Grandpa Coleman

Walter Samuel Coleman was born on this date in 1862. My grandpa (My dad's dad). That's right, if he had taken better care of himself, he'd be 161 years old today. Instead, he died in 1955 at the age of 93. 

WS Coleman was born in Tupelo, MS. His father fought for the South in the Civil War. He sired 12 children with his wife Ida May Yarbrough, 17 years his junior. My dad was the eleventh of the twelve children; he was born in 1924 when his dad was 62.

In 1889 my grandpa participated in the first of the 8 landruns in Oklahoma. The story goes that he and a friend named Leatherwood (A first name really isn't necessay when you have a surname like Leatherwood), had scouted out property that they hoped to stakeout for themselves. You were allowed to claim a quarter section or 160 acres for agricultural purposes if you built on it and lived there. People who tried to stake such claims before the actual race on April 22nd we're known as "Sooners", which later became the nickname of the state itself and the Oklahoma University football team. There were soldiers to monitor the race and run off the Sooners they found trying to claim land early. There weren't enough soldiers; it was a mess

My grandpa and Leatherwood had fast horses and were confident they could get to their desired claims before anyone else. And with the firing of a canon, rifle, pistol, whatever, the race was on.

At one point they separated, as their claims were a few miles apart. When WS arrived at his desired land he couldn't believe what he found. Some men had already staked out the property. He knew they must be Sooners because there was no way they could have arrived before him. He wanted to do something about it but he was outnumbered. He rode off.

He arrived at Leatherwood's claim a short time later. He told him what had happened. Leatherwood evidently felt a strong desire to help my grandpa correct this injustice so they rode back to the stolen claim and killed the interlopers. My grandpa had his land.

Happy birthday grandpa.