Biography of Benjamin L. Cole, Dr.

Among the professional men of Nez Perces County is to be mentioned the gentleman whose name initiates this paragraph. He is a man having a high sense of honor, has maintained an untarnished reputation, is imbued with an understanding of his stewardship and in all his walk has so conducted himself that he has the entire confidence of the people and enjoys an enviable prestige.

B. L. Cole was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, on April 14, 1866, being the son of Morris C. and Julia B. (Leas) Cole. The father is a minister in the Baptist Church, was born in New York, in 1831, and now lives in Whatcomb, Washington, being still active in the ministry. He is a veteran of the Civil war, having enlisted in the Fourth New Jersey, and was mustered out at New Orleans, in 1865. His father died aged eighty-two, having served faithfully as a Methodist minister, and his mother was seventy-six at the time of her departure. The mother of our subject was born in Pennsylvania in 1840 and is still living. When mustered out, the father of Benjamin settled at Vicksburg, later went to New Orleans. In that city the son was reared amid refining and literary surroundings, being highly educated. His father was a cultured man and for a time was secretary to the superintendent of education for the city of New Orleans.

Our subject completed his professional course in the New Orleans Dental College and in that city he practiced until 1892. In that year he came to Walla Walla and two years later went thence to Tacoma. In that city he had charge of the infirmary for the first year of its existence. Later we find Dr. Cole in Juliaetta, where he practiced successfully until 1901, when he came to his present location in Culdesac. Dr. Cole is favored with a good and increasing practice, because of his skill and also his excellent success that is the result of painstaking and constant study. He has three brothers and one sister Morris C, Thomas B., John H. and Julia B.

Dr. Cole is a member of the K. of P. and of the M. W. A., and of the Sons of Veterans, being in Benjamin Harrison Camp, No. 1, New Orleans, of the latter order. He is a member of the Baptist Church. His maternal grandfather was a judge in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

Source: An Illustrated History of North Idaho: Embracing Nez Perce, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho; Western Historical Publishing Company, 1903

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