by David Flint
People traveling through West Stephentown on Route 43 Saturday were required to slow down as a huge fire was in progress just east of Griffin Road. The Stephentown Volunteer Fire Department had everything under control, and in fact it was not a house fire or field fire but a controlled burn of debris from the demolition of an old house. The house had been empty for many years and was in terrible shape, but going up in smoke was another piece of Stephentown’s history.
Isaiah Bangs Coleman opened a store in that house in 1836 and ran it for over 40 years. Later his son and grandson kept the store going. Isaiah was also the Postmaster for West Stephentown for many years. According to an 1880 History of Stephentown by Nathaniel Sylvester, he was born in Stephentown in 1809, a grandson of John Coleman, one of the earliest settlers in West Stephentown. He became a teacher and at the age of 19 was put in charge of a district school in Sand Lake and later taught in other schools in Sand Lake, Greenbush, Nassau and Stephentown. Along with his father, Calvin Coleman, and others he founded the Free Will Baptist Church in West Stephentown and became its pastor in 1844. Sylvester notes that, “Elder Coleman is highly respected in the community in which he has passed his life, and bears a reputation for integrity and uprightness which all may envy.” Isaiah Coleman died in 1883 and is buried in the Hillside Cemetery on Firetower Road.
One of Isaiah’s sons, Isaac DeWitt Coleman, was a Lieutenant in the 125th New York State Volunteers in the Civil War. He was killed near Petersburg, Virginia, in June 1864 while serving under General Ambrose Burnside. Johanna Bryant lives next door to the Coleman store property in a house built by Harvey Griffin in 1846. Bryant grew up in that house and is sad about the demise of the old store. Bryant also feels a double connection to the Coleman family because her great-great-grandfather was a first cousin to General Burnside.
Members of the Stephentown Historical Society, learning that the old store was to be demolished, explored the structure in July and photographically recorded everything of interest, including one panel stamped “I.B. Coleman Back Store ą Pork, Flour, Fish & Salt.”