DUANE
Duane's take
The way the marker tells it, here's the story of Dr. Will Coleman, Senior. Now, some people are shaped by the land they come from, and Will Coleman was one of them.
Born in 1882, he grew up right here in Texas — and not just anywhere in Texas, but out on the Robert Witherspoon Ranch in Chatfield, twelve miles northeast of where we're standing, caring for livestock. That's where it started. A boy and the animals in his keeping.
In 1899, the Coleman family moved to Corsicana. And whatever Will was carrying with him from those years on the ranch, he carried it far — all the way to Montreal, Canada, where he enrolled at the McGills University School of Veterinary Science. He graduated in 1911.
Then he came back to Texas and received his license to practice — nine years after that diploma. Nine years. Let that settle.
But when the door finally opened, he walked through it. By 1925, Dr. Will Coleman had established his own veterinary clinic right here in Corsicana.
One of the first Black veterinarians in the area. That was no small thing. That was a man building something in a time and a place that didn't always make building easy.
And he built a life too — at this very site, alongside his wife, Mattie, and their twelve children. Will Coleman passed in 1953. But the ground remembers.
And now, so do you.
What the marker says
A native Texan, Will Coleman (1882-1953) grew up caring for livestock on the Robert Witherspoon Ranch in Chatfield (12 miles northeast). His family moved to Corsicana in 1899; in 1911, Coleman graduated from the McGills University School of Veterinary Science in Montreal, Canada, and received his license to practice in Texas nine years later. By 1925, he had established his own veterinary clinic in Corsicana. One of the first black veterinarians in the area, Dr. Will Coleman lived at this site with his wife, Mattie, and their 12 children. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986