California Biographies, San Joaquin Valley

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


WILLIAM TEMPLE COLE. The family represented by this California pioneer of 1849 came to 
America from France, the first of the name on this side of the Atlantic being one William Temple 
Cole, who left his native land for the larger opportunities afforded by the new world. After 
some years spent among the planters of Virginia he joined Daniel Boone in crossing the 
mountains to the wilderness of Kentucky, where he hewed out a homestead from the timber 
and endured the hardships incident io frontier life among hostile Indians. At the outbreak of 
the war of 1812 he and his brother, Capt. Stephen Cole, with five other men. suffered an attack 
from savages to the number of seventeen. Only two of the seven survived to tell the tale of 
their sufferings, and they, after seven days of fearful hardship, reached Lauter Island, where 
they found a settlement of white people. One of the two survivors was Captain Cole, a man of 
splendid physique and remarkable strength. Alone and unaided he had killed five of the 
Indians, throwing two of them into the fire and holding them there until they were burned to 
death. The others he kept at bay with his gun. It was his policy to refrain from shooting, but the 
Indians, knowing that he carried a loaded gun, were careful to keep out of his reach. During 
1818 this indomitable Indian fighter fell a victim to their cruelties, being killed by them near 
Taos, N. M., and thus was ended a career as remarkable though less famous than that of his 
friend and associate, Daniel Boone. 

When the wilderness of Kentucky began to come under the influences of civilization and 
settlers poured in from the east, the spirit of Daniel Boone pined for the unbroken forests of 
Nature primeval, and thus he was led to seek a new home beyond the confines of the white 
man's power. At the opening of the nineteenth century he took his family to Missouri, and in 
this journey he was accompanied by Samuel Cole, a Virginian by birth and a son of the 
Frenchman who founded the family in America. For three years this lad acted as errand boy to 
the famous frontiersman, and after Boone's death he accompanied the widow and her family 
to a new location, where a fort was built and the town of Boonville founded. Six years later he 
moved twelve miles south of Boonville and there remained until his death at ninety years of 
age. During the Indian wars in Missouri he proved himself as brave a fighter as his uncle, and 
the company of which he was captain did much to bring the savages under subjection. 

After coming to Missouri Samuel Cole married Sally Briscoe, who was born in Kentucky and died 
in Missouri in 1856. Andrew Briscoe, her father, a Kentuckian by birth, became a farmer in 
Cooper county, Mo., and during the Creek war served as a colonel under General Harrison. In 
the family of Samuel Cole there were nine sons and five daughters, all of whom survive but two 
sons and two daughters, William Temple Cole being the eldest of the family and its only 
representative in California. Born in Cooper county, Mo., August 2, 1825, his lot in childhood 
was that of a pioneer's son in a region where work was plentiful and opportunities few. Once, 
when not well enough to work at breaking hemp, he was sent to school for three weeks, but 
with that exception he had no opportunity to acquire an education. Such books as he could get 
(and they were indeed few) he eagerly studied at night when the heavy labor of the day had 
ended. In this way he has gained a knowledge equal to that of many a high-school graduate. 
After he started out for himself the world became his school and Experience was his 
schoolmaster, and who shall say that the lessons there learned were less valuable than those 
gleaned from the pages of the blue-backed speller, the encyclopedia of knowledge in those 
days? It is said of him that he possessed remarkable strength and endurance, and never found 
his superior in a wrestling match, while once in St. Louis he attracted considerable attention by 
lifting five hundred pounds. He has been a man of magnificent physique, and was a remarkable 
walker and runner in his day. He has beaten a stage many times, and has walked from Auburn 
to Sacramento, about fifty miles, in one day and carried $5,000 in gold dust. He was a volunteer 
in the Mexican war from Boonville and boarded the steamer Louis F. Lin for St. Louis, where he 
was mustered in and joined a regiment under Colonel Hughes. His company, with Captain 
Stephens, was stationed in the courthouse and were well treated by the patriotic citizens. No 
member of his company was arrested for misdemeanor while in St. Louis. They were finally 
ordered back to Boonville, where they were paid off. 

At the age of twenty-one years William Temple Cole started out for himself, and for two years 
traded with the Indians in Kansas. Upon learning of the discovery of gold in California he started 
across the plains with mule-teams. At Goose creek his party left their wagons and mules and 
proceeded with pack-horses to San Francisco, where he landed August 10, 1849. This now 
famous metropolis of the coast then presented a most unattractive appearance, being a mere 
brush thicket with nothing to attract settlers except its beautiful harbor of the Golden (late. Xot 
a house had yet been finished. Incoming vessels and pack-horses from the plains brought their 
constant throng of gold-seekers to swell the population of a settlement without laws and 
dependent upon a hastily organized vigilance committee to enforce order among a reckless and 
lawless band. After having secured the company's mail at San Francisco, Mr. Cole returned 
eastward and met them on Bear river, near the present site of Nevada City. With the members 
of the party he then proceeded to the vicinity of Johnson's ranch, where he spent one month' 
in assisting the company to close out its affairs, and then made his way to the Yuba river, where 
he mined until a severe illness and the advice of his physician caused him to seek another 
location. Two miles from Sacramento he took up a tract of land, where lie embarked in the 
stock business, and in addition furnished steamers with wood. For a time he was exceedingly 
prosperous, but all was lost in the floods of 1849 all( l 1850. After continuing in the stock 
business there for some years, in 1860 he removed to Fresno county and settled on the Kings 
river bottom. There, too, a flood soon came to bring him reverses, and in a second flood he lost 
about $15,000 and a valuable farm. 

Desiring to settle in a neighborhood where his children could enjoy educational advantages, 
Mr. Cole removed one mile above the present site of the academy, which institution he 
assisted in starting and building, and of which for years he officiated as a director. By gradual 
purchase he acquired six hundred and forty acres in one body, and this he has improved with 
neat buildings and good fences. For years he made a specialty of the stock business, but since 
1897 he practically has been retired from large farming interests, preferring to enjoy in his 
declining years the comforts accumulated by long years of toil. Among associates he is regarded 
as a man of large heart and generous impulses. No one in need was ever turned away from his 
door empty-handed and hungry. During the early days he proved a friend to emigrants. On the 
top of the Sierras he had a little store, and when the emigrants landed there, destitute of 
provisions they gladly availed themselves of the opportunity to replenish their depleted stock 
of supplies. Flour brought him seventy-five cents a pound, and many willingly would have paid 
him twice that amount had he cared to demand it ; to those who were out of money as well as 
supplies he gave freely of his supplies, so that emigrants came to regard him as a benefactor 
and personal friend. 

In Solano county, Cal., Mr. Cole was united in marriage, January 12, 1854, with Miss Jane 
Sweany, a native of Dallas county. Mo., and a daughter of James Sweany, a California pioneer 
of 1850, for some years living in Nevada City, later carrying on a farm in Solano county, and 
eventually dying at Visalia. In the family of Mr. and Mrs. Cole there are the following named 
daughters, all of whom received excellent educational advantages and became active church 
members : Sally, wife of D. C. Sample, of Academy; Alice, Mrs. William Hoskins, who died in 
Fresno; Mary, Mrs. John Stroud, of Oakland; Angeline, Mrs. Burkhead, of Fresno; Jane, who 
married Frank Estell. of Academy ; Ida, wife of John Bell, of Fresno county; Kate, wife of W. H. 
Shafer, of Selma ; William Grace, who married Robert Hoag, of Fresno; Emily, wife of William 
Haskell, of Dry creek; and Harriet, who married Alfred Blasingame, of Academy. In their church 
membership both Mr. and Mrs. Cole are active workers and at one time fie officiated as a 
trustee of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, to the support of which he has always been a 
liberal contributor, as lie is to other organizations for the upbuilding of the community. At no 
time active in politics, he takes no part in public affairs aside from casting a straight Democratic 
ticket at all elections. In fraternal relations he formerly held membership with the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows.