An American Family History

Thomas Cole was born in 1757. His parents were Broad Cole and Athaliah Dimmitt.

He married Elizabeth Stephens on July 9, 1778.

Shadrack Cole (1778),
Mary Cole Swope (1779, married David Swope),
Abraham Cole (1781, married Verlinda Williams),
Joshua Cole (1783, married Margaret Long),
Sarah Cole (1786 married Simon Barnhart
Nancy Cole (1787),
Elizabeth Cole (1789, married David Barnhart),
Rachel Cole (1791, married William Long)
Athalia Cole (1794, married Thomas Cole),
Thomas Cole (1797),
Ann Cole, (1799, married Stephen Cole),
Broad Cole (1802, married Leah Peters) and
Rebecca Cole (1805, married Samuel Selby).

In 1789 he bought a farm in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania.

Thomas was a soldier in the War of 1812.

Thomas Cole sold his farm in Huntingdon County on May 12, 1801 and his son-in-law, David Swope, sold his on May 16, 1801. After that they moved to Fairfield County, Ohio, near Royalton.

Mary's daughter Margaret Swope, wrote:

My memory of Great Grandfather Cole is that he was a small man. At meals he always sat at or near the head of the table with the sugar bowl handy with which little visitors were kindly remembered...

At the time of the 1830 census, Elizabeth was living next to William Long and Jacob Lefevre in Fairfield County, Ohio.

Elizabeth died in 1831.

Thomas died about 1840.

from History of Greenbrier County by John Rufus Cole

Thomas Cole, born March 11, 1757, died August 20, 1840... He bought what is now known as the Cole farm in Huntington county, Pennsylvania, in 1789, but in 1801, sold his one hundred and sixty-eight acres there and moved to Ohio, where he entered upon a section of land near which the village of Royalton now stands. He was paid $1,113.33 for the old homestead but had to walk back from Ohio to get one of the payments. The Ohio farm remained in the hands of the Cole family over one hundred years.

On July 9, 1778, Thomas Cole married Elizabeth Stevens. Their children were:
Mary, born June 3, 1779;
Abram, May 27, 1781;
Joshua, November 25, 1783;
Sarah, June 19, 1786;
Elizabeth, March 12, 1789;
Rachael, October 18, 1791;
Athalia, September 20, 1794;
Thomas, February 1, 1797;
Ann, November I0, 1799;
Broad, September 23, 1802;
Rebecca, June 7, 1805.

The removal to Ohio was made the year before the birth of Broad Cole, our father. In the year 1828 Broad Cole married Leah Peters (see sketch of the Peters family), and from that union came fourteen children, ten of whom lived to man- and womanhood.

 

from Pioneer Period and Pioneer people of Fairfield County, Ohio

Thomas Cole, and a brother Broad Cole, came to Fairfield County in the year 1801, and settled in Amanda Township. They came from Huntington County, Penn.

Broad Cole was a Methodist, and Bishop Asbury, on his first journey to Ohio in 1803, preached at his cabin in the afternoon of a week day.

Mr. Broad Cole did not remain many years in this county, but moved to Pickaway County, where he died and was buried.

His son Shadrick [Cole] was a man of some prommence and was a Methodist preacher of local reputation. A son of Shadrick Cole moved to Nebraska.

Thomas Cole, born March 15, 1757, was one of the prominent early citizens of Amanda Township, and he lived there during his life.

His son Broad Cole married a daughter of Samuel Peters and lived and died upon the farm now owned by Felix Swope. His son Thomas Cole of Amanda Township is one of the intelligent and worthy men of the township and an old school Baptist preacher of more than local reputation.

In one instance a public-spirited citizen, father of Broad Cole, built a school house and employed Abraham Cole to teach the school at eight dollars per month and invited his neighbors to send their children and pay pro rata share or not, as they chose or were able.

 

from Portrait and Biographical Album of McLean County, Ill, Volume 1, Brookhaven Press

The parents... were Thomas and Elizabeth (Stevens) Cole, the father born in Huntingdon County, Pa., March 15, 1757, and the mother in May, 1759. Thomas Cole was a soldier of the War of 1812. In early life he removed with his parents to Ohio, they being among the early settlers of that State, locating there in 1800, when it was peopled chiefly by Indians. He built a log cabin in the wilderness, and in due time became the proprietor of an extensive and valuable farm, which he had, by his own industry, eliminated from the forest.

The family of Thomas and Elizabeth Cole included seven daughters and four sons, of whom all lived to years of maturity. The father passed the remainder of‘ his days upon the homestead which he had established in the wilds of Ohio, and died Aug. 20, 1840, nine years after the death of his faithful partner, who had died Sept. 27, 1831.

 

from A Biographical Record of Fairfield County, Ohio, Illustrated

Thomas Cole, was born in Pennsylvania in 1757 and was united in marriage to Elizabeth Stevens.

It was in the year 1801 that he emigrated westward, leaving the Keystone state in order to make a home upon the wild western frontier of Ohio. He took up his abode in what is now Amanda township, Fairfield county, where he purchased a section of land, upon which not a furrow had been turned or an improvement made. The hardships and trials of a pioneer life were borne by himself and family, but as the years progressed he was enabled to supply his home with all of the comforts and conveniences known to the older east. He erected a hewed-log house, and although it was not very commodious and its furnishings were primitive, happiness reigned there and the family bravely took their part in the work of development and improvement, their labors being crowned with success.

...[He] died in 1840.

He served his country as a member of a scouting party in the Revolutionary war. but was not in the regular army. After the organization of the parties of the Republic he became a Whig, and in religious faith he was an old school Baptist.

His wife died in 1831 when about seventy-one years of age.