“Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County,” published:  
Chicago;  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1892.

W. F. COTTMAN, contractor and builder, Dallas, came to this city in the 
fall of 1875, and the first three or four years engaged in the grocery business.  
About 1878 or ’79 he opened out in general contracting, and among the 
principal buildings he has erected may be mentioned the Central National 
Bank, the two-story brick building of Huey & Phillips, on Griffith and Elm 
streets; a $10,000 residence for J. S. Moss, on Ross avenue and Annex 
street, a $6,000 residence for J. W. Townsend, etc.  Mr. Cottman has now 
been engaged in this business for seventeen years.  

He was born in Winchester, Kentucky, in 1836, the eldest of the five 
children of James and Mahala (Watts) Cottman.  His father, a United 
Brethren minister, was born in Havre de Grace, Maryland, and his mother in 
Kentucky.  The family moved to Terre Haute, Indiana, when our subject was 
very young, and in 1854 to Paris, Illinois, in 1863 to Vermillion, Edgar 
county, same State, where the Rev. Cottman died in 1876; his wife had died 
in the latter part of 1874.  Up to the age of seventeen years Mr. Cottman, 
whose name introduces this sketch, was reared near Terre Haute, completing 
his school education at the Methodist seminary, at Paris, Illinois, in which 
town he afterward learned and followed his trade.

During the war he enlisted, in Paris, in 1861, in Company 3, Sixty-sixth 
Illinois Volunteer Infantry, as First Sergeant, was attached to the Army of 
the Tennessee and afterward to that of the Cumberland.  He was engaged in 
the battles of Mount Zion (Missouri), Forts Henry and Donelson, Shiloh, and 
siege of Corinth, soon after which, on account of sickness, he was honorably 
discharged, in 1862.

About this time he settled in Terre Haute, where he was a merchant for two 
years.  In 1875 he came to Dallas, where, besides the business already 
mentioned, he is interested in a store.  On national questions he is a 
Republican, but takes no active part in the political machinery.  As to the 
fraternal organizations, he is a member of George H. Thomas Post, No. 6, G. 
A. R., being the present Commander.  In 1899 he was Junior Vice 
Commander of the Department of Texas.

In 1857, at Charleston, Illinois, Mr. Cottman was first married to Mary 
Bails, a native of Coles county, same state, and a daughter of Levi Bails, a 
native of Tennessee, who settled in that county in 1834, and died there some 
years ago. Mr. and Mrs. Cottman have four children, namely:  Minnie, 
widow of Charles Parker and residing on Cable and Pearl streets, Dallas;  
Wilbur, Laura, wife of Paul Hoppe, in Dallas, on Elm street, and Lena.

Submitted by: Justina Cook