Representative Joshua W. Coakley View All Years

Compiled Historical Information
Date of Death: 7/16/1926
Birth Place: Bangor, ME
Party Affiliation: Democrat
Assemblies Served:
House: 36 (1915) - 38 (1919)
Home County: Union
Joshua W. Coakley
Union County

JOSHUA W. COAKLEY was born in Bangor, Maine, October 12, 1859, and died at Creston, Iowa, July 16, 1926. He was with his parents when they removed to Madison County, Iowa, in 1873. He attended public school at Winterset and in 1879 entered Kansas City Medical College, in 1883 was graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Chicago, and that year began the practice of medicine at Mount Etna, Adams County, Iowa. In 1893 he was graduated from Barnes Medical College of St. Louis, and in 1896 did postgraduate work in London and Paris. Later he also did postgraduate work from time to time in Chicago and New York. In 1904 he removed to Creston and ultimately became a physician and surgeon of prominence He became nationally known through the revival of the Caesarian operation in the United States. He performed three operations of that nature on one patient between 1893 and 1897, an unparalleled feat at that time. In 1914 he was elected representative and was re-elected in 1916 and again in 1918, serving in the Thirty-sixth, Thirty-seventh, and Thirty-eighth general assemblies. He was a Democrat in politics.