From Proud Heritage, Vol. 1 by DCPA, not currently in print.
John Higgs Cole was born in Sumner County, Tennessee January 24, 18 27. He was the third son and sixth child of Dr. John Cole and Polly McDonald Cole. He lived with his family in Sumner County and Robertson County, Tennessee until 1829. After fourteen years in Crawford County and Washington County, Arkansas he moved with his family to Texas in December of 1843 just before his seventeenth birthday. The family settled in the area that was to become Dallas County.
He lived with his father and mother until his father’s death in 1850. He continued to live with his mother and several of his brothers in the home that was located west of Turtle Creek near the headwaters of Cedar Springs Creek until his marriage October 12, 1856.
John Higgs Cole had applied for and received through the Peters Colony Company, a certificate for 320 acres of land. He patented 160 acres in the area now known as Oak Cliff. He transferred 60 acres to John B. Robertson and patented the remaining 100 acres to the east of and adjoining his father’s 640 acre headright. The present-day boundary of this 100 acres would be Mockingbird Lane, Hill crest, Airline Road and Harvard Avenue. He inherited from his father the 160 acre north east quarter of his father’s headright. He bought from his brother William the 160 acres that William had inherited.
In 1856 John H. married Elizabeth Preston who had come to Dallas County earlier that year with her mother, her brothers and her sisters. Her father came at a later date. Elizabeth was the daughter of George Preston born 1798 and Anna Roddy born She was born in Tennessee as were both her father and mother. One of her father’s brothers was William Gilwater Preston for whom Preston Road was named.
Shortly after their marriage John H. and Elizabeth built a three story red brick farm house where the tennis courts are now in Cole Park. Their barn and stock tank were south of the house where North Dallas High School is located. The house was one of the first (possibly the first) brick home built in Dallas County outside of the town of Dallas. The bricks were made in a brick factory that John H. owned in Ferris. The Cole name was impressed into each brick.
There were eight children in this family: George Calhoun Cole born August 8, 1857, John Dallas born October 31, 1858, Walter Preston born November 22, 1861, Annie Laura born 1863, Cora Ann born September 14, 1864, Margaret Jane born February 3, 1866, Charlotte Elizabeth born April 9, 1868, and Hester Frances born May 18, 1870.
John H. Cole and his wife, as well as three of his brothers and their wives, were all charter members of the Dallas County Pioneers Association which was organized July 13, 1875. He enlisted in the Confederate Army from Dallas County. On October 16, 1854 he was elected as the first County Surveyor of Dallas County. He was among those who organized the First Christian Church in Dallas.
About 300 acres surrounding the brick home was considered to be the homestead usually referred to as the Jack Cole estate, but John H. Cole actually amassed land holdings of almost 5000 acres. He died at this home January 17, 1908 and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Dallas.
By Homer Warlick, Dallas
