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: Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. Cole, James Reid, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/CC/fcole.html (accessed July 6, 2010).
From the guide to the Cole, James Reid Papers 1939; 1941; 1954., 1852-1926, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)
