"Portrait & Biographical Record of the Willamette Valley Oregon."  Chapman 
Publishing Company, 1903. p. 1216.
 
CHESTER G. COAD

     postmaster of Dallas, also ex-county clerk and ex-banker, and one of the
most prominent and influential members of pioneer families in Polk county, was
born in this county, July 27, 1861, and is the second of the five children born
to Samuel and Henrietta (Gilliam) Coad. The Gilliam family, numerously
represented in Oregon, and established here by that well remembered pioneer and
soldier, General Cornelius Gilliam, whose tragic death threw a pall over
military and civilian ranks in the state, is mentioned elsewhere in this work,
while Samuel Coad, now retired in Dallas after many years of varied activity,
and equal success as an agriculturist, druggist, builder, Indian fighter, and
real estate dealer, is also given separate mention.
     The success of his father placed in the way of Chester G. Coad advantages
not enjoyed by the average farm-reared youth, yet in the main he has been the
architect of his own fortunes. After leaving the public schools of Dallas he
entered La Creole Academy, which institution he left at the age of twenty to
learn surveying under deputy United States surveyor W. P. Wright. He was engaged
in this pursuit when elected county clerk on the Republican ticket in 1888. His
service in the latter capacity was eminently satisfactory, and in 1890 he was
reelected by a large majority. Upon the completion of his second term in 1892 he
became cashier of the Dallas City Bank, and resigned in 1895 to assume the
management of the Rickreall Mills, a position maintained until 1899. This
position was also resigned because of his appointment to the position of
assistant sergeant-of-arms in the United States senate, which he held during the
sessions of 1899, 1900 and 1901.
     March 4, 1901, Mr. Coad was appointed postmaster of Dallas by President
McKinley, and took the oath of office April 1, 1901. He married in Dallas Jennie
Rowell, who was born on the trip to Oregon in 1862, the daughter of C. G.
Rowell, a retired citizen of Dallas. Four children have been born of this union,
Claudia, Pauline, Genevieve, and Dorris. Mr. Coad is a member of the Native Sons
of Oregon, and is fraternally connected with the Friendship Lodge No. 6, I. O.
O. F., of which he is past noble grand; the Encampment, of which he is past
chief patriarch, and the Woodmen of the World. Affable in manner, of
acknowledged business and political probity, Mr. Coad has won the esteem of all
with whom he has had to do, and particularly of his numerous friends and
associates in the thriving community of Dallas.

     
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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in June 2008 by Diana Smith.  Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.