“The History of Jefferson County, Wisconsin”, published: Chicago:  
Western Historical Company.   1879.


LUTHER A. COLE, Watertown, whose portrait appears in this work, 
was born in West Charleston, Orleans Co., Vt., Nov. 1, 1812; his father, 
Ebenezer Cole, was the fourth settler in that town; at the age of 22, he 
started West, and landed at Detroit in 1834; the following June he took 
passage in the schooner Supply, a little craft of but fifty feet keel, for 
Green Bay and Grand River.  The passage to Green Bay occupied twelve 
days; after remaining there two days they started for Grand River, which 
they reached the fourth day, making sixteen days’ sailing from Detroit.  
He remained at Grand River, and in its vicinity, for about eleven months, 
being employed most of the time at building saw-mills and log houses.  
He then resolved upon visiting Wisconsin, and taking passage at Grand 
Haven, at the mouth of Grand River, in the schooner White Pigeon, in 
company with Philander Baldwin and Elisha M. Osborn, reached 
Chicago after a sail of about twenty-four hours.  Two or three days 
afterward they started on foot for Milwaukee, following Indian trails 
most of the way, and finding on the route but an occasional settler.  They 
arrived at Milwaukee on the 10th day of May, 1836.  There he worked at 
the carpenter and joiner business until December, when, taking his 
blanket and provisions upon his shoulder, he started for Johnson’s 
Rapids (now Watertown) passing over the road which had been cut out 
by Mr. Johnson a few week’s previously, arriving on the evening of Dec. 
27, 1836.  Amasa Hyland accompanied him.  A few months before, Mr. 
Cole had, through the agency of a friend, made two claims at the Rapids, 
one covering the farm now owned by John W. Cole, and the other the 
farm now owned by heirs of Benj. A. Morey.  About the same time, he 
also made a claim three miles south of Prairieville.  In January 
following, he purchased, at Milwaukee, three barrels of flour, and three 
of pork.  He paid $20 a barrel for the flour, and $40 a barrel for the pork.  
Building a cabin, in company with Mr. Hyland, and his brother, John 
W., they commenced keeping what they called “bachelor’s distress,” 
which they continued for nearly four years.  In the season of 1837, Mr. 
Cole worked on the saw-mill and dam of Charles F.H. Goodhue & Son, 
at Watertown.  From that time, until the fall of 1839, he was occupied 
mainly at lumbering and farming.  In November of the latter-named 
year, in company with Mr. Hyland, John A. Chadwick, David Griffith, 
William P. Owen, William Stanton, Jr., Brice Hall, John Dimick, he 
started for Arkansas for the purpose of spending the winter in chopping 
steamboat wood.  They floated down Rock River in skiffs, and were 
eight days reaching the Mississippi.  They remained in Arkansas until 
the following spring, each making a clever-sized “pile,” when they 
returned to Watertown.  The same season, Mr. Cole, in company with 
Mr. Hyland, Mr. Stanton, Edmund S. Bailey and his brother, John W., 
purchased 400 acres of land on what is known as Hyland Prairie, in 
Dodge Co.  There was then no inhabitant in the town of Fairfield, in 
which that prairie is situated.  The only thing in the shape of a road, at 
that time leading north from Watertown, was an Indian trail.  In 1841, he 
and his brother, John W., erected the building on the corner of Main and 
Second streets (now occupied by August Fuermann as a saloon and 
restaurant), and opened the first store in Watertown.  The next year, Mr. 
Bailey and Mr. Cole purchased of Seeley Kidder 750 acres of land on 
the east side of the river, at Watertown, including the present site of the 
village, as also the mill and water-power.  They were to pay 1,000,000 
feet of lumber, to be delivered at Beloit within seven years.  They 
associated with them the next year Linus R. Cady and his brother, 
Ebenezer W., and in three years and a half from the date of the purchase, 
made the last payment; since which time the general business of Mr. 
Cole has been milling.  Selling out his interest in the mills at Watertown, 
in 1854, he carried on the “Rough and Ready Mill,” one mile east of 
Watertown, up to 1865.  In 1866, he went to Nebraska with Mr. Lyons, 
and built a saw and grist mill forty miles above Omaha, on the Missouri 
River.  In 1867, he also built a mill on Platte River, ten miles south of 
Denver.  In 1869, he sold out his interest in milling, having engaged in it 
for twenty-eight years of his life, since which time, having retired from 
active business, he has resided at Watertown.  Mr. Cole married Miss 
Mary Jane Brackett (daughter of Jerry C. and Uranah Brackett, of 
Vermont) Aug. 29, 1842, at Charleston, Orleans Co., Vt.; they have four 
children, two living – Guy L. and Uranah B. (now wife of F. L. Clark, of 
Watertown), and two deceased – Guy G. and Martha.


Submitted by:  Linda Pingel  (LPingel@worldnet.att.net)