Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/728

686 Trinity church, Toledo, Ohio, in 1874. He resided abroad for several years, and on 6 June, 1888, was chosen bishop of Delaware. Besides numerous sermons. Dr. Coleman has published "A History of the Lehigh Valley" (Philadelphia, 1872).

COLEMAN, Lewis Miner, educator, b. in Han- over county, Va., 3 Feb., 1827; d. in March, 1863. He was graduated with high honor at the Univer- sity of Virginia in 1846. In 1859 he succeeded the distinguished scholar, Dr. Harrison, as professor of Latin in that institution. At the beginning of the war he raised an artillery company for the Con- federate service, became its captain, and in 1862 was appointed major of artillery. At the battle of Fredericksburg he received a wound, from which, after lingering in great agony for three months, he died. Prof. Coleman was distinguished for his Christian devotion and high scholarship.

COLEMAN, Lyman, author, b. in Middlefield, Mass., 14 June, 1796; d. in Easton, Pa., 16 March, 1882. He was graduated at Yale in 1817. and for three years was principal in the Latin grammar- school in Hartford. He was a tutor in Yale from 1820 till 1825, studying theology at the same time. He was pastor of Belchertown, Mass., Congrega- tional church for seven years, for five years princi- pal of Burr seminary in Vermont, and then prin- cipal of the English department of Phillips An- dover academy. He spent the years 1842 and 1843 in travel and study in Germany, where he enjoyed the intimate friendship of Dr. August Neander, and on his return taught German in Princeton college, and afterward, from 1845 till 1846, at Amherst. In 1856 he travelled in Eui'ope. Egypt, and Palestine. He was professor of Latin and Greek in Lafayette college, Easton, Pa., from 1861 till 1868, when he was transferred to the new chair of Latin language and literature, holding it till his death. Princeton gave him the degree of S. T. D. in 1847. Dr. Cole- man published " Antiquities of the Christian Church " (translated from the German, New York, 1841) ; " The Apostolical and Primitive Church " (Boston, 1844) ; " Historical Geography of the Bible" (Philadelphia, 1850); "Ancient Christian- ity " (1852) ; " Historical Text-Book and Atlas of Biblical Geography " (1854 ; revised ed., 1859) ; " Prelacy and Ritualism " (1869) ; and a genealogy of the Lyman familv. See a sermon on his life by llev. Alfred N. Kellogg, D. D. (Easton, Pa., 1882)."

COLEMAN, Obed M., inventor, b. in Barnsta- ble, Mass., 23 Jan., 1817 ; d. in Saratoga, N. Y., 5 April, 1845. He was of German and English par- entage, showed talent for music in infancy, and during a severe illness, in 1883, manifested won- derful inventive powers. About this time, when living in New Bedford, Mass., he invented an "Automaton Lady Minstrel and Singing-Bird," consisting of the figure of a lady with a bird perched on her shoulder. The lady played several airs on an nccordeon, while the bird warbled. Coleman sold this remarkable piece of mechanism for $800, thus relieving himself from extreme pov- erty. He removed to Saratoga in 1842, and in- vented improvements in the accordeon. He also began here to construct his ^olian attachment to the piano-forte, which gave him high rank among inventors. He sold his patent for $100,000 in this country, and for about $10,000 in England.

COLEMAN, William, journalist, b. in Boston, Mass., 14 Feb., 1766 ; d. in New York city, 13 July, 1829. He studied law, began practice in Green- field, Mass., and during Shays's rebellion served against the insurgents. He removed to New York city about 1794, and was for a short time a law partner of Aaron Burr. He was afterward re- porter of the New York supreme court, but lost the place after the defeat of the federalists in 1800. In 1801 Coleman was selected by Alexander Ham- ilton and other prominent members of his party to conduct a new fedei'alist daily in New York. The paper, under the name of the " Evening Post," appeared on 16 Nov., 1801, and Coleman was its sole editor for twenty years, retaining his connec- tion with it till his death. Coleman never wavered in his attachment to the principles of the Federal party, and was its warm defender, even after it had become extinct. He was able, honest, and fearless, and was brought into intimate relations with some of the most prominent men of his time.

COLEMAN, William T., pioneer, b. in Cynthiana. Ky., 29 Feb.. 1824 ; d. in San Francisco, Cal., 22 Nov., 1893. He went to San Francisco in 1849 and engaged in business. During 1850 and the early part of 1851, lawlessness, from which San Francisco, even at the height of the first gold excitement of 1849, had been surprisingly free, became frequent and aggressive. The regular courts, meanwhile, proved to be ineffective. The result in February, 1851, was an outburst of popular indignation against crime. Robbers had assaulted and badly injured a well-known merchant, Jansen, in his place of business; and two men were arrested on a mistaken suspicion that they were the assailants. On 22 Feb. a crowd of indignant citizens undertook to get these men out of the hands of the jailer and execute them, but the attempt was for the moment thwarted. Later in the day, however, an agreement with the authorities was reached, in accordance with which the prisoners were to be brought for trial before an improvised popular tribunal on the next day. At this trial Mr. Coleman appeared as prosecuting attorney, regular lawyers declining the responsibility. He himself had before used all his personal influence with the assembled people to secure an orderly trial, and when the popular jury disagreed on the question of the personal identity of one of the accused, the whole undertaking was quietly abandoned, the people restored the prisoners to the regular authorities, and the excitement died away. The possibility of orderly popular justice in San Francisco had, however, been made plain by this aifair, and when, in May and June, further signs of lawlessness became noticeable, while the inelliciency of the courts remained as obvious as ever, the leaders in the movement of February joined with many other citizens to organize a vigilance committee, for the sake of terrifying, banishing, and, in very serious cases, hanging the dangerous characters. In the executive body of this committee Mr. Coleman was prominent. The committee was active during June, July, and August, its sessions all being secret. In all cases but one (where they retook two of their prisoners whom the sheriff had rescued) open resistance of the regular authorities was avoided. Even in this case they escaped an actual fight with the authorities by means of prompt action and an overwhelming show of force. They executed, in the course of their activity, four men, all notorious and desperate characters, banished to foreign countries, under threats of death upon return, many others, and terrified into flight or concealment a vast number. When their work was done they abandoned, not their organization, but their active operations, and returned to private life. Mr. Coleman's services in connection with the committee of 1851 were not forgotten, and when in May, 1856, after a long period of commercial depression, popular discontent, and too general social corruption, public indignation was