JOHN COIT SPOONER
SPOONER, JOHN COIT, lawyer, statesman, United States senator from Wisconsin,was born in Lawrenceburg, Dearborn county, Indiana, on January 6, 1843, the son of Judge Philip L. Spooner. His father, a lawyer and jurist of recognized ability, was a native of New Bedford, Massachusetts, of English descent, whose forefathers came from the vicinity of Colchester, England, to Massachusetts, in 1637. His mother's name was Coit, a descendant of a Welsh family which settled in New England several generations ago.
Philip Spooner (great-grandfather of John C.) and his brother took part in the battle of Lexington, and both rendered patriotic service in subsequent revolutionary conflicts. His maternal great-grandfather, Samuel Coit, was also a soldier in the Colonial army, a man of exceptional courage and powers, and during the early history of the New England states wielded a positive and salutary influence in the formation of their civil institutions. The Spooners and Coits were also participants in the war of 1812, and in the Mexican war.
Judge Spooner removed with his family to Madison, Wisconsin, in 1859, where he spent the remainder of his life, and where John C., completed his preparation for college, as well as his collegiate education. He was graduated from the University of Wisconsin, in 1864, at the age of twenty-one, received the degree of A.M., in 1867, and was subsequently honored with the degree of Ph.D. After graduation he enlisted as a private in Company D, 40th Wisconsin volunteer infantry, recruited largely from Wisconsin colleges and other educational institutions. At the close of a hundred days service, in Tennessee he reenlisted for three years, or "during the war", as captain of Company A, 50th Wisconsin infantry, and was assigned to duty in Missouri and later to frontier duty in Dakota. He was mustered out of service, July 1866, with the rank of brevet major, and a record for faithful, efficient discharge of duty such as has subsequently characterized his entire public life.
