Hunt, Herbert and Floyd C. Kaylor.  Washington: West of the Cascades.  Vol. II.
Chicago: S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1917.  p. 230-232.

NOAH B. COFFMAN:  Noah B. Coffman, president of Coffman, Dobson and Company,
bankers, of Chehalis, is one of the foremost bankers of Western Washington and
for a third of a century has been prominently identified with the business
interests of this section of the state.  He was born near Crawfordsville,
Indiana, April 2, 1857, and is a son of N. B. and Margaret Coffman, the former a
native of Virginia and the latter of Carroll, Ohio.  In the spring of 1858 the
family located on a farm in Champaign county, Illinois, and they resided in that
county for many years.  The father joined his son Noah in Hebron, Nebraska, in
1881, and followed farming in that locality until 1885.  Three years later he
and his wife came to Chehalis, Washington, where our subject was then living, as
he had come to the state in 1883 and after living for a year in Tacoma became a
resident of Chehalis in 1884, opening a private bank there August 11th of that
year.
	Mr. Coffman of this review is a graduate of the University of Illinois,
being a member of the class of 1878, and after leaving that institution studied
law under the direction of William Summers of Urbana, Illinois, who was an
associate of Abraham Lincoln and a member of the firm of Summers and Wright, his
partner being Judge Wright, now judge of the circuit court of Illinois.  Mr.
Coffman was admitted to the bar in 1880 at Wellington, Kansas, having previously
been connected with Judge Woods of that city, and he began practice at Ottawa,
Kansas.  Like most young lawyers he had a hard struggle and had to augment his
income by teaching school in Hebron, Nebraska, for a time.  Later he was
persuaded to accept the position of clerk in the Exchange Bank of Hebron and was
soon promoted to cashier, continuing with that institution for over two years.
He then formed a law partnership with Manford Savage, who had been a classmate
of his at college, and they soon built up an extensive practice in commercial
law, but Mr. Coffman was again induced to enter the Exchange Bank as cashier
with an interest in the business and he served as such until coming to
Washington in 1883.
	His friend, Thomas Harbime, of Fairbury, Nebraska, had visited the Puget
Sound country and had persuaded Mr. Coffman and some of his associates to locate
here.  It was agreed that our subject should be their delegate to choose a
location, purchase property and attend to all necessary preliminaries.  He
arrived in Tacoma in May, 1883, and after looking over the field purchased the
southwest corner of Pacific avenue and Eleventh street, Tacoma, for a bank site.
He and his associate bought into the Bank of New Tacoma, of which he was made
cashier.  This bank was later merged into the Merchants National Bank.  In 1884
Mr. Coffman sold his interest in the concern and removed to Chehalis, where he
started a private bank in connection with C. H. Allen, having since carried on
business at the same location.  Later he organized the First National Bank of
Chehalis, taking as associates John Dobson, Francis Donahoe, William M. Urquhart
and Daniel C. Millett.  After a time the company dropped the national
organization, believing that a private bank was more adapted to the needs of the
country, and they have since carried on business under the present title of
Coffman, Dobson and Company, Bankers.  The bank was incorporated in 1904.  Mr.
Coffman's son Daniel T. is now cashier and his son-in-law, J. M. Donahoe, is
vice-president.  Mr. Coffman still continues at the head of the institution.
	On the 30th of October, 1883, he was married in Belvidere, Nebraska, to Miss
Adaline J. Tighe, a daughter of Daniel and Jane A. Tighe.  Her father was a
machinist and mill man.  Mr. and Mrs. Coffman have three children.  Florence A.
is now the wife of T. M. [sic] Donahoe, vice president of the bank and a farmer
of Lewis county.  Ethelin M. is the wife of R. W. Bell, president of the Toledo
State Bank at Toledo, Washington.  Daniel T. is cashier of the bank of Coffman,
Dobson and Company, Bankers.  The family home is on St. Helen's avenue.
	Mr. Coffman has devoted much time to the breeding of pure bred Jersey cattle
and is president of the Lewis County Pure Breeders Club.  He is a broadminded
and progressive man whose interests have been varied and he has promoted many
worthy enterprises which he believed would advance the public welfare.  He
assisted in platting the town of Chehalis and has borne an important part in its
development.  He is a charter member of the Citizens Club and is Knights Templar
Mason.  He is senior warden of the Episcopal church, to which he belongs, and is
treasurer of the diocese of western Washington.  For the past twenty years he
has been a representative to the national conventions of his church. Politically
Mr. Coffman has been a lifelong republican, has been active in the selection of
good men for office and was a delegate to the national convention of his party
held in Philadelphia in 1904, which nominated Major McKinley for president and
was chosen a member of the committee to notify Mr. McKinley of his nomination.
In 1916 he was a delegate to the national republican convention in Chicago.  Mr.
Coffman is prominently connected with the social and religious interests of the
city, having served as president of the St. Helen's Club for many years and
taken an active part in church work not only locally but also in the missionary
department of the Episcopal church.


[Transcriber's note:  Noah Berry Coffman died 1940 in Chehalis, WA.  From March
8, 1938 to June 6, 1940, he co-authored a column on Claquato landmarks with
Charles Miles in the Chehalis Bee-Nugget and Chehalis Advocate.]


Submitted by: Jenny Tenlen

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Notice: These biographies were transcribed for the Lewis Co., WA GenWeb Project.
Unless otherwise stated, no further information is available on the individual
featured in the biographies.