Bio: Hon R. T. Cole,  Caddo Parish La
Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana
The Southern Publishing Company, Chicago & Nashville,  1890

Submitted by: Suzanne Shoemaker




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Hon. R. T. Cole is one of the prominent and successful handlers of real
estate in the city of Shreveport, and is one of the best posted men in his
line of business in Northern Louisiana, being familiar with nearly every
foot of ground in Caddo and Bossier Parishes.  He was born in Macon County,
Ala., June 8, 1843, to Noah B. and Wealthy (Taylor) Cole, natives of
Abbeville District, S. C., and Georgia, respectively.  The father emigrated
to Georgia when a young man, and after his marriage removed to Alabama, and
in 1848 to Caddo Parish, La., where he died in 1852, his widow passing to
her long home in 1875.  To them a family of eight daughters and one son was
born, the latter bing a Southern sympathizer, heart and soul, he on April
28, 1861, enlisted with the Shreveport Rangers in the Third Louisiana
Infantry, and was under the command of I. B. Gilmore until the surrender of
Lee at Appomattox Court House.  he was twice slightly wounded, and at the
surrender of Vicksburg was captured, but a short time after was paroled.
he returned home, resumed farming, and continued to follow that calling up
to the present time, but since 1886 has been a resident of Shreveport.  he
has always been largely interested in planting, and raises large quantities
of cotton, stock and grain.  He has a fine list of properties, embracing
both hill and cotton lands, cultivated and uncultivated, which he sells at
low figures, and on easy terms.  The city property he has for sale is a
number of choice lots both in the center of the city and in the suburbs,
and besides this he is the owner of 1,600 acres of land, a goodly portion
of which is in pasture.  He is a practical business man in every sense of
the word, a shrewd calculator, possessed of untiring energy, and as he has
been familiar with Shreveport since it was a village, he has helped to make
the town what it now is.  Its history could not be written without him,
and by leniency, fair dealing and strict integrity he has won many warm
friends.  Unerring in his estimate of land values, his judgement is sought
and relied upon by capitalists who consider him one of the most cautious as
well as enterprising and successful dealers in the business.  He was
appointed police juror of Caddo Parish by Gov. McEnery, and in April, 1888,
he was elected on the Democrat ticket to the State Legislature and is ow
discharging his duties.  He is president of the Inter-State Building
Association, is a director in the First National Bank, is interested in the
Shreveport Fire Insurance Company, and the Opera House Company.  He was
delegate to the State Democratic Convention to nominate Nichols for governor,
and socially is a member of the A. F. & A. M., and the A. O. U. W.  His
marriage to Miss Virginia Noel, a native of Louisiana, took place in 1865, and
has resulted in the birth of the following children:  Pallie, Hettie, Rosa, R.
T., Jr., Ferne, Wealthy and Noah B. living and two children deceased.