COLEMAN, YOUNGS LEVI (1804-1881). Youngs Levi Coleman, pioneer rancher in San Patricio County, son of David Coleman and his first wife, née Hendrix, was born on July 6, 1804, in North Carolina. The family moved successively to South Carolina, Mississippi, Tennessee, and New York, where Coleman became an apprentice tailor. He moved to Texas in 1824 and on August 10, 1828, married Lucy Catherine White, daughter of Matthew G. White,^qv at Liberty. The family ranched in Gonzales and Jackson counties and moved to Goliad County. In the early 1850s Coleman began buying land in San Patricio County and built a home on Chiltipin Creek. He and his son Thomas M. Coleman^qv established ranch headquarters on the Rincon and ran cattle over thousands of acres of open rangeland. In 1871 Youngs and Tom joined Thomas H. Mathis, George W. Fulton,^qqv and J. M. Mathis to form the Coleman, Mathis, Fulton Cattle Company. The partners sold the company their individually held ranch holdings to total 265,000 acres. The Rincon headquarters was turned into the operations headquarters for the new company, which was one of the first operations to introduce plank fencing and, in 1876, barbed wire.^qv In 1879 the Mathis cousins withdrew from the partnership and took part of the land as their share of the business. The new company was called the Coleman-Fulton Pasture Company^qv and embraced 165,000 acres. Coleman gradually turned his interests over to his son Tom, since he refused to sign a loyalty pledge after the Civil War.^qv He moved to Veracruz, where he purchased a sugar plantation. Family records state that he never returned to the United States; however, court records indicate that he served on juries and transacted other business regularly in San Patricio County. Amanda, Youngs's daughter, who married Ozias Newman, went to Mexico with her father, and eventually her husband and all her children except one moved to Mexico. Youngs died in 1881 and was buried in Mexico at his request. Amanda and one child are also buried on the Mexican plantation. Youngs's wife, Lucy, did not go to Mexico but stayed in the Colemans' Goliad home. She died in 1874 and is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, Goliad.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Keith Guthrie, History of San Patricio County (Austin: Nortex, 1986). A. Ray Stephens, Taft Ranch (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1964).

Keith Guthrie