From "Standard History of Adams & Wells Counties, Indiana," Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1918, pp. 478-9.

JONAS S. COVERDALE, M. D. From the point of continuous service the oldest physician in Adams County is Dr. Jonas S. Coverdale of Decatur. He comes of a family of physicians, his father before him having practiced medicine in this section of Indiana, while one of his sons enjoys a large practice as a specialist at Decatur.

Dr. Coverdale took his preparatory work in medicine at Cincinnati and began practice in Adams County in 1872. Eight years later he graduated from the Fort Wayne Medical College and has always kept abreast of the advancing ideas and methods of his profession. He has built up a large practice and has ridden and driven over practically every highway leading out of Decatur even beyond the boundaries of the county. Doctor Coverdale is an active member of the state and county medical societies, and has been president of the latter society.

He was born in Muskingum County, Ohio, February 23, 1849, but when four and a half years of age his parents removed to Allen County, Indiana, and somewhat later to Monmouth, in Adams County, a few miles north of Decatur. In that community he grew up and acquired his early education in the public schools.

Doctor Coverdale is of old Scotch ancestry. The Coverdales have been in America for four or five generations. His grandfather Elias Coverdale was born in Muskingum County, Ohio, and died there in early life. His widow married a second time and also spent her years in Muskingum County.

Dr. Lemuel N. Coverdale, father of Jonas S., was born in Muskingum County October 3, 1812, and that date attests the early settlement of the family in Ohio. He was one of the three sons of his father, being the youngest in age. He grew up and married Mary Ann Shaver. She was born in Muskingum County March 25, 1810, her parents bring early settlers there, coming probably from Virginia. Her mother lived to be eighty-nine and her father even older.

Dr. Lemuel Coverdale after his marriage began practice in Muskingum County and along with his work as a medical practitioner he also did duties as a lay minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. His wife was a very devout member of the same church. All of their eleven children were born in Muskingum County. Two of these children, a son and daughter, were twins, the son dying in infancy while all the others grew up, two sons and eight daughters, and all but three married. Five of them are still living, including two maiden sisters and two widows. After the family removed to Adams County Dr. Lemuel Coverdale continued his work for many years as a physician and lay preacher. For the last eight years he lived retired and passed away in 1889. His wife died in 1887. They are buried side by side in the Decatur cemetery. In matters of polities the senior Doctor Coverdale followed the fortunes of the whig, abolitionist and republican parties.

In Adams County May 20, 1873, Dr. Jonas Coverdale married a neighbor girl, Catherine E. Patterson. She was born in Wayne County, Ohio, August 4 ,1854, and when a child removed to Adams County, Indiana, with her parents, Thomas and Margaret (Shamp) Patterson, who were of Scotch-Irish ancestry. Her parents spent the rest of their lives on the farm in Adams County, having located there during the '50s. Her father cleared away a portion of the wilderness to make this farm and was a man of considerable substance and importance in his community. He and his wife were active members of the Presbyterian Church. In the Patterson family were the following children: Etta, Van R., J. Monroe, George W., John, Emma, Zale, Mrs. Coverdale and Margaret, four of whom are still living. All were married and one is now a widow and one a widower.

The youngest of Doctor Coverdale's children was May, who was well educated in the local high school and also in the Woman's College at Oxford, Ohio. She died eight months after her marriage to John Christian. Nelson Thomas Clark Coverdale, the older son of Doctor Coverdale, was graduated from the local high school, from the Fort Wayne International Business College, and is now a successful real estate man at Nashville, Tennessee. He married May L. Hughes, an Adams County girl, and their children are Graydon, born February 25, 1896, and a graduate of the Nashville High School in 1917; Donald Clair, born April 21, 1900; Jonas Scott, born January 30, 1902; and Ruth May, born October 9, 1907.

Dr. Earl G. Coverdale, the other son of Dr. Jonas S., was born November 11, 1879. He graduated from the Decatur High School and in June, 1902, received his Doctor of Medicine degree from Rush Medical College of Chicago. After two years of general practice he entered the Chicago Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Institute and received a diploma from that school. Since then he has been practicing along these lines and has built up a very one special practice, being associated as a partner with his father. Doctor Earl married at Decatur Estella Ellis. She was born in Indiana and received her education in the public schools of Redkey in Jay County. She is the mother of one daughter, Mary Madaline, born June 21, 1914.

The family are active in the Presbyterian Church. Doctor Coverdale is a Scottish Rite and a Royal Arch Chapter Mason, being affiliated with the Scottish Rite bodies at Fort Wayne and with Mizpah Temple of the Mystic Shrine in that city. He received his master mason's degrees in Masonry in January, 1873, not long after he began medical practice in Decatur. When the law was passed requiring counties to have a board of health Doctor Coverdale was elected to the first board and was its secretary. In 1894 he was elected to the city council on the republican ticket and served till 1898.

[poster is not related to this family and has no further information]