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HARRISON COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Valerie & Tommy Crook
vfcrook@trellis.net
March 19, 2000
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 364
HON. CHARLES GORDON COFFMAN, who is engaged in the
practice of his profession in the City of Clarksburg, Har-
rison County, is not only one of the representative mem-
bers of the bar of his native county but also a scion of
an old and honored family of this county. He was born
on his father's farm in Harrison County, August 30, 1875,
and is a son of John Marshall and Cornelia J. (Swiger)
Coffman, both of whom likewise were born and reared in
this county, where they passed their entire lives, secure
in the high regard of all who knew them. The father died
at the age of sixty-two and the mother at the age of sixty-
eight years, both having been earnest members of the
Baptist Church. John Marshall Coffman served as a
loyal young soldier of the Union in the Civil war, and in
politics he was a stanch supporter of the principles of
the republican party. He long held prestige as one of the
substantial and progressive agriculturists and stockgrowers
of his native county and was influential in community af-
fairs. His parents, John G. and Achsah (Boggers) Coff-
man, passed their entire lives in Harrison County, the
former having been a son of Henry Coffman, who was
born and reared at Smithfield, near Uniontown, Pennsyl-
vania, where his father settled upon immigrating to Amer-
ica from his native Germany. Henry Coffman was a
pioneer settler in what is now Harrison County, West Vir-
ginia, and contributed his quota to the civic and indus-
trial development of this section of the state. Here, about
the year 1805, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Eliza-
beth Robinson, whose father had served as a major in the
Continental line in the war of the Revolution and who
became one of the very early settlers in what is now Har-
rison County, West Virginia. Mrs. Cornelia J. (Swiger)
Coffman was a daughter of Lemuel Swiger, the Swiger
family being one of the oldest in Harrison County, where
many representatives of the name still reside.
Charles G. Coffman, one of a family of four children,
early began to assist in the work of the home farm, and
that he made good use of the advantages afforded in the
public schools of the locality is indicated by the fact that
at the age of seventeen years he became a successful
teacher in the rural schools. For six years he continued
alternately to teach and attend school, and in 1898 he
graduated from Salem College with the degree of Bachelor
of Science. He defrayed his own expenses while attend-
ing this institution, as did he thereafter while completing
his course in the law department of the University of
West Virginia, from which he received his degree of
Bachelor of Laws in 1904. He was soon afterward ad-
mitted to the bar of his native state and initiated his pro-
fessional career by opening an office at Clarksburg. Here
he soon developed a remunerative practice, and here he
has continued his successful activities as one of the able
and representative members of the Harrison County bar.
Mr. Coffman has been active and influential in the
local councils and campaign activities of the republican
party, and he was its candidate for mayor of Clarksburg
in the election of 1906, but was defeated. In 1908 he
was elected to the State Senate, in which he served one
term and made a record of loyal support of the interests
of his constituent district and of wise legislation in gen-
eral. From 1904 to 1906 Mr. Coffman was chairman of
the republican committee of Harrison County, and from
1916 to 1918, inclusive, he was secretary of the Republican
State Central Committee of West Virginia, in which office
he showed marked finesse in directing the political forces
at his command in the presidential campaign of that year.
Mr. Coffman has served continuously since 1905 as a
commissioner of chancery for Harrison County, and on
the 20th of February, 1922, he was appointed assistant
United States District Attorney for the Northern District
of West Virginia. He is affiliated with the Benevolent
and Protective Order of Elks, the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows, the Delta Tau Delta college fraternity and the
Masonic fraternity, in which last he has received the
thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and is also a
member of the Mystic Shrine.
October 14, 1909, Mr. Coffman wedded Miss Alma Earle
Haymaker, daughter of Frank B. and Florence G. (Gray)
Haymaker, of Harrison County. The two children of this
union are Frank Haymaker Coffman and Julia Gray Coff-
man. Mr. and Mrs. Coffman are members of the Methodist
Church.
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