Samuel Cole (Wisconsin pioneer)

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Samuel Cole IV (February 8, 1815 – September 8, 1885) was a Wisconsin pioneer, blacksmith, farmer, and longtime public servant in Lafayette County. He was born in Stanstead, Lower Canada (now Quebec), to a family from Vermont. He learned blacksmithing and moved to the Wisconsin Territory in 1838, settling in Gratiot. He opened a shop and became active in local government, serving on Lafayette County’s first grand jury in 1847, as Gratiot’s first town chairman, and for years on the county board as chairman of Gratiot. He also served as justice of the peace for decades.

Cole served four terms in the Wisconsin State Assembly (1851–1852, 1860–1861, 1864–1865, 1868–1869) and two terms in the Wisconsin Senate (1861–1863 and 1865–1867), representing Lafayette County. He started as a Democrat, but during the Civil War joined the National Union (and later aligned with the Republicans after 1866).

In his personal life, Cole married Jane Connery in 1841, and they had at least four children: Mary Jane, Sarah Ann, Edwin Witson, and Emmett J. In 1868 he suffered a hunting accident that left him blind in one eye after shooting his son. He died of typhoid fever in Gratiot in 1885 and was buried in Gratiot Cemetery.