From Proud Heritage, Vol 1 by DCPA, not currently in print.
James Madison Cole was born in Tennessee, January 11, 1823. He was the fourth child of John Cole born 1795 and Polly McDonald Cole born 1794. After moving to Arkansas in 1829, he moved to Texas with the family in 1843. As an unmarried man over the age of seventeen he received a Peters Colony Certificate for 320 acres of land. He patented this acreage 18,000 varas northeast of his father’s head-right approximately nine and one half miles northeast of where Belt Line Road passes through Richardson. (Care must be taken not to confuse James Madison Cole and an earlier James Cole in the area when searching the records.)
James lived with his mother and father until his father died, then with his mother until his marriage December 11, 1850. He married Sarah Ann Bennett who was born January 12, 1831 in Cobb County, Georgia. Her mother was Dosia Dobbs born 1805 and her father was Hiram Bennett born 1796. The Bennett family came to Texas in 1845.
Shortly after their marriage James and Sarah moved to Bexar County near San Antonio. Sarah’s younger sister, Mary Jane, went with them and some time later married James’ younger brother, William, who had lived in Bexar County for several years. The James Cole family moved back to Dallas County in 1866 and bought 80 acres near Turtle Creek.
The children of James and Sarah Ann Cole were: James Colurnbus born April 26, 1851, John M. born September 2, 1853, Mary Alice born June 9, 1855, Gallison Newton born April 13, 1857, Sarah Frances born December 13, 1858, Elizabeth Jane Dobbs born November 3, 1860, Lewis Clark born October 12, 1863, Lucy E. born October 28, 1865, Charles Bennett born October 8, 1868, Nellie lsabella born November 23, 1871, and Carrie Clementine born December 29, 1873. The first eight children were born in Bexar County, the last three in Dallas County.
James Madison Cole died in Dallas County, Texas January 21, 1883. Sarah Ann Bennett Cole died in Healdsburg, California February 6, 1920.
By Homer Warlick, Dallas
