John H. Coatney, a prominent farmer and stock grower in Peru Precinct, Nemaha County, Nebraska, settled in the area in 1864. Originally from Cass County, Illinois, he arrived with his family during Nebraska’s early pioneer days. Over forty years, Coatney transformed an 80-acre plot into a prosperous farm, adding a modern farmhouse, a large barn, and a thriving orchard. Married in 1860 to Margaret Holtzman, Coatney and his wife raised ten children. Known for his community involvement, he served as a road overseer and school board member for decades, earning respect for his dedication and integrity.
John H. Coatney, a leading farmer and stock and fruit grower in Peru Precinct, Nemaha County, with a post office at Peru, is now largely retired from the more strenuous toils connected with farming. He has earned much in the way of material prosperity and latter-day comforts through his industrious and business-like farming over forty years in southeastern Nebraska. His time and effort in a productive state like Nebraska have ensured a secure and comfortable retirement.
Mr. Coatney knows well the hardships and conditions of pioneer life. He arrived in Otoe County, Nebraska, in the fall of 1864, before Nebraska was admitted to statehood. The country then was very new and lacked the beauty and material improvements now seen everywhere. He came from Cass County, Illinois, driving through with two covered wagons, or prairie schooners, and bringing his family and possessions, prepared to establish himself in a new country. For the first two years, he was a tenant farmer, but then bought an eighty-acre farm with scant improvements—a house little more than a shell and five acres of broken land for cultivation. The purchase price was fourteen hundred dollars, and he had five hundred dollars he had saved. This place in Nemaha County has been his home ever since. About twenty years ago, he tore down the old shanty and built a commodious and comfortable farmhouse. He has also built a fine barn, thirty by twenty-six feet, with a forty-foot addition and a ten-foot driveway. He keeps from twenty-five to thirty head of cattle and ten to sixteen horses, and each year raises about one hundred Poland China hogs. The orchard of one hundred and fifty trees he planted soon after coming to the place has died out, and about five years ago, he replaced it with one hundred apple trees and one hundred cherry trees, which are now bearing fruit. Mr. Coatney is well known for his hardworking qualities and for the success he has won through his own efforts in this county.
On May 28, 1860, Mr. Coatney was married in St. Louis, Missouri, to Miss Margaret Holtzman, a Virginia maiden of seventeen summers, born in Page County, Virginia, on October 26, 1843. Her parents, William and Ruth (Battman) Holtzman, were born in Maryland and Virginia, respectively, and were married at the county seat of Page County. William Holtzman was a farmer and died in Virginia in 1854 at about sixty-five years old. His widow died in 1864 in Cass County, Illinois, where she had moved in 1857. Of their ten children, five married and had families.
Mr. and Mrs. Coatney reared ten of their twelve children: David Henry, called “Dick,” is an enterprising farmer on an adjoining farm and has one daughter, Myrtle Zoe; Martha Lee is the wife of Willard Redfern and has eight children; John William, a farmer in Oklahoma, has two sons and two daughters; George B., also of Oklahoma, has one son and two daughters; Jennie, the wife of Cyrus Milan, of Auburn, has six children; Linnie Irene, the wife of Fred Nelson, has four children; Addie is the wife of D. McKenney, a barber of Leavenworth, Kansas, and has two sons; Edward is a farmer nearby and is married; Bessie Pearl is the wife of Lewis Chavey, of Auburn, and has one son; Charles Cleveland is at home and engaged in managing the homestead.
Mr. Coatney is a gold Democrat. He has served his fellow citizens capably and conscientiously for eighteen years as road overseer and for over twenty years as a member of the school board. He has always supported the churches, though he is not a member, and has gained the esteem and respect of his associates and many friends by his sterling honesty and fidelity to every duty incumbent upon his manhood.
Source: Lewis Publishing Company, A Biographical and Genealogical History of Southeastern Nebraska, 2 volumes, Lewis Publishing Company, 1904.