Thomas Cole (1781-08-11 – after 1860) was my 4th-great-grandfather, being the father of Mary Ann Elliott with his first wife Margery Rich (1779-10-09 – 1823×40), daughter of James Rich Jr. Thomas was the son of Gale Cole and Mary Blodgett. Born in Stratford, New Hampshire, he variously lived in Vermont, Connecticut (or at least he married there), and, probably ultimately, Wisconsin.
Thomas’s father Gale was a bigamist who led a double life for some years, with two families. Thomas applied for Gale’s due soldier’s pension, but it had already been granted to his other “wife” Cynthia Fisher, and the court ruled that Gale’s marriage to Thomas’s mother was not a real marriage, which was nonsense, but ended the matter.
The pension file is a useful source for dates and relationships in this family.
Thomas’s deposition dated 1848-06-17 in the pension case gives an account of where he lived, starting with his birth near a fort at Stratford. A relevant excerpt:
The following declaration... that Archippus Blodget, the father of the said Mary resided about a mile from the fort; that I was born at his house on the 11th day of August, my mother then residing in the family of her father; that my father continued in the command of that fort to the close of the war, and that he was then called Lieutenant Cole; that my father and mother resided together at the same place for sometime [sic] after the war, and had a daughter, named Deborah, born two years and two months after myself⟮1⟯Records say 2 years, 4 months, 17 days., who has since died, and my father and mother had no other children. Sometime after the war, my father went to the State of Maine, and resided there principally, occasionally returning to Stratford in the Coos County, where my mother still resided with her father; and died in that state in the year 1799. I came from Stratford, New Hampshire in the year, I think, 1806, and resided in Charlotte, Vermont about fifteen years; I then removed to Starksborough [Starksboro], and resided there about seventeen years, and for the last ten years, I have resided in Monkton, Addison County, Vermont. While I lived in Charlotte, my mother the said Mary Cole came to that place and made her home with me; she also made her home with me in Starksborough and Monkton, a considerable part of the time; and died October 29th, 1839. A short time, a week or two before she died, she went on a visit to the family of James Sanborn in Monkton, where she was taken sick and died.
Census records largely track this; see below for details. Thomas is shown in Charlotte in 1810 and 1820, and in Monkton in 1840. However, in 1830, there is a Thomas Cole in Williston, Vermont, far from his other residences. It may be that he was staying there temporarily for some reason, or that this is a different person, although his details largely match, as noted below.
By 1860 he had moved to Wisconsin.
Thus, we can form the following approximate chronology of his residences:
| 1781–1806 | Stratford, NH |
| 1806–1821 | Charlotte, VT |
| 1821–1838 | Starksboro, VT |
| 1838–1850s | Monkton, VT |
| 1850s– | Dodge Co., WI |
These residences closely track my ancestor Mary Cole, providing additional evidence she is his daughter.
Thomas married Margery Rich 1807-02-01 in Huntington (now Shelton), Connecticut. She was the daughter of James Rich Jr. and surely the mother of my ancestor Mary Ann Cole. After that, things get tricky.
He later married widow Comfort Cleora (née Dunton) Carpenter (* 1796-06-27 in Bristol, Vermont), probably before 1840 based on the census (below), and certainly by 1843 when she is named as his wife in a land record.⟮2⟯ The couple is listed twice in the 1860 Federal census of Dodge County, Wisconsin. His wife is listed as Cleora Cole aged 65 in Chester⟮3⟯, and Comfort Cole aged 54 in Oak Grove⟮4⟯. Despite the discrepancies, these are surely the same woman, rather than Thomas following his father in bigamy. The couple was likely claimed by two residences in error, with the latter having her age off. It appears they had no children, as explicitly stated in one book.⟮5⟯
Finally, his son Amos Cole is listed on his death certificate as having the mother “Alma”. Is this another wife? It’s hard to see how, chronologically, since a younger sibling Betsey had her mother as Margaret on her death record. My best theory is that this was a transcription error, perhaps of his step-mother’s name (Cleora), but it’s possible Betsey’s mother is wrongly attributed.
The 1830 census shows Thomas living with a woman in her 40s. Margery would have turned 50, so it’s possible this is a different woman, or that the identity of Margery above is wrong, but it seems most likely her age was reported inaccurately, which is quite common. In 1840 and 1850⟮6⟯, Thomas is living with a clearly younger woman⟮7⟯, presumably Cleora Comfort.
These are probably all children of Margery (née) Rich:
These children may be Thomas’s; more research is needed:
These may be compared against the censuses from 1810, 1820, and 1830 (see above), which give only counts by gender and age range, as follows:
| Year | Place | Counts | Inferred births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1810⟮16⟯ | Charlotte, VT | 1 ♂ 26–44, 2 ♀ <10, 1 ♀ 26–44 | 1765–1784 ♂♀ 1800–1810 ♀♀ |
| 1820⟮17⟯ | Charlotte, VT | 4 ♂ <10, 1 ♂ 26–44, 2 ♀ 10–15, 1 ♀ 26–44 | 1775–1794 ♂♀ 1804–1810 ♀♀ 1810–1820 ♂♂♂♂ |
| 1830?⟮18⟯ | Williston, VT | 1 ♂ <5, 1 ♂ 5–9, 2 ♂ 10–14, 2 ♂ 15–19, 1 ♂ 20s, 1 ♂ 40s, 1 ♀ 5–9, 2 ♀ 20s, 1 ♀ 40s | 1780–1790 ♂♀ 1800–1810 ♂♀♀ 1810–1815 ♂♂ 1815–1820 ♂♂ 1820–1825 ♂♀ 1825–1830 ♂ |
| 1840⟮19⟯ | Monkton, VT | 1 ♂ 50s, 1 ♀ 40s | 1780–1790 ♂ 1790–1800 ♀ |
Collating these, this indicates the following children:
There is an “extra” male still, the one in his 20s in 1830. This may be an in-law or relative, or it may be that two males were born on the decade line, not yet born and under 10 in 1820, and aged 10+ and 20+ in 1830. It could well be my ancestor Jacob Elliott; there is a family with a head of that name on the same page, but he, and his wife, are a few years too old. It is all quite confusing, and the 1830 census could even be a red herring.
This is ten youngsters in all, probably nearly all children, although some may be other relatives. The four more certain children fit, as would the three probable ones. This count implies there are perhaps two or three more.
No children are listed in Thomas’s entry in the 1840 census, which suggests that none were born after 1830, or at least died young, and possibly the male born after 1825 had (also?) died young.
As noted, Thomas and Comfort were listed in the 1860 census, but they cannot be found in 1870. This may be because they died in the interim, although I have found no records of this.
His female-line ancestor Deborah Hopkins is the granddaughter of Mayflower passenger Stephen Hopkins.