Abraham Coon

 (This photograph is thought to be Abraham Coon, but was recently seen at a DUP museum under the name "Adam Coon." Further inquiry should be made if this is really Abraham Coon. This photograph was labeled as "Abraham Coon" and in the collection of Arthur Glenn Foster)

A BRIEF ACCOUNT of the LIFE and FAMILY of MY GREAT-GREAT-GRANDFATHER, ABRAHAM COON 

by Arthur Glenn Foster

Abraham Coon was born 3 April 1810, in New London, Ohio. It was in May of 1839 that Abraham was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints by George P. Dykes. Six years later, in 1845, Joseph Young ordained him a Seventy in the Melchizedek Priesthood.

Abraham was “Pennsylvania Dutch,” and was very proud of his German heritage. He was a cooper by trade. (Coopers make barrels for storage and shipping of grains and liquids). He became so skilled at fine carpentry that he could construct wagons, and build bridges across streams and rivers to help the pioneers cross the Great Plains.

In 1830, nine years before he joined the LDS Church, he had married Elizabeth Yarbrough in Sinclair, Illinois. Their marriage was blessed eventually with ten children. One of these was James David Coon, my great-grandfather.

Abraham's wife Elizabeth was every inch a grand lady. Her home-making talents included spinning and weaving. Her parents had been plantation and slave owners in Montgomery County, Tennessee. During a visit to Illinois they joined the LDS Church, along with Elizabeth and her younger sister, Frances. The parents died before the great exodus from Nauvoo.

Some years later, after reaching the Salt Lake valley, Elizabeth would spin yarn and knit stocking for Brigham Young and his wife (her aunt Mary Ann Angel Young) in exchange for flour with which to help feed Elizabeth's family while Abraham was away serving a Church mission in Carson City, Nevada. Elizabeth lived to be 85 years old, dying on 15 January 1894.

Shortly after Brigham Young and his thousands of Saints left Nauvoo in February 1846, Abraham and his family traveled with a following group of Saints across Iowa.

In 1845 Abraham, obeying Church leaders, married Frances, Elizabeth's sister. She lived less than a year after her son was born. The boy, Abraham, Jr., was reared until 1856 by his Aunt Elizabeth until he died in his tenth year.

In 1846, at Council Bluffs, Iowa, Abraham's third Church-counseled marriage was to Elizabeth Wilson. She bore Abraham 5 children. In 1856 she was with Abraham on their mission to Carson City, Nevada where she died.

At the direction of Church leaders Abraham had remained in the Council Bluffs region until 1852. There he operated a grist mill, preparing provisions for other Saints who were leaving on the trek to the Salt Lake valley. He was made a Bishop and in that calling cared for the families of those men who had departed to California with the Mormon Battalion. He and his family made the long trip to Salt Lake in 1852.

The Coon family Patriarch, Abraham Coon, built a substantial home near the Jordon River in the Northwest part of what is now Salt Lake City. The home still stands. He also owned and operated a saw mill in Coon's Canyon on the Eastern slopes of the Oquirrh Mountains. There he kept a ranch home and near it operated a large stock ranch on the land just East of Coon's Canyon. In addition to cattle that he grazed in the canyon, he raised prized black stallions.

Indians were always made welcome at his homes. He loved to entertain. He also insisted that his children and grandchildren be taken to the circus.

He was the first road commissioner of Salt Lake County. One of his first tasks was to build the first permanent bridge across the Jordon River. By 1884 he had done all of the Temple work for his known ancestors. He died 27 March 1866.