John Thurber Coates

From Ohio, he went with his family to Grant County, Wisconsin in 1851 and moved to Richland in 1857. On 2 December 1861, then age 21, he enlisted in the 2nd Company, Minnesota Sharpshooters and mustered as Private on Christmas Eve at Tamarack, MN.

He was seriously wounded in the back in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862.

He was treated at the Fort Schuyler Hospital in New York City and was discharged for disability on 18 February 1863. Back home, he served briefly as First Lieutenant in a home defense unit, but resigned his commission, dates not given.

He was in the furniture business with his brother Alonzo in Clear Lake, IA, then attended the University of Iowa, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Keokuk, IA and earned an MD. Beginning in 1871 he practiced medicine in Excelsior, WI until 1892, when he moved to Milwaukee.

Service from Minnesota in the Civil and Indian Wars.1 Wound and hospital details from Chuck Barden and Wayne Jorgenson on their First Minnesota site. Personal details from his obituary as printed in the Osborne (Kansas) County Farmer of 22 March 1906 and a paragraph in History of Crawford and Richland Counties, Wisconsin (1884). His gravesite is on Findagrave.

06/18/1840; Trumbull County, OH

02/22/1906; Milwaukee, WI; burial in Richland Center Cemetery, Richland Center, WI