County, Virginia, and there he became a merchant at Hurley, as did he later at War Eagle in what is now Mingo County, West Virginia, whence he finally returned to his native county in Kentucky, where he passed the remainder of his life. He voted for Abraham Lincoln for President of the United States, and ever afterward continued his allegiance to the republican party. He was affiliated with the Grand Army of the Republic, and he and his wife were members of the Baptist Church. They became the parents of ten children, all of whom attained to years of maturity and seven of whom are now living (1922), Doctor Coleman of this review having been the eighth in order of birth.