James Reid Cole (1839–1917) was a Confederate officer, educator, college administrator, and state representative from North Carolina. In 1861 he served as a sergeant in his brother's Company M of the Second North Carolina Cavalry Regiment, Confederate Army, and in 1862 was named an adjutant for the Twenty-second North Carolina Cavalry Regiment. Cole remained with this unit for the duration of the war and was ultimately promoted to colonel.
In 1866, Cole moved to Texas where he was employed as chair of the department of ancient languages at McKenzie College in Clarksville. He married Mary P. King in 1868 and they moved to Grayson County, where he was elected to the Twelfth Texas Legislature (1870-71). In 1873 he served as enrolling clerk for the Thirteenth Texas Legislature and also joined the Grange, an agricultural advancement group.
Cole once more decided to focus on education, and in 1877 became president of North Texas Female College (later Kidd-Key College) in Sherman. He resigned only one year later, but in 1879 became chair of the English, Literature, and History departments at Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (now Texas A&M University) in College Station. In 1885 Cole resigned to become superintendent of public schools in Abilene. He then moved to Dallas, where he formed and served as the conductor for Cole's Classical and Military School of Dallas (1889-1902). He returned to university life, serving as chair of the English, Literature, and History departments of Baptist University at Oak Cliff from 1902 until he retired in 1905.
Source:
The James Reid Cole Papers, 1852-1926, include correspondence, family diaries, reminiscences, articles, lecture notes, school class records, financial documents, college class notes, and biographical sketches of Cole’s wife and his brother. The papers relate to Cole’s service in the Civil War, his term as a Texas legislator, and his experiences as an educator.
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James Reid Cole Papers, 1852-1926, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.
Basic processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with funds from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for the Briscoe Center’s