BIO: Col. J. P. COBURN, Centre County, Pennsylvania

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Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania: Including the 
Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion: Containing Biographical 
Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens, Etc. 
Chicago: J. H. Beers, 1898.
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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD, pages 48-49

COL. J.P. COBURN, PRESIDENT OF THE first National Bank of Bellefonte, is one of 
the leading citizens of Centre county, and in fact is well-known throughout 
eastern Pennsylvania.  For forty years he has been identified with almost every 
important enterprise in his locality, and his influence has been helpfully 
exerted in all the varied activities of social, religious, business and 
political life.  His title was gained through service upon Gen. George 
Buchanan's staff, and he was also a member of Gov. A.G. Curtin's staff with the 
same rank.  The peer of the best, he enjoys a wide acquaintance among prominent 
men, and was a personal friend of James G. Blaine for many years.
   The family name was originally Cockburn, and the Colonel's ancestors came 
from England about 1620, settling in Connecticut.  Col R. Coburn, our subject's 
great-uncle, did gallant service in the Revolutionary army, and was killed in 
the battle of Saratoga.  The branch of the family in which our interest is 
especially centered came from Connecticut in the latter part of the last 
century, and bought lands in Bradford county, Penn., where they located.  These 
estates were later taken from them by the decision in the contest over the 
adverse titles granted by Penn and the English Crown.
   Dr. Charles Coburn, the Colonel's father was born in Woodstock, Windham Co., 
Conn., October 30, 1785.  Having prepared for his profession during his early 
years, he located at Aaronsburg in 1814, where he continued to practice 
successfully for many years.  He was a man of fine intellect, and advanced 
ideas, a thorough "Yankee," jovial, good-natured, outspoken yet dignified, and 
was rarely gifted as an agreeable and entertaining conversationalist.  
Politically, he was an active, earnest and influential Whig, afterward a 
Republican.  His nature was deeply and sincerely religious; from his youth he 
was a sincere and earnest member of the Presbyterian Church, and during his 
early life, when the locality in which he resided was comparatively a 
wilderness, he carried with him and distributed the Bible while making 
professional calls among his people without cost to those unable or too poor to 
pay.  He organized the first Sunday-school in Aaronsburg, where he resided, and 
was largely instrumental with others in founding the Presbyterian Church there, 
and at Spring Mills, seven miles west of his home, in Penn's Valley, in which he 
held the office of elder for many years until his death.
   On January 15, 1824, Dr. Coburn was united in marriage with Miss Peggy C. 
Potter, daughter of Gen. James Potter, of Potter township, Centre county, of 
Revolutionary fame.  She died leaving no issue, and on June 24, 1830, Dr. Coburn 
married Miss Margaret Huston, also of Potter township, who was born September 
18, 1800, the daughter of James and Catherine (Ewing) Huston, a family noted 
among the people of Penn's Valley for their modest, unostentatious generosity, 
and sterling integrity.  Her father's early home was in the Cumberland Valley, 
but he became a pioneer settler of Potter township, Centre county, and owned one 
of the largest and best farms in that locality, his systematic methods of 
cultivation being an important factor in his successful management.  Mrs. 
Catherine Ewing Huston was during her childhood captured by the Indians in a 
corn field on her father's home farm near Spruce creek, Huntingdon, Co., Penn., 
and made to tramp barefooted t Niagara Falls and Montreal, where she spent two 
years or more wandering about with the savages.  From constantly hearing and 
using their language, she had almost forgotten her native tongue, when she was 
finally exchanged and sent back in safety to her home.  Dr. Coburn's long and 
eminently useful life ended April 25, 1858, and his wife did not long survive 
him, her death occurring August 21, 1861.  Of their five children, only two 
lived to adult age-our subject and his sister Margaret, who married Morgan F. 
Medlar, a banker and broker at Allentown, Pennsylvania.
	Col. Coburn was born July 11, 1831 at Aaronsburg, and the common schools 
of that town afforded him an entrance to the path of knowledge.  Our subject 
spent three years in school at Owego, N.Y., two at Harrisburg Academy, and then 
entered the "Old Tenant School," at Hartsville, Bucks Co., Penn., where he 
prepared for Yale College.  He did not take a collegiate course, however, as 
both his parents had become invalids, and for their sake he returned to 
Aaronsburg, and tenderly cared for them until they passed away, his filial love 
making this sacrifice a pleasure.  For seven years he was engaged in mercantile 
business as clerk and proprietor, and in the meantime he read law in the office 
of Hon. A.G. Curtin and Edmund Blanchard, at Bellefonte, Penn., and in 1860 was 
admitted to practice.  His business ability has made him a valued adviser and 
helper in important ventures.  For thirty years he labored unceasingly to secure 
the assistance and aid of capitalists and others in the construction of the 
Lewisburg & Tyrone railroad, of which he is a director, and which was finally 
built at a cost of $2,500,000, and is now in successful operation via Coburn, 
Lemont and Bellefonte.  Although he was acquainted for many years with the route 
which the road must eventually take, and had the best of opportunities t enrich 
himself by purchasing land along the line, he refrained from taking advantage of 
the opportunity, out of a high sense of personal honor and loyal consideration 
of the rights of the community.  He has served as director of the First National 
Bank of Bellefonte, with acceptability, and July 1, 1896, he was elected to the 
office of president.  This bank is known as one of the oldest, most reliable and 
successful banking institutions in this part of Pennsylvania.  It is a 
noteworthy fact that no paper of his was ever discounted or dishonored, 
notwithstanding the extensive business operations in which he was engaged.  He 
was married October 17, 1860 to Miss Jane E. Huston, daughter of Thomas Huston, 
late a well-known and prominent resident of Nittany Valley, Centre county.  
   Kind and considerate in all the relations of life, the Colonel cherishes 
enmity toward none.  Politically he is a Republican.  He has never sought office 
although frequently offered to him and no man takes a keener interest in the 
success of his party, and the prosperity of the country than he, and his counsel 
is valued by those who know him, while his influence is felt by both friend and 
opponent.