|
|
|
Nathan Cole
|
|
|
| Term: |
1869
-
1871
|
| Party: |
Republican
|
| Born: |
July 26, 1825
|
|
St. Louis, Missouri
|
| Died: |
March 4, 1904
|
|
St. Louis, Missouri
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Nathan Cole (Mayor 1869-1871)-Background
|
|
Mayor (1869-1871). Nathan Cole was born in St. Louis, Missouri on July 26, 1825. In 1821, suffering from the economic depression following the War of 1812, Nathan Cole's father had brought the large family to St. Louis from Ovid, New York. The father had financial problems here and moved his family to Chester, Illinois in 1837. The elder Cole died there in 1840. Nathan Cole was 15 years of age at that time. An older brother, H.C. Cole, sent him to Shurtleff College at Alton, Illinois, for two years. In 1845 he left school and went to work as a clerk in a mercantile establishment. In 1851 Cole married Miss Rebecca Fagin and they had a large family. He became a junior partner in the W. L. Ewing Wholesale Grocery Company in 1851. In 1846 he withdrew from this company, and with his brother, H.C. Cole, formed Cole Brothers, Commission merchants.
|
|
| |
Back to the top
|
|
|
|
Nathan Cole (Mayor 1869-1871)-Administration
|
|
In 1869 Nathan Cole became the twenty-fourth Mayor of St. Louis.
In 1869 Nathan Cole ran for the office of Mayor on the Republican ticket, and lead a clean-up campaign in City Government. After being elected, he withdrew from his private business, to carry on the work of reform. Interest on the bonded indebtedness of the City had been mounting year by year. The public debt was now reduced under a program of economy.
A completely new and improved City Charter was obtained from the Missouri General Assembly in 1870. The state law revising the Charter, also extended the city limits to include Carondelet, which had been a separate town up to this time. The first settlement had been made at Carondelet in 1767, just three years after the founding of St. Louis. It had been incorporated as a village in 1832, and as a city in 1851. Mr. Cole refused to run again for the office of Mayor in 1871 and returned to the business of Cole Brothers.
|
|
| |
Back to the top
|
|
|
|
Nathan Cole (Mayor 1869-1871)-Post-Administration
|
|
In 1876 Nathan Cole was elected to Congress as a member of the House of Representatives. He went to Washington as a business man representing the economic interests of the Midwest. In national affairs he was an ardent advocate of closer business relations with Mexico and South America. It was also in 1876 that he became president of the St. Louis MerchantsÆ Exchange. With A.W. Fagin, his father-in-law, he assisted in establishing the elevator system for handling grain. The St. Louis Grain Elevator was built at the foot of Biddle Street. From this beginning St. Louis became the grain exchange of the territory west of the Mississippi River. Mr. Cole was a director of the Bank of Commerce for 43 years, most of which time he was vice-president. He was also a director in a number of other corporations.
Nathan Cole died in St. Louis, March 4, 1904. Burial was in Bellefontaine Cemetery.
|
|
| |
Back to the top | |
