This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Obituary Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/Hi.2ADI/2639 Message Board Post: Coffman, John Born about - 1838 — Died about - May 27, 1874 Lafayette, Indiana Daily Journal - Saturday May 30, 1874 - Obituary On Wednesday morning we noticed the fact that John Coffman, a well known character in the community, had been caught stealing a suit of clothes, and then he had been placed in the station-house, ostensibly on a charge of drunkenness, but in reality to secure his appearance in case the Grand-jury found an indictment against him for larceny. At the same time, we noticed the fact he had once attempted suicide by cutting his throat, and had served a term in the penitentiary for petit larceny. Our object in the present notice is to state that the party in question has gotten the better of the Grand-jury, and succeeded in making an end of his self by suicide, the attempt proving much more successful than the first. In consequence of the heat, he was given the freedom of the hall in the state-house, a bed being place there for his accommodation. His only partner in confinement was Patrick Cassidy. He was a live and well at 12 o’clock night before last ,and appeared in good! spirits. When the keeper of the establishments awoke, early yesterday morning, imagine his consternation at seeing Coffman hanging by his neck from the door of the ball stoned dead. During the early morning after Cassidy had went to sleep, he took the towel hanging in the hall, fastened one end of it to a bar near the top of the door, and tied the other around his neck. In order to do this he was compelled to stand upon a chair, which, when he had everything duly arranged, he kicked from under him, thus choking himself to death. When found, his feet were within two inches of the floor. The Coroner summoned a jury, which returned a verdict of death by suicide. The deceased in his sober moments was a good man, and one skilled in his trade of marble cutter, but late years the love of strong drink got the better of him. During the war he proved himself a gallant solider in the 10th Indiana Regiment in which he served three years. Coffman, John Enlisted Co C 10th Ind Inf Reg – 25 April 1861 Mustered Out – 6 Aug 1861, Indianapolis, Indiana 10th REGIMENT INFANTRY.--(3 MONTHS.) Organized at Indianapolis, Ind., April 22-25, 1861. Duty near Evansville, Ind., till June 7. Ordered to West Virginia June 7. Attached to Rosecrans' Brigade, McClellan's Army of West Virginia. Occupation of Buckhannon June 30. West Virginia Campaign July 6-17. Battle of Rich Mountain July 11. Duty at Beverly till July 24. Mustered out August 2, 1861. Regiment lost during service 4 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 2 Enlisted men by disease. Total 6. 1860 Census Clinton county, Indiana - 16 Jul 1860 Coffman, John - 22 years old - Stone cutter