William C. Coats was born in Devonshire, England in 1828, and comes of an ancient English family of this name. He had a common school education in his native place, and when a boy went to sea. For many years he was a mariner and went to all parts of the world. In 1859 he came to New York City, and after a short time located at Fulton, Oswego county, N.Y., where he has made his home and followed farming for an occupation since 1860. In politics he is a Republican, in religion a Baptist. He enlisted and served three years in the civil war in Company F or I, Eleventh New York Cavalry. He took part in a number of important engagements, and was active in the work of clearing the country of raiders and bushwhackers that infested most of the southern states.
He married, in 1847, Elizabeth Inchdon, born in Devonshire, England, in 1829, died in Fulton, N.Y. in 1904.
Children:
Son died in infancy.
William Henry, mentioned below.

(II) William Henry, son of William C. Coats, was born in Devonshire, England, Jan. 24, 1851. He came to America with his parents when he was a child. He had some instruction under a private tutor in England, and attended the village seminary in Fulton, N.Y. He began teaching school when a young man, at first in the district schools in the vicinity of his father's home, afterward in Oswego county, and for eight years he was superintendent of schools at Fulton, N.Y., and for another eight years principal of the high school at Elizabethtown, Essex county, N.Y.
He was then in business at Plattsburgh, N.Y. for ten years. He came to Saranac Lake in 1907 as teacher of classics and languages in the high school, and is at the present time (1910) filling this position.
He was a prominent candidate for principal of the State Normal School at Plattsburgh, and was offered and declined the chair of mathematics in that institution.
He is a Republican in politics.
He married, in 1870, Emma M. Guernsey, born Jan. 4, 1852 in Broome county, N.Y., near the town of Lysle, a daughter of John L. and ____ (Nichols) Guernsey. Her father was of English and her mother of Dutch ancestry.
Children:
Herbert Philip, mentioned below.
William.
Henry.
Lucy E.

(III) Hon. Herbert Philip Coats, son of William Henry Coats, was born in Fulton, N.Y., Sept. 1, 1872. He attended the public schools and graduated from the Elizabethtown high school, of which his father was principal. He began the study of law in the offices of Shedden & Booth, and continued in the offices of Weed, Smith & Conway, of Plattsburgh, and at the Albany Law School, from which he was graduated in the class of 1894, and was honored with the position of class orator at commencement. In the same year he was admitted to the bar and opened an office at Saranac Lake. Since then he has been in general practice in this town, and hs taken a prominent position at the bar of the county. He is an active Republican and has served as attorney for the village of Saranac Lake continuously for fifteen years. He has for years taken an active part in nominating conventions of his party, and given to its candidates his hearty support. He was elected state senator in Nov. 1909, and was appointed to important committees in the present session of the legislature. In 1910 he was unanimously nominated to succeed himself as senator, the nomination being equivalent to an election. He was one of the organizers of the Adirondack National Bank. He was instrumental in securing the location of the Ray Brook Tuberculosis Institution of New York State in this vicinity. He is a member of White Face Mountain Lodge, No. 789, Free Masons, and of Waneta Chapter, No. 291, Royal Arch Masons, of Saranac Lake, and was one of the founders of the latter; and is a member of Franklin Commandery, Knights Templar, of Malone, N.Y., and of Karnak Temple, Mystic Shrine, of Montreal, Canada.
He married Sept. 11, 1895, Bertha E. Roberts of Plattsburgh. They have one son, Herbert Philip Jr., born Dec. 19, 1896.

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