****************************************************************************
File contributed to the Fulton County ILGenWeb Project
Copyright 2008, all rights reserved.

These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format 
without the written consent of the author at http://fulton.ilgenweb.net.

****************************************************************************

Source: The Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Fulton County
Munsell Publishing Co., Chicago, 1908

****************************************************************************

The Biography of J. H. COONS 

[Surnames: BAILEY, COONS, HOWARD, MORLEY, SLODIN, TATE, TOOMER] 

COONS, J. H. 

    
One of the profitable mines in Fulton County is that operated by a company of which James C. Tate is President and principal owner, J. C. Slodin is Secretary and Treasurer, both of Galesburg, and J. H. Coons, Manager. 
    
The Company has a four and one-half foot vein on a 80 acre tract of leased land along the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, and employ from 10 to 20 men, and mine about 100 tons of coal per day. 
    
J. H. Coons, who has held his present position for the past 4 years is a practical coal miner of thirty years experience. 
    
He was born in Fulton County in 1859, a son of Jonathan and Mary (Howard) Coons, natives of Ohio, and the latter a coal miner for many years of his life, subsequently turning his attention to farming. The elder Coons came to Fulton County about the beginning of the "fifties" and about 1856 made his way to the Pacific slope where he became interested in gold mining. Two years later he returned to Fulton County, but in 1859 he again crossed the continent, this time to remain on the Pacific Coast 14 years. He was fairly successful and lived to an advanced age. 
    
His son J. H. began to work at coal mining when he was 17 years old, and is now one of the best informed miners in the state. He is a man of family, having married in 1884 to Eliza Bell Toomer, a native of Ohio and a daughter of Richard Toomer, a farmer of both Ohio and of Fulton County. The have had five children: Mrs. May Morley, Lester, Mrs. Bessie Bailey, Gladys, living at home, and Virgil Doyle (the baby).