Byron B. Cole

COLE, WILSON, HOWE, HUMPHREY

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 11/10/2011 at 19:21:53

BYRON B. COLE. Grundy County, Iowa, is an Eden of fine farms and agricultural tracts. There are comparatively few small tracts, and each farmer tries to out-do his neighbor in the cultivation and improvement of his land. Of the many fine, attractive places, none are more conspicuous than that belonging to our subject and located in Washington Township. Mr. Cole is the owner of two hundred and forty acres in Washington Township, practically all under a high state of cultivation, and he also owns one hundred and sixty acres in Dickinson County, Iowa, and the same number of acres in Dakota, where he resided one year. His buildings, fences, etc., are in first-class condition and indicate to the beholder that a thorough and experienced hand is at the helm.

Byron B. Cole came originally from Carroll County, Ill., where his birth occurred April 19, 1852, and he was one of several children born to Lyman and Emily Cole (see sketch elsewhere in this volume). Our subject was but four years of age when he came with his parents to Grundy County, Iowa, and as a consequence all his recollections are of this county. Like the ordinary farmer boy, he attended the district schools in his youth and assisted his father in improving the farm. When older he attended school in Waterloo and thus received a good, practical education. When twenty-two years of age he decided to travel a little and see something of the United States, and for several years wandered over different states of the Union, working by the day and month.

In 1874 he returned to Grundy County and went to work for his father. The same fall he embarked in the butcher business at Grundy Centre in partnership with William Wilson, but at the end of sixteen months he sold his interest in the business and began tilling the soil on his father’s farm. In the fall of 1877 he was married to Miss Mary F. Howe, a native of Canada and the daughter of Esquire and Lucinda (Humphrey) Howe, natives respectively of Vermont and Canada. Mrs. Cole went with her parents to Wisconsin when young, and in that state her parents passed the remainder of their days, dying after she had grown to womanhood.

The marriage of our subject and wife has been blessed by the birth of five children: Alvernus H., Ralph L. and Ray L. (twins), J. Pearl and Ruby H. Politically Mr. Cole is a member of the People’s party and a strong supporter of Third party principles. He has often been called upon to hold different local offices in his township, such as Road Supervisor, School Director, etc., and has filled one and all in a very creditable manner. At the time of his marriage his father gave him one hundred and sixty acres of land, and on this farm, which he has increased to goodly proportions, he has remained ever since, making stock-raising a specialty.

Source:
Portrait and Biographical Record
of Jasper, Marshall and Grundy Counties, Iowa
1894