Background
Coggeshall, William Turner was born on September 6, 1824 in Lewistown, Pennsylvania, United States. Son of William C. and Eliza (Grotz) Coggeshall.
Coggeshall, William Turner was born on September 6, 1824 in Lewistown, Pennsylvania, United States. Son of William C. and Eliza (Grotz) Coggeshall.
He was a self-appointed bodyguard for Abraham Lincoln. He settled in Akron, Ohio in 1842, and published the temperance newspaper Cascade Roarer there from 1844 to 1845. In 1847, Coggeshall moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he wrote for and later edited the Western Fountain, and may also have written for the Gazette and Times.
He travelled with General Louis Kossuth during 1851-1852, reporting on his tour and speeches for newspapers.
In 1852 he became assistant editor of the Daily Columbian, a news and business paper. From 1854 to 1856, Coggeshall was publisher and editor of The Genius of the West, a literary magazine in Cincinnati.
He was re-appointed as Librarian and private secretary by Governor Dennison in 1860, and held those positions until 1862. On February 13, 1861, President elect Abraham Lincoln passed through the state capitol on his trip to Washington, District of Columbia for his inauguartion.
As the governor"s representative, Coggeshall met Lincoln at the station, and escorted him to the statehouse.
Coggeshall accompanied Lincoln to Washington as reporter for the Ohio State Journal and bodyguard. He acted as bodyguard off and on for Lincoln, and was on the dais for the Gettysburg Address. Coggeshall had a private meeting with Lincoln on Good Friday, 1865, before embarking by rail for Ohio.
After Lincoln"s assassination later that day, Coggeshall returned to Washington, and accompanied Lincoln"s funeral train to Springfield, Illinois.
Foreign benefit of the Ohio Soldier"s Monument Fund, he wrote Lincoln memorial: the journeys of Abraham Lincoln from Springfield to Washington, 1861, as president elect, and from Washington to Springfield, as president martyred. Comprising an account of public ceremonies on the entire route, and full details of both journeys.
(1865)
Coggeshall bought the Springfield Republic in 1862 and sold it in 1865, when he became editor of the Ohio State Journal. By that time, his health was failing due to tuberculosis he had picked up early in the war while acting as a secret agent for the Union.
He was formally appointed by President Andrew Johnson in May, 1866.
Coggeshall arrived in Quito on August 2, 1866 with his fifteen-year-old daughter Jesse. His health did not improve, and he died one year later. In 1869, Congress appropriated moneys to bring both bodies back to Columbus, where they were buried at Green Lawn Cemetery in 1870.
Married Mary Carpenter, October 28, 1845, 1 daughter, Jessie.