Daniel Coleman (Alabama judge)

Born in Caroline County, Virginia, Coleman left home at the age of sixteen, his father's death having reduced the family to poverty.[1] taught school for a year at the Kanawha Salt Works in Kentucky, and used the money thus obtained to attend Transylvania University in Lexington.[1][2] He then obtained employment as a scribe at a court in Frankfort, Kentucky, and read law under the supervision of Judge Jesse Bledsoe.[1][2] In 1819 Coleman moved to Alabama, settling in Mooresville, Limestone County, Alabama, where he opened a law office.[1][2] In 1822, he was chosen by the state legislature to serve as judge of the Limestone County court; though he was only nineteen years old, "the gravity of his deportment led no one to question his majority, and he held the office several years".[1] In 1829 he represented Limestone County in the state legislature.

In 1835 he was elected by the legislature to serve as a judge of the Alabama 8th judicial circuit, continuing in this office for twelve years.[1][2] In June 1851, Governor Henry W. Collier appointed Coleman to a seat on the Supreme Court of Alabama vacated by Silas Parsons.[1] However, he only served for six months, and "declined a candidacy before the Legislature, feeling that his enfeebled health would not permit him to undergo the labors of the post".[1] He retired to Athens, Alabama.[2] In December 1851, Coleman was elected as one of several vice presidents of the Alabama State Colonization Society, a group formed "to promote the emigration of free persons of color of this State to Liberia".[3]

Coleman was a conspicuous member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. His wife, a native of South Carolina, survived her husband many years, and died at Athens, February 14, 1885.[1] Their children included Reverend James L. Coleman; Daniel Coleman, an attorney; John Hartwell Coleman, also an attorney; Richard H. Coleman, who was killed during the American Civil War; and Dr. Ruffin Coleman, who studied medicine at the University of Nashville, Tennessee.[1]

Coleman died at Athens at the age of 56.[1]