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- JAMES COULTER
James Coulter was b. in that portion of the old town of Cambridge now included in the town of Jackson, June 24, 1799, and is the son of George and grandson of James Coulter. His grandfather came from the north of Ireland, and was the first settler on the farm (then a wilderness) adjoining the present Coulter homestead on the north, where George Coulter was born and reared his family, and where James was also born and resided until the age of 26 year. He had been in no haste to get married until he could first secure a situation enabling him to assume the responsibilities of a farm for himself; and having attained that object, he married his cousin, Nancy Coulter, a discreet and comely farmer's daughter, who has fulfilled Solomon's ideal of a wife, in "managing well the affairs of her household, and eating not the bread of idlemess." Her mother's name was Nancy Ferguson, born in Scotland, and came to this country with her parents and 2 brothers, among the early settlers of Washington Co. She married a brother of Mr. Coulter's father, and her daughter Nancy married James Coulter, the subject of this biography, on the 18th of January 1826. For a partial payment on the new farm, upon which Mr. Coulter was about to commence his married life, his father gave him $1,000, and other personals, in the way of an outfit. He purchased one hundred acres for $20 an acre, on which he settled and lived until 1836. At the end of this decade he had paid for his place & saved a surplus of $1600 to pay down on his next farm, -- the place where he now resides, -- which he purchased and moved upon in the year 1836. It is only summing up and epitomizing a long life of remarkable energy, diligence, and success, in a pursuit exclusively agricultural, to say that he has grown "rich in children and lands," as did the patriarch Jacob.
Mr. & Mrs. Coulter have had 11 children, -- 6 sons and 5 daughters. One son died in infancy, and they lost 3 little girls with scarlet fever, who died within 2 weeks of each other. Towards his children, Mr. Coulter has been munificent in his liberality, aiding all his sons except the youngest, who still resides at home (and will probably continue to do, as he is married and will be a necessary stay of his parents in their old age), in getting established upon their respective farms in the sum of $10,000 each. Besides these munificent gifts to his children, Mr. Coulter gave liberally to build the Rutland and Washington railroad through this county, and also the Johnsonville and Greenwich railroad. He has always been a Republican, and while he has been too busy a man to accept or desire office, he has never been parsimonious in matters pertaining to home or the public welfare. They have one married daughter residing at Union village -- Cornelia, wife of James Thompson. Mr. and Mrs. Coulter are members of the United Presbyterian church at Coila, in the town of Jackson, where Rev. Dr. Bullions officiated as pastor for over 50 years, of which church Mr. Coulter has held for many years the office of trustee.
"Old Cambridge (1788-1988) compiled by Clay, Foster, Raymond, Shiland, & Thornton.
p. 261.
COULTER, James (son of George), b. 1799, d. 1885, m. Nancy. Eleven ch. James was known as "Jackson Jimmy". He settled on the first farm on what is now known as Rouse's Road just off County Road 62 to Battenville. Here he becamse one of the most successful farmers in the area. At one point, farmland held by the Coulter sons continued for over two miles along the highway by the original homestead. Coulters were so prominent in Jackson that at one point mail from the State Education Department was addressed to "The Coulter District -- District No. 2 -- Town of Jackson."
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