Lorenzo Coffin

Lorenzo Stephen Coffin (April 9, 1823 – January 17, 1915) was an American farmer, politician, and campaigner.

Biography Coffin was born in Alton, New Hampshire, and attended Oberlin College. He taught in Chester, Ohio, where future U.S. president James Garfield was one of his students.

Coffin moved to Webster County, Iowa, in 1854, where he engaged in farming and social reform causes. He is credited with building the first round barn in Iowa, in 1867. Coffin was an early farm news editor for the Fort Dodge Messenger and served on a variety of boards and associations, including the Iowa State Fair, Iowa Stock Breeders Association, Iowa Farmers' Alliance, Farmers Protective Association, and the National Dairy and Food Association. He was also a leader in establishing farmers' mutual insurance companies, and agricultural extension education.

He served in the Civil War as a minister, from 1862 to 1863.

Coffin served as Iowa's immigration agent, and as the state's first Railroad Commissioner, from 1883 until 1888. He established the Railroadmen's Temperance Movement, was involved with the Railroadmen's YMCA movement, helped establish the Railroadmen's Retirement Home in Highland Park, Illinois, and served as president of its board of directors.

Coffin supported Prohibition in the United States, served on the Iowa Anti-Saloon League, ran as a Prohibitionist for governor of Iowa in 1906, and was the vice-presidential candidate on the United Christian Party ticket in 1908.

In 1890, Coffin drafted the first railroad safety act and it was passed by the Iowa legislature that same year.

Coffin then turned his efforts to getting a federal law enacted requiring all railroads in the United States to adopt air brakes and automatic couplers as mandatory equipment on all railroad cars. Almost six years later, in 1893, President Benjamin Harrison signed the Railroad Safety Appliance Act, requiring mandatory air brakes and automatic couplers on all US railroad cars. Harrison gave the pen he used to sign the bill into law to Coffin. The law is still on the books. It is estimated that the loss of life of railroad employees was reduced by this reform more than 64% within 10 years of enactment of the law.

Death Coffin died at Fort Dodge, Iowa, on January 17, 1915, aged 91. He is buried Willowledge Cemetery in Fort Dodge.