German-language newspaperman, b. Bremen, Germany. In 1850 he migrated with his parents to the U.S. and Milwaukee. He served as a clerk and printer, obtained his naturalization papers (1856), and became active in politics in an attempt to interest Milwaukee Germans in the Republican party. In 1861, with Bernhard Domschke (q.v.), he began to issue a Republican and German-language newspaper, the Milwaukee Herold. Circulation of the newspaper climbed rapidly and was especially fostered by an outstanding Sunday edition and excellent telegraphic reporting of the Franco-Prussian War. Eventually it became the most widely circulated German-language political paper in the Midwest. Coleman also published a monthly, the Fortschritt der Zeit (1875), the Literary Quarterly Magazine (1876), and bi-weekly literary journal, The Family Circle (1878), as well as various German-language books and several out-of-state newspapers. After Coleman's death his widow and son continued his business enterprises. [F. A. Flower] Hist. of Milwaukee (Chicago, 1881); H. L. Conard, ed., Hist. of Milwaukee (3 vols., Chicago [1896]); WPA MS.Learn More
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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]
