BIO: GEORGE B. COLE, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania
   
  Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Joe Patterson
  OCRed by Judy Banja

  Copyright 2004.  All rights reserved.
  http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/copyright.htm
  http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/pa/cumberland/
  _____________________________________________________________

  >From Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania,
  Chicago: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905, pages 231-232
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  NOTE: Use this web address to access other bios:
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    GEORGE B. COLE, of Shippensburg, was born Nov. 6, 1835, at Freemansburg,
  Pa., a son of Jacob B. and Mary Ann (Messenkop) Kohl. The Kohl family is of
  German-Holland extraction and the grandparents of our subject were Jacob and
  Elizabeth (Buck) Kohl, of Nockamixon, Bucks Co., Pa. Jacob B. Kohl was a
  coachmaker by trade. He died in Bucksville, Pa., July 18, 1838, in his
  thirty-fourth year, and is buried in the grave yard attached to St. John's
  Church, Haycock, Pa. The mother of our subject was a daughter of George
  Messenkop, a prominent citizen of Lancaster, who for a long time was city
  treasurer. She died in 1888.
  
    George B. Cole, while living in Baltimore, in 1857, changed the spelling of
  his name from Kohl to Cole, on account of mail com-
  
  232  CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
  
  plications. He was educated in the public schools of Lancaster and then came
  to Shippensburg, where he attended the academy. In 1852 he entered the employ
  of Arnold & Co., dry-goods merchants, as a clerk, later purchasing an interest
  in the establishment, and the name became D. W. Totten & Co. Later he sold his
  interest to Dr. Alexander Stewart, and, in 1860, embarked in the boot, shoe
  and hat business, which he continued for over thirty years, doing a most
  successful business, having the leading establishment in this line of trade.
  
    In 1895 Mr. Cole, with Col. J. A. Kunkel, of New York, organized the
  Shippensburg Odorless Cold Storage Egg Case Filler Manufacturing Co.,
  associating with them prominent business men. Mr. Cole is secretary,
  treasurer and general manager of this company. The business is in a
  flourishing condition, a large force being employed, and they have a large
  trade in this and foreign countries. Besides his interest in this company,
  Mr. Cole is a stockholder and one of the directors of the People's National
  Bank of Shippensburg; vice-president of the Shippensburg Gas & Electric Co.;
  a member of the board of trustees of the Cumberland Valley State Normal
  School; a director in the Baltimore & Cumberland Valley Railroad Company, a
  branch of the Wabash System; a member and president of the city council; and
  was at one time a member of the school board.
  
    In 1856 Mr. Cole married Miss Elizabeth Trone, of Shippensburg, daughter of
  George Trone. At her early death she left one daughter, Anna, who married Dr.
  Clark, Cramer, of Newburg, Pa. Mr. Cole married (second) Miss Mary E. Gish,
  also of Shippensburg, daughter of John and Lydia Gish, and six children were
  born to the union, two of whom are deceased; Katie is the wife of S. W. Means,
  of St. Paul, Minn.; Lou M. is the wife of Jacob H. Stoner, cashier of the
  People's Bank of Waynesboro, Pa.; Edith is at home; George is in the employ
  of the Bell Telephone Company.
  
    Fraternally Mr. Cole is a member of Cumberland Valley Masonic Lodge, No.
  315; St. John's Chapter; and St. John's Commandery, Knights Templar; and is
  also a member of the Scottish Rite branch in Philadelphia. He is one of the
  leading citizens of Shippensburg and the owner of property in the town and
  vicinity, and is considered a man of progressive ideas and much public spirit.