George Davis Cole
George Davis Cole a native of Adams County, born August 18, 1834, made a career of which every citizen of the county may be proud. He was born at West Union while his father, James Mitchell Cole, was the Sheriff of the county. His father, who has a sketch elsewhere herein, was a man of strong and sterling character and of wonderful physique. His mother was Nancy Collings, sister of Judge George Collings, a woman of like great force of character. The first fifteen years of his life were spent on the Ohio River farm in Monroe Township, where he attended the District school. He then went to school at Manchester, Ohio, to William McCauley, a famous instructor of his time. After he left McCauley's school, he assisted his brother, Collings Cole, in the management of a furnace in Kentucky until the age of twenty, when he began the study of law in Portsmouth under the instruction of his kinsman, Col. James W. Davis, then a member of the Portsmouth bar. He was admitted to the bar in 1856 and located in Piketon, then the county seat of Pike County. He remained there until after the removal of the county seat, when he removed to Waverly. The next year after locating in Pike County, he was elected to the office of Prosecuting Attorney, which office he held by successive elections for twelve consecutive years. In the administration of his public duties, he commanded the respect and confidence of all the people of the community.
He soon rose to be the leader of the bar, and his reputation as an able lawyer was well known in the surrounding counties. He had a natural talent for management. His judgment was correct in all matters in which it was exercised. His neighbors, acquaintances and friends sought his advice in business matters, and never in a single instance, did it fail. He never made a losing venture, and never advised any which proved disastrous. The same remarkable judgment which he exercised in the affairs of others, he exercised in his own, and never made a mistake in the management of his own business. Going to the county with only his natural abilities, he accumulated a fortune and never encountered a disaster.
In 1858, he was married to Miss Finetta Jane Jones, eldest daughter of James Jones, a prominent citizen of the county. Their only child, Adah D., is the wife of Wells S. Jones, Jr., conducting the Hayes, Jones & Company Bank in Waverly. While Mr. Cole loved the association of his fellow citizens, he had no taste for politics. Up to 1872, he was a Democrat. In 1873, he indentified himself with the Republican party and the same year was a candidate for the nomination of Common Pleas Judge. From this date, he acted independently in politics, but on financial questions, the Republican party represented his views. In 1873, he became a member of the banking firm of Hayes, Jones & Co., and here his peculiar talents found exercise. He had a natural adaptation for the banking business, and he was a tower of strength in the institution. Every one felt and knew that he would make no mistake in the management of the bank and permit none to be made. His bank enjoyed the confidence of the community, and was estimated as strong and safer than the National banks. Gradually the banking business absorbed all his time and attention, and he gave up the practice of the law little by little until in 1885 ho abandoned it altogether. He was a natural born financier. He never made a promise but it was fulfilled with exactitude, and his integrity was of the very highest order.
While he was always prompt to decide on any situation presented to him, his judgment always stood the test of trial and proved the best course. At the time of his death, he had the confidence of the people of his county in financial matters to a greater degree than any other man who ever lived in it. Without exception, they would and did trust him (without limitation).
He was a man of fine and commanding presence, six feet tall and well proportioned. He was positive, emphatic and earnest in all his views, but at the same time an agreeable and pleasant companion. He became so absorbed in business and there were so many demands on his time, that, while naturally a robust man, he neglected those details of recreation and exercise necessary to good health and was stricken with paralysis and died February 9, 1899. It is believed by his friends that had he taken relaxation, recreation and exercise, he might have prolonged his life twenty years, but the cares of business were so exacting and his constitution naturally so good, that he neglected those details which would have saved him many years. He died in the height of his powers, physical and mental, and in the midst of a busy career, but he left his banking business one of the best and strongest in the country.
His wife was in feeble health at the time of his death and survived him but little over two months. Of the many sons of Adams County who have located elsewhere and had successful careers, none was more marked than that of our subject, and to his ancestors and to his instruction in his early years, he owed it all.
From History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers - West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900