On Sunday, September 25, 2016, at Greenwood Cemetery in Dallas, the Craig Austin Rowley Chapter, The Society of the War of 1812 in the State of Texas, and the John Cavet Chapter of the United States Daughters of 1812, dedicated a new 1812 marker and re-dedicated the 1812 marker that was placed at his grave in 1958. A photo of the original dedication was found and is included below and a recreation of that event is pictured immediately to the right of it.
(All photos by Paul Ridenour, unless otherwise indicated)
Biography of Dr. John Cole
John Cole was born June 15, 1795 in Culpeper County, Virginia. He died on May 15, 1850 in Dallas County, Texas.
From June 20, 1814 to January 27, 1815, he served as Sergeant in the first regiment, Tennessee Militia, under Capt. John Strother and Col Philip Pipkins.
Col. Pipkin’s men, numbering 1000, mustered in at Fayettville and were assigned to occupy and maintain multiple forts in the Creek Indian country of Alabama. Captain Strother’s company was assigned to Fort Jackson, the site of an earlier French Fort called Toulouse (about 5 miles north of the present town of Wetumpka, Alabama). This fort was headquarters for General Jackson. John Cole was likely witness to the events of the ninth of August 1814, when thirty-six Chiefs of the Creek Nation and General Andrew Jackson signed the “Treaty of Fort Jackson”, in which the Creek Nation gave up one half of its land to the U.S.
John Cole married Mary Margaret “Polly” McDonald on 24 Jun 1815 in Rockingham County, NC. Polly was born June 9, 1794 in Virginia.
John and Polly began their family in Tennessee and their first six of eleven children were born in Sumner County or Robertson County:
- Calvin Green Cole born June 16, 1816
- Malinda born February 22, 1818 and died November 15, 1830
- Lucinda born August 29, 1821,
- James Madison born January 11, 1823,
- Eliza Jane born May 11, 1825, and
- John Higgs born January 24, 1827.
The family moved to Arkansas in 1829. They were located first in Crawford County and later in Washington County where Dr. Cole was appointed postmaster at Sylva, May 18, 1838. The children born in Arkansas were:
- William Alfred born July 14, 1829,
- Louisa Elender born March 8, 1832,
- George Washington born February 28, 1834,
- Martin Van Buren born January 2, 1837, and
- Joseph Larkin born March 2, 1842
John Cole had obtained 160 acres of land in Washington County, Arkansas by Certificate of Entry from the United States Government and had bought 40 acres.
John and Polly sold there 200 acres and, with nine of their eleven children, moved to the Republic of Texas in December 1843. They settled in Nacogdoches County on Cedar Springs Creek a mile or so from where the creek joined the Trinity River.
The site had first been settled by troops working on the Military Road project – the troops had built a temporary fort on Cedar Springs Branch in February 1841. Though the installation was later abandoned, the local spring formed an attractive watering spot that pioneer travelers believed had medicinal properties.
John Cole bought two lots in the settlement and organized a town that later was called Cedar Springs. Cole constructed a general store, stocked it with merchandise he had brought with him, and established his medical and pharmaceutical practice, reportedly the first in Dallas County.
During the 1840s, the area around Cole’s store became a community and trade center that eventually included a gristmill, a blacksmith, and a distillery. The community also had a school called Cedar Springs Institute.
Cole also farmed and acquired more land. He bought a nearby 160 acres of land from William Grigsby two or three miles north of John Bryan’s trading post on the Trinity River. He applied for a certificate for 640 acres adjoining this 160 acres. He bought more land from Henderson Couch who was his neighbor to the west.
When Dallas County was established in 1846, after Texas had been annexed by the United States, the county included the part of Nacogdoches County where the Cole family had settled. When the Dallas County government was formed, John Cole was chosen to be the judge of the first probate court.
John Cole died May 15, 1850, and was probably buried in a family graveyard near his home. The present-day location of his graveyard would be on the west side of Preston Road at about Bordeaux. His body was later moved to Trinity Cemetery, which became Greenwood Cemetery. Polly died in Dallas on November 27, 1869.
The land we are standing on used to be owned by John Cole. Col. William H. Gaston, Civil War veteran and Dallas entrepreneur, and his banking partner W.H. Thomas, purchased land from the John Cole family here in 1874 and opened the Trinity Cemetery. Not too far from here of course is Cole Avenue, Cole Park at 4000 McKinney Ave, and a couple of historical markers mentioning John Cole and Cedar Springs, which is present-day Oak Lawn.
References
- Matthew Hayes Nall , “Cedar Springs”, The Handbook of Texas, Texas State Historical Society, Published: June 12, 2010
- “Dr John Cole”, Find A Grave, Published: May 21, 2008
- John Cole, “Ancestor Database”, United States Daughters of 1812
- Fold3
- “Muster-roll of a company of militia infantry, under the command of Captain John Strother in the service of the United states, in the first regiment Tennessee Militia Commanded by Colonel Philip Pipkin”, Pipkin Family Assocation Pipkinusd.org,
- Dr. John Cole, Daughters of Republic of Texas Patriot Ancestor Album, Volume 1, Turner Publications
