Horace Cole

Submitted by Marrie Miller

The wild plains and ranges of the Great Northwest of the United States have not given to the world style in dress or fashion in manners, but they have given to American citizenship some of its firmest fiber, best brain, sturdiest brawn, most resolute spirit and wildest sweep of vision. The great army of industrial progress which has overspread them and made them fruitful in all the products for comfortable living, enterprising in all the elements of commercial greatness and rich in all the blessings of political freedom, has dealt with great problems in human destiny and sown mighty harvests for human good. Among the silent units of this loud sum of manly enterprise. Horace Cole of near Sundance, Wyoming, has a well-established rank and is entitled to due consideration as an old settler and a progressive and public spirited citizen. He is a native of Putnam county, N Y, born on March 17, 1844. the son of Horace B and Betsey (Cummings) Cole, the former a native of New York and the latter of Connecticut. The father was a well-to-do farmer in New York, where he passed his entire life with the exception of a short time spent in Ohio just previous to his death, which occurred on January 11, 1844, about two months before the birth of his son Horace. The mother lived until 1887, having made her home with Horace in Wyoming, where she died. After her husband's death she resided in Putnam county, N Y, until 1848, then removed her family to Ohio to live on a farm which her husband had bought in Ashtabula county, where Horace grew to the age of seventeen and received his education. On November 26, 1861, he enlisted in the Sixth Ohio Cavalry in defense of the Union and served in that regiment until December, 1864. He was in the Army of the Potomac and saw arduous and exhausting service in the field and on the march, being most of the time the commissary sergeant of his company. In July, 1864, he was captured and confined in Libby prison until near the end of that year, when he was paroled and returned to Ohio, where he engaged in farming until 1869, then removing to Missouri he bought a farm in Harrison county, which he cultivated until the spring of 1873, then took another flight toward the setting sun, halting in Harlan county, Neb, and farming and raising stock there until 1877. At that time the Black Hills was the Mecca of all Argonauts and he joined the rush to that region and passed five years prospecting and mining in and around Deadwood. In 1882 he again sought the cultivation of the soil as an agreeable occupation and coming into northern Wyoming, took up a homestead seven and one-half miles northeast of Sundance and adjoining the ranch on which he now lives. There he raised cattle and farmed his land until 1897, when, having been elected to the office, he qualified as sheriff of the county and took up his residence at Sundance. At the end of one term he retired from public life against the wishes of his party friends in order to devote his time and energies entirely to raising cattle, settling on the ranch which is his present home and which he had bought in 1895. consists of 900 acres of fertile and well located land, all in one body, considerable of it under cultivation. He raises nothing for market, however, feeding all his grain and hay to his stock. He has a pleasant and convenient cottage residence on the ranch, with good barns, sheds, corrals, etc. From his advent into the neighborhood he has taken great interest in the growth and development of the county and he has made substantial contributions of time and counsel to its advancement. The country was very thinly settled when he came to it. but under the inspiration of such examples and such impelling forces as his it has been rapidly occupied and built up. He is a Republican in politics, giving his party loyal and zealous service, and while averse to official life, he has yielded to importunity and accepted the position of commissioner of the State Soldier's Home in addition to his office of sheriff. On September 28, 1879, Central City, S D, he was married with Mrs Maria (Ogden) Randall, a native of Illinois and a daughter of David and Mary Ogden of that state. Her parents came to the Black Hills in the spring of 1877 and in 1882 located in Crook county, Wyo, where they conducted a leading stock industry until the death of the father. By her former marriage Mrs. Cole has one child, Roy R Randall. The Coles have had four children, Wayie, Daymond and Raymond, twins, the latter of whom died on June 17, 1897, at the age of four years and five months, and Ralph. The family attends the Methodist Episcopal church at Sundance and are active in its works of benevolence and charity.