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1900 Whiteside Bios > Horace B. Cole


Source: The Biographical Record of Whiteside County, IL, Chicago, The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1900

Transcribed by: Denise McLoughlin, Tampico Area Historical Society, www.tampicohistoricalsociety.citymax.com

Page 498

HORACE B. COLE

For almost sixty years our subject has been a resident of Whiteside county, and has witnessed almost its entire development. On leaving here in June, 1840, wolves, deer and other wild game were plentiful. He has seen the wild lands transformed into beautiful homes and farms, hamlets grow into villages and thriving towns, the railroads, telegraphs and telephones introduced, and all of the interests and evidences of an advanced civilization adopted. He made his home in Portland township, where for many years he was actively engaged in agricultural pursuits, but has now laid aside all business cares and is living retired in Prophetstown.

Mr. COLE was born in Erie county, New York, June 10, 1819, a son of Daniel F. and Mary (FONES) COLE, who were born, reared and married in Rhode Island. His paternal grandparents were Daniel and Margaret (SHERMAN) FONES. The former was also born in Rhode Island, of English ancestry, and was a soldier of the Revolutionary war. The father of our subject was a soldier of the war of 1812. On leaving his native state he removed to Erie county, New York, where he improved and cultivated a farm, making it his home until called from this life at the age of eighty-four years. His wife survived him for some time and was nearly ninety years of age at the time of her death.

In the county of his nativity, our subject passed his boyhood and youth in much the usual manner of farmer boys of his day, his early education being somewhat limited, but later he attended the Aurora Academy for two or three terms. He then engaged in teaching in Erie county, New York, and also after coming to this county, following the profession for about ten years. In 1840, in company with an older  brother, Daniel F. COLE, Jr., who first came to this county in 1837, our subject started westward, traveling by team from Buffalo They were twenty-two days upon the road, and arrived here in June, 1840. Mr. COLE took up a claim of one hundred and sixty acres in Portland township, erected thereon a cabin, and immediately began to transform the wild prairie land to highly cultivated fields. The following year he entered the land from the government, and fenced a portion of it, and as time advanced he made many valuable improvements thereon, including the erection of a pleasant residence, good barn and other outbuildings. In those early days he hauled his grain and arm produce to the Chicago markets, the trip  occupying from eight to twelve days. Later he purchased two hundred and forty-five acres of land near Geneseo, Henry County, and improved that place, and also bought three hundred and twenty acres of raw land in Willow county, Nebraska. Throughout his active business life he engaged in general farming and stock raising with marked success, and as he prospered in his undertakings he is now able to lay aside all the cares and responsibilities of business life and live retired at his pleasant home in Prophetstown. In 1896 he rented his farm to his son, but has since given him the place.

Mr. COLE was married in this county, in 1858, to Miss Belinda H. BREWER a native of Massachusetts, who came here when a child with her father, Nathan BREWER, one of the early settlers of Portland township. By this union three children  were born, namely: Hugh W., a lawyer and farmer of McCook, Nebraska; Tibbie, wife of Emmett BROOKS, a farmer of Atkinson township, Henry county, Illinois; and Fred H., a resident of Prophetstown.

In early life Mr. COLE was a supporter of the old-line Whig party, casting his first vote for "Tippercanoe and Tyler, too," in 1840 but in 1856, he voted for John C, FREEMONT, and has some been a stanch Republican. He has been a delegate to numerous conventions of his party and has been honored with official positions of trust and responsibility, serving as supervisor of about twelve years, during which time he was a member of several important committees, and as assessor and trustee of his township. He has also been actively identified with the educational interests of his community, laid iout the school lands for Portland township, was a member of the school board for a number of years, and school commissioner for about fifteen years. He is a prominent member of Prophetstown lodge, F. & A. M., of which he is post master and which he has represented in the grand lodge; and he is also past grand of I. O. O F. lodge. He is honored and respected wherever known, and on the rolls of Whiteside county's prominent pioneers and representative citizens his name should be among the foremost. 

 

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