L. Elvira Stillman Coon, A. M., daughter of Maxson and Lydia Stillman, was born July 27th, 1824, at Berlin, N. Y. Her parents moved to Alfred, N. Y., when she was in her second year. During the revival in the Winter of 1835-36, under the preaching of the Rev. Alexander Campbell, she made a profession of religion, and was baptized by him, and united with the First Alfred Church, of which she was a member at her death.
She was a pupil in the select school, the germ of Alfred University, in the Winter of 1836-37. Beginning to teach at the age of sixteen, she attended the Academy as she could with working at home and teaching Summers, until 1846; her health failing while teaching at Andover, she went to East Hampton, Mass., hoping that a change of climate might be a benefit, where she attended Williston Seminary during the school year of 1846-47. In the fall of 1847, she returned to Alfred, and prosecuted her studies as best she could, while taking care of an invalid mother, till, in 1848, she graduated from the Academy, having for her graduation theme "The Burial of Mrs. Judson."
On the completion of her studies, she became, in 1850, at the solicitation of the Rev. W. B. Gillette, Preceptress of the Ladies' Department of the School at New Market, N. J. In 1851 she accepted the position of Preceptress of the Plainfield Free School. She was married Nov. 21st, 1851, to Harry C. Coon, Rev. W. B. Gillette officiating, with whom she had become acquainted while at New Market.
In 1852, her husband entering into business at West Edmeston, N. Y., his native place, she taught one term in the Brookfield Academy. Returning for a time to New Market, though not teaching, she was active in all the enterprises of the school and community, leading in the organization of a literary society, before which she delivered a lecture entitled, "Make Your Mark," which was published in one of the New York Magazines.
In the fall of 1855, she moved with her husband to Walworth, Wis. In the Winter of 1855 and Summer of 1856, we find her teaching the public school of the place, and the Winter of 1856-57, in connection with her husband, taught a select school. In the Winter of 1857-58, the Walworth Academy was started, of which she became Preceptress, holding the position for three years, teaching Mathematics, French, and Latin.
In the fall of 1860, she was chosen Preceptress of Hopkinton Academy, R. I., Rev. J. W. Morton being Principal, and her husband an associate teacher. She remained here until the spring of 1865, when her husband, then being Principal, seeing the necessity of a higher and broader culture, and by her advice and inspiration, gave up the school to complete a course of study in Alfred University, she teaching a select school at Lebanon, Conn., during the Spring, and joining her husband at Alfred in the Fall. Here, keeping house, teaching in the University, studying, and sacrificing, she assisted in bearing the burdens of school life till he husband graduated in 1868.
In the Fall of 1868, she was chosen Preceptress of DeRuyter Institute, her husband being elected Professor of Natural Science and Greek. Here she taught French, German, Botany, and Mathematics for three years, till the school was abandoned by the Central Association. Her husband having completed a course of medicine, was, in 1872, elected Professor of Physical Science and Chemistry in Alfred University, the remainder of her life she taught but occasional classes in the University, her time being taken up with other work.
She was one of the earliest members of the Didaskalian Association, a teachers' society in connection with Alfred Academy, also of the Ladies' Literary Society, afterwards taking the name of Alfriedian, by which it is now known. At its Anniversary Session in 1874, she gave the annual lecture, choosing for her theme "Work," in which she embodied her ideas learned by a life-experience of overwork, and forcibly impressed by the feeling of her waning life-forces.
She was one of the constituent members of the Women's Auxiliary Tract Society of the First Alfred Church, being chosen its first Secretary, which office she held till failing health precluded her attendance upon its sessions. She took a lively interest in its work, and was chosen to represent the Society at a public session of the Society of the Second Alfred Church, choosing for the subject of her address "Character Building." Her last literary work was as editor of the Alfred Student.
She was taken sick April 15th, 1877, and for the last two years was confined to her bed most of the time, hoping and fearing, as she seemed to get better or grow worse, until hope died when the nature of her disease - cancer of the omentum - became fully determined. After suffering much from the agonizing pain peculiar to that disease, she died April 20th, 1879, aged fifty-four years, eight months, and twenty-four days.
Her funeral was held at the church, April 23d. The sermon was preached by her pastor, from the text, John 14: 1-4, a passage she loved to dwell upon; the teachers of the school and members of the societies of which she was a member being among the mourners, amid the large and sympathetic congregation. A.
