Leonard Cole
Leonard Cole was born in Harford County, Maryland, in 1788, the son of Ephriam Cole and his wife, Ada Mitchell. In 1793, his parents moved to Mason County, Kentucky, and in 1794 they joined Massie's colony at Manchester, and in 1795 his father located just south of West Union and built a home near Cole's Spring. The house is gone and the spring has been forgotten, but both were on the slope of the hill to the east of the Collings graveyard, looking down into the valley of Beasley's Fork. Here Leonard Cole grew to manhood. He was one of the early schoolteachers in West Union and instituted the reprehensible custom of flogging every boy in school if any mischief was done by a single one. He was a firm believer in King Solomon's rule as to the use of the rod and applied it to both boys and girls. As to the custom of flogging all the boys when any mischief was done, that was kept up by the successors of Mr. Cole, and the writer suffered from that custom with the other boys of his time. Mr. Cole always thought a boy never got a lick amiss, and if he did not deserve it at the time he received it, he would very soon afterward and he might as well have it in advance. Aside from his whipping proclivities, Mr. Cole was a very good teacher. He was a follower and disciple of Gen. Jackson. He was a Justice of the Peace of Tiffin Township from 1829 to 1832. He was a candidate for Auditor in 1825 and received 478 votes. Ralph McClure received 130 and Joseph Riggs 715,- and was elected. In 1827, he was again a candidate for Auditor, and received 303 votes to 876 for Joseph Riggs. He persevered in seeking the Auditor's office, and when Joseph Riggs resigned in 1831, he was appointed and served five months, October 3, 1831, to March 6, 1832. He was elected and served from March 6, 1832, to March 4, 1844, twelve years.
Mr. Cole was first married to a Miss McDonald, by whom he was the father of a large family of children. When first married, he was emphatically an ungodly man. He was opposed to his wife attending church, and she went secretly. Mr. Cole was at this time a fighting and drinking man. At one time he was indicted for seven assaults and batteries, all charged in one week. He got so dreadful that his wife could not live with him and left him. He did then what all prodigals did, shipped on a flatboat to New Orleans. He came back by steamboat and when the latter was a short distance below Memphis, in the night, it ran into a snag and sunk immediately. Cole swam to a snag. In the darkness, he feared he would not be discovered and would be left there to die. He vowed to the Lord that if rescued, he would devote the remainder of his life to His service. Soon after he was rescued, Mr. Cole went home, hunted up his wife, and was reconciled to her. He joined the Methodist Church and lived a member of it the remainder of his life. He maintained family worship, but would interrupt iT to drive the pigs out of the yard, to drive the dog out of the kitchen, to serve a neighbor with milk, or for any other necessary work, and many tales are told of this peculiarity of his. When James Moore was courting Caroline Killen, he did it at the house of Leonard Cole, as he was forbidden at William Killen's home. On one occasion, when Caroline Killen and James Moore were at Mr. Cole's, they were present during family worship in the evening. Mr. Cole prayed for those who were going to bed and for those who were going to sit up--Caroline Killen and James Moore.
Mr. Cole acquired the confidence of the entire community after he joined the Methodist Church, and lived the life of a model citizen. His first wife died in 1838, and in 1839. he married her niece of the same name. There were no children of this marriage. In 1850, he removed to Brookville, Kentucky, where he died in 1857, and where he is buried. Mr. Cole was an intensely earnest man in all he did. When he was a drinking and fighting young man, he went into it with all the force of his nature. When he reformed, his devotion to the church and to good citizenship was as earnest as human effort could make it. He left many descendants, but none of them are known to the writer.
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