My Genealogy Hound

JAMES COLE, gardener, post office McKee’s Rocks, was born Oct. 18, 1825, on Neville island, this county, a son of James, Sr., and Elizabeth Cole. James, Sr., and his four brothers, Rufus, Ivery, George and William, came from Maine to this county in 1814, traveling from the lake by wagon, and first stopped in this county in the old stone tavern where the Park House now stands, in the Ninth ward of Allegheny City. These brothers, (now deceased) purchased three hundred acres on Neville island, about one-third of the entire island. James, Sr., was a farmer on Neville island until 1832, when he purchased property in Allegheny City and resided until 1843, engaged in general merchandising. In that year his health failed and he returned to his old home on Neville island, where he spent the balance of his life, dying Dec. 6, 1865, at the age of seventy-four years. He was twice married; first to Elizabeth, daughter of Lewis and Eleanor Davis, and she died Jan. 16, 1839, aged thirty-four years, the mother of the following-named children: James, Eleanor (wife of James Rafferty) and Lewis. In 1841 Mr. Cole married Mary W. Aubrey, of Allegheny City, who bore him one child, William, now a promising physician in Allegheny City. The subject of this memoir was reared on the old homestead on Neville island. He married, Jan. 16, 1854, Margaret M., daughter of William and Mary Jackman, of Ohio township, this county, and by this union there were three children: Harry A., Mary L. (wife of Samuel Frazier) and Elizabeth D. Mrs. Cole died Aug. 27, 1882, at the age of fifty-six years. Mr. Cole came to Stowe township in 1866, where he purchased thirty acres of land adjoining McKee’s Rocks village, and has fitted up a beautiful home. Like his father, he has passed an active, useful life. He was the first justice of the peace on the organization of Neville township.