a letter

aunt minerva collection...typed as written....all typos are of course mine...
blue folder...
excerpts of a letter....

FEb 11 1992
The stories about Uncle Sol were great. My dad thought he was terrific, and from Dad's stories, I believe Uncle Sol became the patriarch of the family after the death of William Leonadas Cole.

Karen Ward is an descendant of Zachary Taylor Cole, brother of Martha Jane & Thomas Webster. Zachary & his wife divorced when Karen's granddad was about 10 years old and the boy and Zachary just bummed around the country for about 3 years. Finally Zachary left the boy with a family named Adams and he grew up there. HE married one of the girls. Then the boy who was now a married man and his wife went westward to Washington state. Karen is LDS so she is looking up ancestors for baptism. Zachary lived at the Veteran's Home in Johnson City, Tenn. and is buried in the cemetery there. He was a Civil War vet. son of Zachary was George Custer Cole.

As I read the information from you and from Emma Brown, I gather that you and Tom, Eva, Emma are first cousins.
As for my grandmother Nancy Elizabeth Long Cole, I know only by hearsay. SHe died when I was about 6 months old. She and Web Cole homesteaded in Oklahoma in the Unassigned Lands in 1889. I think Uncle Sol lent them the "grubstake". Nancy's brother, Joel Long homesteaded in the Cherokee Strip in 1893. Family story--Grandma Nancy always said she was no half-breed. This led us to believe that her mother, Martha Meek, may have been part Indian. Nancy's picture and her offspring--two sons and two daughters--looked as if they could be part Indian. I found Martha Meek in the 1850 Census in Grundy Co living with her brother, James. Martha was born in VA in 1825.
Web Cole and Nancy Long Cole first homesteaded in Ness Co KS. I think her parents had gone there first. Web & Nancy starved out and went back to MO to later homestead in Okla. THey did better there after a very difficult beginning. THere was a celebration in OK in 1989 for the 100th anniversary of the "Run" for land. My sister, Eve, brother Dale, & I attended. Parade in Guthrie OK and dinner later in Oklahoma City. We also went out to the original homestead near Crescent, OK. The only remaining structure was the entrance to the root cellar which was the original "soddy" built by Granddad in 1889 that was cemented over. Also visited the cemetery. My sister remembers the funeral of Granddad Web. She said the procession was over a mile long. Web was likeable, intelligent, had been Justice of the Peace for a number of years in Columbia Township.
NaNcy had a fiery temper, was outspoken, worked like a Trojan. She could still leap upon the back of a horse when she was 60 years old. She ran the farm with the help of her two sons for a number of years because Web lost his health and was not able to work. Although she could afford a car, she insisted upon driving her pair of matched bays hitched to the buggy. She generally hitched them herself.

When I was a kid we still used farm machinery and utility tools that Web & Nancy had owned. Isn't it remarkable, Mabel, that in our lifetimes we have literally gone from the horse and buggy to space??? It still just about blows me away to think about so much happening in such a short span.
Quote from THE DESCENDANTS OF ELISHA COLE by Joseph O. Curtis, NY 1909
,"Coles have proved themselves sturdy, courageous,self-reliant and independent. Theirs seems to have been the story of fair intelligence, solid respectability, innate piety, and consistent mediocrity."
"...good soldiers, prominent lawyers, fairly eminent divines, and accomplished physicians, but the "even" tenor of their way seems to have been mostly in the field of pioneer agriculture. Nevertheless, they have had no criminals and very few drunkards."
I was also interested in a statement in "Kentucky Ancestors" "By the time we get back to William the Conqueror each us has on the order of 250 million ancestors for 28 or 30 generations."
"England and N. France had only about 5 million people and not all had descendants. Therefore all Americans of ENglish stock must be enormously akin to themselves."

Salt Lake City books...I found 3 Coles in the Revolutionary War--John Cole, Hamlin Cole, and Daniel Cole. My dad told the story such as Uncle Sol's --that's probably where he got it!!! There was an ancestory who fought in the Revolution and received bounty land in Kentucky. This could very well have been in Boone County since it was almost entirely meted out as bounty land. It is also close to Indiana and William L. could have migrated a little farther.
I tried to trace William Leonadad Cole before MO. In the Indiana Census there is a Wm. Cole--1 male under 30, 1 female under 30 and 1 male under 5 years.
I also found the name of Lucinda Griffin who married a Cole in 1829 in Decatur Co Ind.
Melzar Cole married the sister of Mary Ann KEllums, Elizabeth Kellums. This made double cousins for MArtha Jane, Thomas Webster, etc. I traced a number of Cole lines to end up with totally different families. One James Cole b.1600 in England went to Saco ME in 1632, another James Cole to Plymouth in 1634 from Sandwich to England. Then a John cole moved to VA in 1757. All of these may hve been our line. N. Carolina was originally part of VA and became a state about 1790. Many NC people migrated to Kentucky over the Wilderness Trail. They always moved West where there was new land.
Zelda Cole Samuel was the mother of Frank & Jesse James. Not our line.
Nancy & Web took their children back to MO on the train about 1902 or 3......... They visited relatives and my dad, Guy, thought Uncle Sol was wonderful.
Sincerely Betty Cole Hilts