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Note: William H. Colman, of pioneer Purtitan and Revolutionary War Minute Man ancestry - his forebears came to this country from England in 1630 - was born in Pittsfield, Mass., April 2, 1871. His father, the Rev. George W. Colman was at that time a professor of languages at the Maplewood Seminary.
William attended grade schools in Englewood, Bowmanville, and Jefferson High School at Mayfair. He took a buisiness course at the Powers Business College, and also coursese in Salesmanship. He remembers moving from Bowmanville by wagons on the Toll Road to Park Ridge in 1886. He has seen the community grow up from swamps, meadows, and wooded lots, rough dirt roads, and kerosene street lamps---with a population of 600---to the present busy suburb of more than 15,000.
He entered the employ of Carson, Pirie, Scott, and Company in the wholesale house, where he became timekeeper for 800 employees. Time clocks had not yet come into general use, and it was his responsibility to remember the name and face of each person, customers and employees. This habit has been of great value throughout many years. In 1890 he became head of the mailing depart[ment] of the Edison General Electric Company, which consolidated with the Thomson Houston, Brush and Stanley Electric Companies to form the General Electric Company. Being placed in the Sales department, he sold many supplies to the World's Columbian Exposition.
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