Henry Clay Coon was born in Allegheny (sic) county, New York, Sept. 11, 1842. He was of a family of seven children born to James and Sarah Coon, all of whom are now dead. In 1845 his people moved to Wisconsin where they were engaged in farming for twenty years. Here he grew to manhood and acquired his schooling. On July 4, 1861, he was married to Miss Elmira Lingenfelter who survives her husband. During the Civil war he enlisted in the First Minnesota Infantry Company I and continued to serve until the close of the war. During this period he was sick and much of the time in the hospital. The effects of this followed him in some measure to the end of his life. After the war he spent a year in Minnesota. In 1866 he came to Emmet county, in an emigrant wagon drawn by a yoke of oxen. For a time he made his home in Fort Reliance which had been constructed on the site now known as Estherville. He began farming on a tract of land now within the city limits. He also combined stock raising with his farming operations. He built several houses here all of which burned down. He had always been an aggressive booster for Estherville. He built the Lincoln hotel on the site now occupied by the former First Trust and Savings bank, and operated it for years; this was burned.
Immediately he built a three-story structure on the site. This also burned as did the half block of buildings south of it. Nothing daunted, he again built better and bigger covering the entire site with stores which are today a credit to the city. He also served for two terms as mayor. He put up the structure formerly known as the armory.
Mr. Coon was one of the charter members of the Methodist church in Estherville and maintained an active interest in its progress and development. He belonged to that generation of people which took religion ...
(Estherville News, Estherville, IA, January 3, 1929)
