Cole Family History & Genealogy

I am researching my husband's family tree. His great grandmother's name was Naomi Jane Cole Looney. She was the wife of Benjamin #3 Looney. They lived in Bollinger County MO. I know Naomi's father's name was Daniel T Cole born 1830 in MO and her mother's name was Delphinia Smith Cole. I know they had 8 children. I have the death certificate for one, Daniel P who died in 1920 on Halloween when a tree fell on him near Millersville MO.

There is a family rumor that he was good friends with Jesse James. I think he was probably related to Jesse James. There is also a story that the James Gang had a hideout in a cave near Millersville.

I have found some possible parents for Daniel T Cole, they had a son named Daniel Taylor Cole born the same year as Daniel T Cole in St Louis MO. I have seen a post where a woman claimed that her great grandfather Daniel Taylor rode with the James gang. She also stated that it was a family legend that he got into a fight with his then father in law and shot him. He then dissapeared.

Another woman who claims Daniel Taylor Cole as her g grandfather says my Daniel T could not possible be the same man as Daniel Taylor Cole. She says she traced Daniel Taylor Cole to California then to Idaho where he married and had several children. He died and is buried in Idaho.

I have seen family trees that have Daniel Taylor and Daniel T married to the woman in Idaho and also married to Delphinia Smith Cole and married to the first wife of the shooting incident. One problem here, he would have been married to Delphinia Smith Cole and the Idaho wife at the same time! To add to the mystery, the Idaho Daniel has a big gap between the birthdates of two of his children. The children born in MO to the Missouri Daniel T and Delphinia Smith fit into that gap.

I have not found another couple that had a son named Daniel T Cole born the same year as the father of Naomi Jane Cole Looney. I have not found a burial site for Daniel T in MO. I have found one for his son, Daniel P, his daughter Naomi, his wife Delphinia and one other son, all in MO.

As of now (2009) the parents of Daniel T Cole of Bollinger County MO are still a mystery.

Sandra F

It seems evertime I run across another Cole you can tell they are related just by looking at them, even my distant cousin who popped in on me I had never seen him, but had talked with him over the net as he has been doing Cole genealogy for 25yrs or better, I answered the door and yelled for my mom "One of your Cole cousins are here, I don't know which one but it's a Cole." I wasn't being rude but I dont know half my mom's cousins I just knew he was a Cole they seemed to have been marked. Especially Daniel Kool's Clan they all resemble each other. Since I met Paul everytime I find a Cole that looks like our side I send him the pick even if the person isn't listed in our line as somewhere they fit we just have to pin them down. I usually tell him "now I know this is our's where does he/she fit" He usually says I dont know but I'll keep it safe we'll find where they go. Some off us though like me I look like my dad and he's not a Cole, but I still got branded with those darn Cole cowlicks(horns) one on each side of my front hair line, I would have rather got my granddad's good looks he could of kept the cowlicks.

The 37th Division of the A.E.F. was positioned on the front line at the beginning of the great Argon Forest assult.As the American drive charged into battle, mass confussion broke out with men becoming seperated and confused. Soldiers were wondering around the battlefield.A German prisoner asked Capt. Cole why all these little groups of American soldiers.He covered by saying this was a new military tactic.By the 4th day of the attack many men of Coles Company B had been either killed or wounded. Many Germans also had paid the price of war in blood,,,,. At this time my story accured. Capt.Cole came upon a German Officer and they both pulled pistols aimming at each other.But they paused, waved at each other and departed. Perhaps they were feed-up with killing. Following the war Sam Cole remained in tha Ohio National Guard rising to Col. and Became active in the politics ofAkron Ohio and became one of the founders of the National Army Navy Union

NOT OUR FAMILY BUT A VERY INTERESTING STORY:
By Olive Tardiff

The only woman to be convicted of witchcraft in New Hampshire was Goodwife (Goody) Eunice Cole of Hampton. This unfortunate creature was found guilty, lashed with a whip, and thrown in jail. She was sixty-four at the time.

New Englanders in the seventeenth century feared the devil. They believed that all natural disasters were caused by a person who was possessed by "Old Nick." If their crops failed, if a cow went dry, or if an epidemic struck, they blamed someone in the community, usually an eccentric old person. In Salem, Massachusetts nineteen people were hanged for witchcraft, some on testimony given by excitable children.
Goody's Crime:
Goody Cole was lucky to escape with her life. Townspeople were convinced of her guilt. Neighborhood children claimed they had seen her take the form of a dog, a cat, and an eagle. They said they had seen the devil, in the form of a black dwarf with a red cap, sitting at her table.
A man whose cattle had eaten grass on Goody's property charged that she had put a curse on them so that one of his calves died, and another disappeared. She was blamed, too, for the loss of a fishing boat with all aboard. Thc incident is described in Whittier'spoem, "Wreck at Rivermoth." The county judge, after hearing all this evidence, sentenced Goody Cole to life imprisonment. The Coles owned forty acres of valuable land near the salt marshes. When Goody's eighty-eight year-old husband, William, complained that he could not manage his affairs without his wife, the court sold his land and paid his debts from the receipts. Goody Cole petitioned several times for her release from jail to go home and care for her husband. Finally, after fifteen years, she was allowed to return to Hampton where she learned her husband had died. Goody's troubles were not over. The court billed the town for the cost of her board while she was in prison. When the town defaulted after two years of payment, Goody's former jailor arrested one of the selectmen. The town fathers demanded that each family in Hampton provide for Goody's care for a week. These actions surely turned people against Goody. No doubt the old complaints and accusations arose again.
Poor Goody Dies:
ln 1673, Goody Cole was arrested for a second time. The court found her guilty of having "familiarity with the devil." This wretched, impoverished old woman must have seemed helpless to exert an evil influence, and she was sent home after a few months. When she died at the age of eighty-eight it is said that a mob carried her body to a field and drove a stake through her heart, the only sure way, they believed, to exorcise the devil. Exactly where she was buried is unknown.
In 1908, a Hampton man reported that since building his house on the site of the Coles' hut he had had nothing but bad luck. He was sure the spirit of Goody Cole still cursed the place. Moreover, he said, the knowledge that she might be buried on his property made him very nervous. Through the years, Hampton residents have told stories of seeing a mysterious figure wearing a shawl and buckled shoes, appearing here and there without warning. Once a policeman, on encountering a shawl-covered old woman, warned her to be careful in walking on the heavily-traveled roads of Hampton. "I guess I'll get along all right," she replied. "I've been walking along these roads for hundreds of years." It was not until later that he realized that she was no ordinary wanderer.
When Hampton celebrated its tercentenary in 1938, Goody Cole's name was officially cleared of all charges of witchcraft. Replicas of her trial documents were burned as a form of apology. These ashes were mixed with soil from the old Cole farm, then stored in an urn in the Tuck Museum as a reminder of this tragic story. It was high time to lay to permanent rest that poor tortured soul of Goody Cole.