Notes |
- \"For many years it has been said that Cole County was named for [Stephen] Cole although a newspaper published in Franklin, across the river from Boonville, twice identifies [William] Temple [Cole] as the one whose name was given to the county.\" -- Email from Robert \"Bob\" Priddy
Stephen Cole and William Temple Cole Fight With Indians -
Stephen Cole and William Temple Cole were born in New River, Wythe Co., Virginia. There they married sisters named Allison, and emigrated to the southern part of the Cumberland, Wayne Co., Kentucky. In 1807, they came to Upper Louisiana, and settled on or near Loutre Island, about the same time that the Coopers settled on that island. In 1810, a roving band of about eighteen Pottowattomies, led by a war chief named Nessotingineg, stole a number of horses from the settlers of Loutre Island on the Missouri. A volunteer company consisting of Stephen Cole, William Temple Cole, Sarshall Brown, Nicholas Gooch, Abraham Potts, and James Mordock, was formed with Stephen Cole, then captain of the militia of Loutre Island, as leader. The company proposed to follow the Indians and recapture the stolen property. The volunteer company followed the Indians up the Loutre Creek, about 20 miles, and came to a place where the Indians had peeled bark, evidently to make halters, there the white men stopped for the night. The next morning they followed the Indian trail about thirty miles across Grand Prairie, just as they emerged from a small patch of timber, suddenly discovered the Indians with the horses. William Temple Cole and Sarshall Brown, on the fastest horses, started in pursuit, the others following them. So hard did they press their pursuit upon the Indians, who did not know the number of whites chasing them, and who were apprehensive that they might be captured in their wild flight, that they threw their packs into a plum thicket near a pool of water, and they scattered in the woods. These packs, consisting of buffalo robes, deer skins and partly tanned leather, they had stolen from Sarshall Brown. Night overtaking the party, they went into camp on the Waters of Salt River at a place known as Bonelick, 65 miles from the Loutre settlement, and about a mile or two northwest of the present city of Mexico, in Audrain County. Here contrary to the advice of their leader Stephen Cole, they without posting any sentinels, tied their horses in the thicket. After broiling some meat for supper, they went to sleep, with the exception of Stephen Cole, who with the sagacity of the experienced frontiersman was apprehensive of an attack. They had not been asleep long, when Cole thought he heard the cracking of a bush. He told his brother to get up, for he believed the Indians were near. However everything remained still, and solemn quietude prevailed. Stephen Cole pulled his saddle against his back and shoulders, and sought again his repose after the hard day\'s chase, but still impressed with impending danger. The Indians, who had crawled up so near that, by the light of the
little camp fire, they could see the faces of their unsuspecting victims, waited but a short time till all was quiet then they opened a volley upon the party, instantly killing Gooch and Brown, wounding William Temple Cole and mother of one of the men. A hand-to-hand struggle between the Indians and Stephen Cole then took place in which Cole killed four Indians and wounded a fifth; the remaining members of the Indian band disappeared. Stephen Cole then went into a nearby pool and squatted in the water to wash the blood from the many wounds which he had received. After a little while the Indians returned, found Temple Cole and killed him. Patton, who had managed to get off some distance, also was found dead near a little sapling. Stephen Cole, after stanching the flow of blood from his wounds left the scene of the bloody encounter.
The next morning, after he had gone about two or three miles, he sat down on a small gopher hill to rest, when he discovered two mounted Indians same distance away. They eyed him for a few minutes, then wheeled their horses and disappeared. He reached the settlement on the third day nearly famished, having had not a morsel to eat during all this time. James Moredock escaped unhurt, and it is said that if he had acted with one-half the bravery of Stephen Cole, the Indians would have been defeated. Samuel Cole, a son of William Temple Cole, says that the Indians did not scalp the whites in this encounter. Peace was supposed to prevail between the Indians and settlers. This skirmish proved to be the beginning of the Indian troubles on the Missouri River. It is possible that this band of Pottowattomies had been on the war path against the Osages, and since the war trail from the Pottowattomies\' led to the mouth of the Gasconade, near which Loutre Island is situated in the Missouri River, the temptation to steal some of the horses of the settlers had been too great for the Indians to forego. At any rate, so far as we know they did no personal injury to the settlers, except yielding to their penchant for stealing. If they had been bent upon more
serious mischief, they undoubtedly could and would have perpetrated it. James Cole, a son of Stephen Cole, says that in this fight Stephen Cole received 26 wounds, and that on his way home he chewed some elm bark and placed it on his wounds. Stephen Cole was killed by the Indians on the banks of the Rio Grande near El Paso in 1824. Cole was a strong, virile, robust, uneducated, but sagacious frontiersman. On one occasion he was present at a session of the legislature, says Houck, when two members who had been opponents in a spirited debate during the session, engaged in a fight, after adjournment for the day and clinched. This was a common occurrence in those days when physical strength and prowess were so greatly esteemed. Governor McNair, who happened to be present, tried to separate them, but Cole seized the governor and pulled him away, saying, \"In such a scrimmage a governor is no more than any other man.\"
From History of Cooper County Missouri by W. F. Johnson
William Temple Cole and his family went from Wythe County VA to St Charles County MO in 1807. William Temple Cole was killed by Indians on 20 July 1810. The court appointed his brother Stephen Cole (jr), administrator and in 1814 guardian of William Temple Cole\'s sons Stephen Cole & Samuel Cole both over age 14.
The following is hand written:
District of Saint Charles } Henry Hight Judge of probate
Territory of Louisiana } of the district aforesaid
To Hannah Cole relict & widow of William Temple Cole - deceased, James Cole, Holbert Cole, Stephen Cole, Samuel Cole, Jane Cole, Martha Cole, William T Cole, Ann D. Cole, Eleoner Cole and Phebe Cole ---- heirs and representatives of William Temple Cole ---- deceased.
You are hereby Summoned and required to Show cause if any you can why the sale of Lucy & Issac - slaves belonging to the estate of the aforesaid William Temple Cole -should not be directed and the amount of the sale distributed among you according to your respective rights on or before the first day of September next-
Given under my hand with the seal of office annexed the 24th day of July - in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred & eleven.
H. Hight
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=day76149&id=I0590
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another webpage with extensive notes:
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/k/a/n/Ronald-P-Kanarr/GENE1-0010.html
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