Luther A. Cole

Luther Anderson Cole (November 1, 1812 – June 22, 1880) was an American businessman, Republican politician, and Wisconsin pioneer. He was the second American settler at what is now the city of Watertown, Wisconsin, and represented Watertown for one term in the Wisconsin State Assembly.

Early life Luther Cole was born in West Charleston, Orleans County, Vermont, in November 1812. His father was a farmer and carpenter, and Luther was brought up working with his father in those trades. He had very little formal education.

In the Winter of 1834, at age 22, he traveled west to the new territories, settling first at Detroit, Michigan Territory. The following spring, he took a schooner, the Supply, on a voyage into the Great Lakes, stopping briefly at Green Bay, then landing at the mouth of the Grand River. He labored there for about a year building mills and houses at Grand Haven, but decided to look for land to settle on the west side of Lake Michigan.

At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Cole was appointed brigadier general of the 2nd brigade of Wisconsin militia and assisted in raising volunteers as commissioner of the county enrollment board. The rank of "general" was for organizational purposes in the state, he did not receive a rank from the federal government, and did not command any of Wisconsin's Union Army regiments.

Later years In 1866, Cole traveled to the Nebraska Territory, where he set up a new mill in the vicinity of Omaha, and the next year established a mill on the Platte River, near Denver. In 1869, he sold off all of his remaining mills and invested the money in commercial property and mining land in Denver. Cole maintained his primary residence in Waterford, but made frequent trips to Denver to look after his property. During one such trip, he fell ill and was unable to return. He died at Denver on June 22, 1880.

Personal life and family Luther Cole was the son of Ebenezer Cole and his wife Martha ( West). Ebenezer Cole was one of the first settlers at Charleston, Vermont.

Luther Cole had at least five brothers, three of those brothers—John, Ebenezer, and Zenas—worked with him at some time in Watertown, Wisconsin. John, who was two years younger, was most extensively connected to his brother in business, eventually taking over one of the two original parcels of land Luther Cole had claimed near Watertown in 1836.

In 1842, Cole briefly returned to Vermont, where he met and married Mary Jane Brackett. They had four children together, but two died in childhood.