COLE, JAMES JESSE

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TABLE OF CONTENTS        LINCOLN CO. BIO. INDEX

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      JAMES JESSE COLE, a native of Washington county, Virginia, is a type of the true southern gentleman, transplanted to northern soil.  His high sense of honor, integrity, and wisdom have made him one of the respected citizens of this section, and his holdings are the result of his arduous labors and practical wisdom.

      James J. Cole was born on September 12, 1854, the son of Andrew and Polly (James) Cole, natives of Virginia, and prominent people of Washington county.  James Cole, the paternal grandfather of our subject, was one of the first settlers in Washington county.  The father was a veteran of the Confederate service.  Our subject received a liberal training in the public schools and labored with his father until twenty-one, when he started for himself in the battle of life.  In 1875, he landed in Douglas county, Oregon, and there wrought as a farm hand until 1879, when he journeyed to Walla Walla, continuing labor there as before.  In the spring of 1880, in company with Newt Grenstedt, Thomas Cooper, and J. C. Cole, our subject's brother, James J. Cole came to what is now Lincoln county and selected land in the Brents country, this party being the first settlers there.  Finding their land unsurveyed, they hired a surveyor who laid the lines and they squatted on the land and went to work.  For a few years our subject was obliged each year to go and labor in the harvest fields of Walla Walla for money to purchase the winter's supplies, but he soon began to gain a better return from the new homestead and in addition to the land secured by government rights, Mr. Cole has purchased since, as the years have gone by, until in the home estate he has eight hundred acres all under one fence.  In another place he has a section of fine wheat land and all this large amount is either utilized for the production of cereals or for pasture.  His residence is a commodious and valuable structure tastefully set and surrounded with all the accessory buildings needed on a large farm.  Mr. Cole is leader in this part of the county and is a man to whom all look as exemplifying both sound wisdom and upright principles and whose labors have received the crown of unbounded success.

      In 1874. Mr. Cole married Miss Mattie E., daughter of Levi and Nancy J. (Houston) Herren, natives of Virginia and Tennessee, respectively.  The father died while in service in the Civil War, but the mother is now dwelling in Virginia.  Mrs. Cole was born in Washington county, Virginia, on October 9, 1854.  While Mr. and Mrs. Cole have no children of their own, they are raising a nephew, and niece, Roy and Cordie Debord.  Mr. Cole is a member of the I. O. O. F. and the A. F. & A. M.  He and his wife have always been found on the side of all measures that have tended to build up the country and bring about a better condition both as to schools and other important advancements.