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Subject: William S. COULTER biography
Date: 15 Jul 2004 09:27:42 -0600

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Surnames: coulter, richardson, cockrill
Classification: Biography

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William S. COULTER
History of Sonoma County by Honoria Toumey (1926)
Submitted by Lori J. Wicks ()
William S. Coulter, formerly and for years deputy in the office of the clerk of Sonoma county and for the past fifteen years engaged in the abstract business in Santa Rosa, on of the best known men in this county, is a native son of Sonoma county, a member of one of the county’s real pioneer families, and has resided here all his life. He was born on the old Coulter estate, on the edge of the city of Santa Rosa, Sept. 16,1865, and is the son of Sterling T. and Rachel M. (Cockrill) Coulter, both of whom were born in Kentucky, members of old families in the Blue Grass state, and both now deceased. The late Mrs. Rachel M. Coulter was a daughter of William B. Cockrill, who came to California with his family from Kentucky in the year 1863 and became one of the prominent and influential pioneers ranchers of Sonoma county, She died at her home in Santa Rosa in 1916.
The late Sterling T. Coulter, who died in 1906, was in his generation one of the most influential members of the Santa Rosa community. He came to California in 1851, following the overland route, and in the next year (1852) located in Sonoma county, opening here a store in old Franklin, that being in the days before Santa Rosa had found a place “on the map.” In 1854 (the year in which he and Rachel Cockrill were married), following the opening of the Santa Rosa townsite, he moved his store to the corner now occupied by the Bank of Italy building in tat city and thus became on of the town’s real pioneer merchants. In the fall of that same year he bought a quarter section of land (one hundred and sixty acres) adjoining the Santa Rosa townsite and thus became an early leader in development projects and town extension movements. It is an interesting fact that twenty acres of this original Coulter tract is still held in the family. On that place Sterling !
T. Coulter cut the forest trees and whipsawed the logs into timbers and lumber for his buildings. In addition to his general mercantile and development work he also took an active part in local civic affairs, served as an early supervisor, in this connection rendering a very real service to the community in the days when orderly social processes were being worked out here; for years also served as justice of the peace in and for his home bailiwick, and also was for some time an associate justice in the old court of sessions. His agricultural interests kept pace with the extension of his of his commercial interests and he thus was in many ways one of the most active promoters of the general interests of the community of which he had been a part practically from the beginning of an established social order here. Mr. Coulter died at his home in Santa Rosa in 1906 and his memory ever will be kept green in this blessed community. Of the nine children born to him and his wife, si!
x daughter and three sons, all save three are living, all residents of
Sonoma county and in the various lines of endeavor influential factors in the affairs of the county.
William S. Coulter was reared in Santa Rosa and the education he received in the public schools of the city was supplemented by attendance at private schools. As a young man he gave attention to the development of his father’s farming interests and remained on the farm until some little time after he had attained his majority, or until 1888, when he accepted appointment as deputy clerk in the office of the clerk of courts. Here Mr. Coulter found a form of public service to his liking and under successive incumbencies in that office he continued to serve as deputy county clerk for fourteen years, during this time gaining a familiarity with the county’s records that he since has turned to advantage not only to himself but to the general public in the abstract business. Upon leaving the county clerk’s office Mr. Coulter gave himself to mining for a couple years and then became engaged as a clerk in hotel, a form of employment he accepted for a couple of !
years while formulating other plans, and then in 1910 became engaged in the abstract business in Santa Rosa, a form of service he since has maintained, with present offices at No. 303 Exchange Bank building. Mr. Coulter is a democrat and has long been looked upon as one of the leaders of that party in this county. In his fraternal relations he is affiliated with the local lodge of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, the local aerie of the Fraternal Order of Eagles and the local camp of the Woodmen of the World.
In 1902 Mr. Coulter was united in marriage to Miss Alice Richardson on Santa Rosa, and to this union was born a son: Sterling R. Coulter, who died at the age of twenty-seven. Sterling r. Coulter received his education in the Santa Rosa public schools and the University of California, and was engaged in teaching at the time of his death. He was unmarried.

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