LOUIS H. COLEMAN , Springfield, Illinois, as born in Hopkinsville, Christian county, Kentucky, September 2, 1842; is the son of H. H. and Barbra A. Coleman, natives of the State of Kentucky. At the age of six, Mr. Coleman came to Warren county, Illinois, on a visit to his grandfather, William Hopper, who emancipated his slaves in Kentucky over fifty years ago, and moved to a free soil State and became an early and earnest champion of the great principles upon which the great National Republican party was afterwards founded. During this visit of eighteen months, he became very much attached to a farm life, and upon his return to Kentucky, entreated his parents to permit him to return. In 1853 he carried his point, and returned to the farm in Warren, to remain four years, during which time he farmed in summer and attended school in winter. After attending school in Abington, Illinois, during the college years of 1856-57, he returned to Kentucky, entered school in his native town, and continued until the summer of 1860, when he entered Bethany College, Virginia, with the intention of taking a thorough collegiate course. This institution being largely patronized by Southern boys, the opening up of hostilities between the North and the South, made the students very nervous and anxious to return home. The school being virtually broken up for a time, Mr. Coleman returned home, in the summer of 1861, and resolved to give up a professional for that of a commercial life. So, in 1862, he entered the dry goods house of E. H. Hopper, and applied himself closely to the study of the trade. After remaining in this house four years, and filling the most responsible position in it, he determined to return to Illinois and make it his permanent home. Arriving in Bloomington in the spring of 1866, he bought an interest in a dry goods house, and supposed himself a fixture of the place. But on the fourth of October, of the same year, he was married to Jenny B. Logan, of Springfield, Illinois, (daughter of the late Hon. Stephen T. Logan and America Logan,) and at the earnest solicitation of the Judge, he sold out his interest and moved to Springfield. Their children are Logan, Christopher B., Mary Logan, and Louis Garfield. In the spring of 1868, Mr. Coleman and G. M. Brown bought out the store of W. H. Johnson & Co., on the east side of the square, in Springfield, and commenced business under the style of Brown & Coleman. This co-partnership lasted two years. Mr. Coleman then bought out Mr. Brown's interest, and continued the business in his name until May, 1881. Being an entire stranger to his trade, he was compelled to apply himself very closely and study diligently the best means of building up a good and profitable business. During the thirteen years he was in the trade, he had strong competition from old and well established houses, and he never could have built up the trade he had, and secured the class of customers that patronized him, had he not attended to his business closely, treated his customers courteously and served them honestly. His business grew on his hands every year, and having acquired the habit of continually looking after all the details, personally serving many of his customers, he discovered that he was wearing out too fast, so decided to sell out and quit the business entirely. This he did in May, 1881, and in returning his thanks to his many friends and customers, he said he retired from the trade with many regrets, for he had the largest trade and the best class of customers of any house in the city.