Cole, Dr. John

Dr. John and Polly McDonald Cole
From Proud Heritage, Vol 1 by DCPA. This 300 page hardcover book is available online.

Dr. John Cole was born in Virginia, June 15, 1795. A young veteran of the War of 1812, he met and married Polly McDonald who was also born in Virginia, June 9, 1794. They began their family in Sumner County, Tennessee, June 16, 1816 when their first child, Calvin Green Cole was born. Six of their children were born in Sumner County or Robertson County, Tennessee. The other five were: Malinda born February 22, 1818, 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 where five more children were born. They were located first in Crawford County and later in Washington County where Dr. Cole was appointed postmaster at Sylva, May 18, 1838. In 1857 the name of the Sylva office was changed to Cincinnati. 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 who became a Texan before he was two years old.

By 1843 the oldest son, Calvin, had married and started a family of his own and lived on a neighboring farm. The second oldest girl, Lucinda, had died November 15, 1830. John Cole had obtained 160 acres of land in Washington County by Certificate of Entry from the United States Government and bought 40 acres from his son, James, which had been acquired by James in like manner. John and Polly sold this 200 acres and with the other nine children moved to Texas in December 1843. They settled in Nacogdoches County of the Republic of Texas on Cedar Springs Creek a mile of so from where the creek joined the Trinity River. Calvin Cole and his family left Arkansas and joined them the following year.

John Cole bought two lots in the little settlement that had started up along Cedar Springs Creek and organized a town that was also called Cedar Springs. He bought a nearby 160 acres of land from William Grigsby. The area was two or three miles north of John Bryan's trading post on the Trinity River .Dr. Cole installed a store and pharmacy combination in a log structure in Cedar Springs and began to establish his practice of medicine. He also began farming and looking for more land. He applied for a certificate for 640 acres adjoining the 160 acres he had bought from Grigsby. He bought 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 that Cole, Bryan and others had chosen to settle on. When the Dallas County government was formed, John Cole, who had probably been the first doctor in the area, was chosen to be the judge of the first probate court.

John Cole died May 15, 1850, and was probably buried in his family, graveyard near his home. The present-day location of his graveyard would be on the west side of Preston Road at about Bordeaux. He was later moved to Greenwood Cemetery.

Polly Cole continued to live at the homestead with her younger sons after the death of her husband and until her death on November 28, 1869. She is buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Dallas.