Sutter-Yuba County Biographies

WILLIAM A. COATS

Transcribed by: Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
Twenty-one years ago William A. Coats purchased the home place of ten acres 
where he and his family reside, five and a half miles southwest of Yuba City; 
and he and his wife also own a part of the old Carpenter place, two and a half 
miles west of Tudor, and five miles south of their home place.  He raises French 
prunes and cling peaches on the home place, and recently has set out a 
fifteen-acre orchard of cling peaches on their 150 acres of the Carpenter place, 
the balance being devoted to the raising of grain.  Mr. Coats was born near 
Columbia, Boone County, Mo., August 4, 1878, the second of twelve children born 
to Henry Clay and Mary Ann (Corneliuson) Coats, both natives of Missouri.  In 
1874 Henry Clay Coats made a trip to California, but the following year returned 
to Missouri.  He passed away at Sturgeon at the age of forty-nine, on August 26, 
1899; the mother is living at Columbia, Mo., aged sixty-seven years.
William A. Coats was reared in Boone County, Mo., and attended the district 
school during the winter months, and during the summer he worked on the 
homestead farm twelve miles from Columbia.  Allen Coats, great-grandfather of 
William Coats, was the original settler on the farm, and he built the house in 
1840, which is still standing and in good condition.  William A. Coats came to 
California in the fall of 1897 with his cousin W. K. Coats; and for seven years 
he worked for his uncle William A. Coats on his ranch in Sutter County.  By 
economy and thrift he was able to save enough money to buy his present home 
place in 1902, where he has since resided.
Mr. Coats� marriage, at Sacramento, united him with Miss Frankie Carpenter, a 
native of Sutter County, the fifth of seven children born to James W. and Eliza 
(Bailey) Carpenter.  Mr. and Mrs. Coats are the parents of two sons, Elmer and 
Merle.  In politics, Mr. Coats is a Democrat; and fraternally he is a member of 
Shamrock Camp No. 360, W.O.W., Yuba City.  Mrs. Coats has served on the board of 
trustees and the building committee of the Barry Union School.
 
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p 1084