| Noah Benjamin Cole was born on August 19, 1848 in Macon County,
Alabama and married Mollie P. Rawls in 1879. After Mollie died in
1888, Noah married Loula Echols Davis on November 14, 1890 in Bryan,
Texas. Noah died on April 15, 1907 and is buried in the Bryan City
Cemetery. Noah and Mollie had the following children:
 Robert Emmett Cole |
|
Mason Stanley Cole (died young) |
|
Hattie Adelia Cole (died young) |
|
Willie Cole (died young) |
Noah and Loula had the following children:
|
Noah Davis Cole |
|
Walton Ransom Cole |
|
Charles Mason Cole |
From Combined Trade Edition of The Brazos Pilot and Bryan
Eagle September 12, 1895:
COLE BROTHERS
WHOLESALE AND RETAIL DRY GOODS
GROCERIES AND HARDWARE
Twenty-eight years of successful business in Bryan have given the
firm of Cole Brothers a wide and enviable reputation throughout this
section of the state, as well as great credit and commercial
standing in all the business centers of the country. On account of
their long and unbroken record for liberality and fair dealing they
enjoy to the fullest extent the confidence and esteem of the people,
and are very justly celebrated as one of the largest general supply
houses between Houston and Dallas.
The Messrs. Cole Brothers, M. D., J. N. and N. B. Cole were born in
Alabama in 1831, 1837 and 1848 respectively. They were raised on a
farm and attended the private schools in boyhood. In 1850 they moved
to Cass county in East Texas and continued farming until the war,
when all three enlisted in the service in different capacities, M.
D. and N. B. Cole serving in the trans-Mississippi department, and
J. N. Cole with the army of Tennessee under Bragg, Johnston and
Hood. After the war they farmed for another year in East Texas, when
the two latter came to Bryan in 1867 and established a grocery
business. A year later they were joined by Mr. M. D. Cole and
embarked in the dry goods business and later on, in 1882, added
hardware. Their business has grown each year until it reaches an
immense volume. They have always led in advancement and upbuilding
of Bryan, and encouraged all worthy enterprises with their money and
influence. In fact, they erected their present grocery house, and in
1884 their immense dry goods emporium, which is one of the most
handsome and well appointed building in Bryan and supplied with all
modern conveniences. The hardware department occupies the new Derden
building put up last year and all three departments have a combined
floor space of 21,000 square feet.
THE DRY GOODS DEPARTMENT
Is under the immediate supervision of Mr. M. D. Cole, who is at
present in New York buying goods and embraces all the best fabrics
of foreign and domestic manufacture, dress goods, trimmings, ladies'
and gents' furnishing goods, dry goods, fashionable clothing, hats,
boots, shoes, trunks, valises, carpets, matings, etc. These goods
are as cheap as the cheapest and will give the customer entire
satisfaction.
HARDWARE DEPARTMENT
Mr. N. B. Cole has personal charge of this branch of the business,
and shows a full line of stoves, implements, wagons, building
material, barbed wire, mechanics and blacksmiths' supplies, shelf
goods, guns, pistols, cutlery, crockery, glass, wooden, willow and
tinware, sheet and bar iron, piping, steam fittings, well curbings,
etc.
GROCERY DEPARTMENT
Mr. Clifford Axson, an experienced groceryman, has charge of the
grocery business, and displays a full line of staple and fancy
groceries of every description, including all imported and domestic
table luxuries as well as the best staple products the market
affords, and the cheapest prices as well as the most prompt, polite
and courteous attention.
The firm also handles cotton and has land interests in various parts
of the state.
The general management of the firm is carefully looked after by Mr.
J. N. Cole, who is also president of the oil mill and the Merchants
and Planters National bank. He is a Methodist, a Mason and a
financier of ability.
Mr. M. D. Cole is a leading worker of the Methodist church, a Mason,
a member of the school board and director of the compress.
Mr. N. B. Cole is a Mason and member of the A. O. U. W and Odd
Fellows, and a business man of energy and experience. All are
married and have pleasant homes here, and together they form a
triumvirate of great financial strength in the community. |
