From Proud Heritage, Vol. 1 by DCPA, not currently in print.
As a young man in Chicago, William B. Cole roomed with the family of the Reverend and Mrs. L. W. Sweet. Brother Sweet was a Christian Church minister. W. B. Cole fell in love with their daughter, Amanda.
After they were married, they moved to a farm near Mesquite, Texas. Amanda was a very cultured person and a school teacher. She taught her children and many of the neighbors’ children. Amanda Sweet Cole was an eighth generation descendant of John Howland of the Mayflower, making her son, Charles Levi Cole, the ninth generation, and his children, the tenth generation, thus making Mrs. Mary White Lee and Mrs. Bennie Daugherty of Garland the eleventh generation descendants. This information taken from the Mayflower Descendants in the State of Texas and Their Lineage, published by Naylor Company, San Antonio.
Brother Cole was instrumental in organizing the Christian Church of Scyene in 1870. He later moved to Mesquite and served as the first pastor of the First Christian Church. In addition, he preached for churches in Ellis County, holding revival meetings.
W. B. Cole, a self-educated layman who made his living as a farmer, was the first part-time pastor of the Christian Church in Duck Creek (later known as Garland, Texas). Sometime during the 1870’s, he began serving the congregation at Duck Creek. It was in 1873 under his leadership that the congregation, which had met for at least seventeen years, was formally organized into a church. Later a building was erected about two and a half miles south of Garland.
It was on November 26, 1876, during W.B. Cole’s ministry, that he performed the marriage of Dr. Kelly Embree to Mary Erwin, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Erwin. Dr. Embree was the first and only medical doctor and the one for whom the town of Embree was named.
Brother Cole did not serve the congregation very long after the building of the Church, for he died February 11, 1879 at the age of 48.
Much credit is due to this minister-farmer who, as a remarkable servant of Christ, provided the spark of leadership which bought the congregation into a stable group with a meeting place of their own. It should be noted that he was a full-time farmer and went everywhere on horseback, which meant a two and one half mile ride from his home to the Duck Creek Church. Following his death in 1879, Mrs. G. L. Davis, daughter of Charles L. Cole, recorded that R.M. Gano and W. H. Walker preached for the congregation for a period of seven or eight years.
By Mrs. Mary White Lee, Garland
