BIOGRAPHY - ROBERT CODDINGTON
Robert Bruce Coddington is engaged in the lumber business at Paxton and has built up a trade which makes his a profitable enterprise. He was born in Warren county, Ohio, April 13, 1849, a son of James and Harriet (Brown) Coddington, the former a native of Maryland and the latter of Ohio. The father, through an active business life, conducted a real-estate office. He came to Tazewell county, Illinois, in 1852 and in 1855 or 1856 removed to Logan county, where he resided until his death in March, 1907, at the very venerable age of ninety-one years. He was one of the early real-estate men of the state and negotiated many important property transfers. He reared a family of four children: Charles E., now residing in Logan county, Illinois; Anna E., the wife of N. W. Barrett, of Logan county; Robert, of this review; and David, a resident of Logan county. The wife and mother passed away in 1876.
Robert B. Coddington began his education in the public schools of Lincoln, Illinois, and after completing the course there spent three years as a student in Notre Dame University at South Bend, Indiana. He left school at the age of twenty-two and entering business life engaged in the grain trade for ten years, meeting with good success in that undertaking, for he was watchful of all the details of his business and manifested that adjustment of circumstances and conditions in the business world which constituted the secret of all commercial prosperity. In 1878 he removed to South Dakota, locating at Blount, Hughes county, where he engaged in general farming and in the stock business. He followed this for eleven years and in 1889 he removed to Logan county, where he resided until 1896. He was, during that period, a resident of the town of Lincoln and conducted there a lumber business until his removal to Paxton, where he established a lumber yard, in which he has been quite successful. As the years have passed he has secured a liberal patronage here and the volume of trade which he has secured makes him one of the representative merchants of the city.
In 1890 Mr. Coddington was married to Miss C. B. Andrews, a daughter of Baker B. and Martha Andrews, who were early residents of Lincoln. Their family numbered three sons and four daughters, namely: Mrs. Coddington; Lee, who resides in Canton, Illinois; F. J., of Jacksonville, this state; Louisa, the wife of J. C. Turner, of New York city; J. D., whose home is in Mattoon, Illinois; and William and Mamie A., both of whom are deceased. The Andrews family are all engaged in the lumber business. The father, Baker B. Andrews was one of the largest lumber dealers in the state, having at one time a line of lumber yards throughout Illinois to the number of fifteen. He thus controlled a large share of the trade in the state and in his business career displayed notable power in assimilating business interests and shaping them into a harmonious union. He died in 1906, at the age of seventy-one years. He was twice married, his first wife, who was the mother of his children, dying in 1889, after which he wedded Emma Hand, who still resides in Lincoln.
In his political views Mr. Coddington was a democrat for many years but votes an independent ticket at the present time, being strongly inclined toward that movement which is very common at the present time whereby measures and not party are made the dominant issue of a campaign. He belongs to Paxton Lodge, I. O. O. F., and his social qualities render him popular, while his business capacity and enterprise have gained him classification with the leading citizens of Paxton.
Extracted 16 Oct 2016 by Norma Hass from History of Ford County, Illinois, From Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, author E. A. Gardner, Volume 2, pages 643-644.
