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View Tree for John Melton ColemanJohn Melton Coleman (b. April 26, 1889, d. February 18, 1934)

John Melton Coleman (son of William Philip Coleman and Mary E. Brock) was born April 26, 1889 in Choctaw County, Mississippi, and died February 18, 1934 in Gainesville. Alachua County, Fl;orida. He married Jessie Lee Coleman on December 25, 1920 in Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee, daughter of John McCages Coleman and Mary Elizabeth Morton.

 Includes NotesNotes for John Melton Coleman:
He was born on a farm and worked as a farm laborer until he was 17 years old. He left home with an 8th grade education in 1906 and moved to Starkville, Mississippi where he lived with some relative. He earned a high school diploma. He had a job "chipping" tombstones while going to high school. He entered Mississippi A & M (now renamed Mississippi State University in 1909. He worked on the school farm, getting up at 3:00 AM to do so. He also washed bottles in the chemistry lab. His major was agricultural chemistry. In 1911, one of his professors, Dr. Hand, assisted him in getting a job as a Assistant Pathologist, at the hospital in Ancon, Canal Zone. Upon the Panama Canal being finished in 1913, he returned to Mississippi A & M at Starkville, Mississippi where he earned a Batchelor of Science Degree, with Honors, on June 2, 1915. I have his original degree.He was in the ROTC but did not receive a commission due to his withered left arm. He had broken his arm falling out of a tree when he was young (according to his brother Curtis Coleman). He took a job with Swift & Co. as a chemist in New Orleans, Louisiana where he was on November 11, 1918 when World War I ended. There is newspaper from a New Orleans of that date that he saved. He went back to Mississippi A & M sometime subsequently. He had a small office with his name on the door. He apparently had a teaching fellowship as he began working on a Master's Degree. My mother, Jessie Lee Coleman, was a 1st grade teacher in Mississippi and went to A & M to obtain some college credits. Since her father's name was John McCages Coleman, she wanted to get a look at this John M. Coleman. She did, they fell in love and were married on December 25, 1920 in Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee. There is a clipping reporting the wedding. He left A & M and was employed by a fertilizer factory in Troy, Alabama. He applied for a job as an agricultural chemist at the University of Florida in Gainesville at the Experiment Station. There is a picture of the staff of the Experiment Station taken in 1927-28 that appeared in the Gainesville Sun on May 14, 1972 which I have. He is in the second row and is 5th from the right. He has on a bow tie.He moved there in 1921 with my mother. He later earned a Master of Science Degree from the University of Florida on August 4, 1932. I have his original degree. Mother's sister, Janie Doris Coleman (who lived with us and was 20 years younger), typed his master's thesis. Dad immediately started working on his doctrate. Dad was the oldest of 8 children. His mother died when he was about 2 (in 1891) and his father married a widow, Ida Bernice Brooks Fonderen, who had a son two years older than dad. His name, I believe, was Josh Fonderen.They had 7 more children.

More About John Melton Coleman:
Burial: February 1934, Evergreen Cemetary, Gainesville, Florida.
Degree 1: June 02, 1915, Mississippi A & M - BS Degree.
Degree 2: August 04, 1932, University of Florida - MS Degree.

More About John Melton Coleman and Jessie Lee Coleman:
Marriage: December 25, 1920, Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee.

Children of John Melton Coleman and Jessie Lee Coleman are:
  1. +John Melton Coleman, Jr., b. September 21, 1923, Gainesville, Alachua County, Florida, d. July 17, 1988, Clearwater, Pinellas County, Florida.
  2. +Jesse Leon Coleman, b. September 09, 1925, Gainesville, Alachua County, Florida.
  3. Sylvia Ethel Coleman, b. March 23, 1933, Gainesville, Alachua County, Florida.
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