Biography of William H. Cole - Conway Co, AR *********************************************************** Submitted by: Cathy Barnes Date: 21 Jun 1998 Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm *********************************************************** SOURCE: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Western Arkansas. Goodspeed Publishers, 1891. page 60 William H. Cole, one of the most extensive and successful farmers and stock- raisers of Union Township, was born in Middle Tennessee in 1844. His parents, Matthew and Hanhah R. (Petty) Cole were probably natives of Alabama and Tennessee, respectively, and were married in Lincoln County, Tennessee. They afterward removed to Wayne County. Tennessee, and in 1850 removed to that portion of Izard County, Arkansas which is now Stone County, where Mr. Cole departed this life about 1854. He followed blacksmithing for a livelihood, and was a member of the Methodist Church, and of the old Whig party in politics. His father, Peter Cole, was a well-to-do farmer of Tennessee, where he spent his last years. William H. Cole's mother died in what is now Stone County, soon after the war. For some years she was a Methodist, but the latter part of her life was spent in the Missionary Baptist Church. The subject of this sketch is the third, of a family of two sons and five daughters. He was reared on a farm from six years old among the hills of what is now Stone County, with no educational advantages, and until after his majority he could not write his name. He attended school a short time after he was married, but his domestic duties prevented him from a further continuance of his desired course of study. His first marriage occurred March 4, 1861, to Julia A. Gower, a native of Mississippi, and a daughter of Abel Gower. She died about 1865, leaving two children (now deceased). July 4, 1866, Mr. Cole married Miss Martha A. Cooper, a daughter of George and Julia A. Cooper, who immigrated from Tennessee to what is now Stone County, Arkansas, in about 1847. Mr. Cooper was a deaf-mute, was very successful in all his business transactions and accumulated a handsome property, for which it is supposed he was murdered. Mrs. Cole was born in Izard (now Stone) County, and is the mother of four sons and five daughters, all of whom are now living, viz.: Delia A., wife of B. E. Mitchell; Lue A., now Mrs. J. J. Lawrence of Van Buren County; Travy, Hannah B., wife of W. L. Mitchell; Presley, Julia A., William M., Albert and Martha B. Mr. Cole resided in Stone County till 1886, when he removed to Conway County and has since resided on his present farm, about four miles northwest of Springfield, where he owns one of the best improved farms in Conway County. He has in all over 200 acres, more than 100 acres of which is under an excellent state of cultivation. He is a self-made man in every sense of the word, and his property is the result of his industry, economy and good management. He served in different commands nearly the entire time of the civil war, in the Confederate army, first in the infantry and then in the cavalry. His operations were in different parts of Arkansas, Louisiana, and was with Gen. Sterling Price on his celebrated raid through Missouri and Kansas and back into Arkansas, and surrendered at Jacksonport. Mr. Cole is a member of the A. F. and A. M., Lindsey Lodge, and of the Blue Mountain Lodge of I. O. O. F., both of Stone County. Politically he is a Republican. He and Mrs. Cole are faithful members of the Methodist Church, but were formerly of the Missionary Baptists.