Thank you all for your contributions of time, research, donations, support and feedback.

Many thanks to the good folks at Bassett Historical Center for their input and assistance.

Thank you for visiting our heritage and history.
Please consider making a contribution (any amount is appreciated) to help offset the expense, and help us continually improve the quality and quantity of information.

We Gratefully Accept Yout Old/Odd Bitcoin, and Bit Cents at:
14Q2Cm1pRmUrSGTfn1a66Qe9YbAmdD8Dez

  First Name:  Last Name:
Log In
Surnames
What's New
Statistics

Terms of Use & Privacy
Contact Us
Join Our Community

Richard James Cole, Jr.[1, 2, 3, 4]

Male 1763 - 1839  (76 years)


Personal Information    |    Media    |    Notes    |    Sources    |    All    |    PDF

  • Name Richard James Cole 
    • Richard Cole Jr. purchased the Tavern called Lee's Tavern, 12 Dec 1812 and renamed the Tavern, Blackhorse Inn. He was probably born in Culpepper Co., VA where his relatives are found.
    Suffix Jr. 
    Born 23 Apr 1763  Culpeper Co., VA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Died 9 Jul 1839  Kentucky Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Buried Cole Family Cemetery, Woodford County, Kentucky Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I547451303  My Reynolds Line
    Last Modified 25 Sep 2015 

    Father Burgess Richard Cole,   b. 23 Apr 1729, Virginia Colony Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 21 Nov 1814, Woodford Co., Kentucky Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 85 years) 
    Mother Ann Hubbard,   b. 1730, Woodford County, Kentucky Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 21 Nov 1814, Woodford County, Kentucky Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 84 years) 
    Married Abt 1760  Pennsylvania Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Family ID F518495446  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Sarah 'Sallie' Yates/Yeatts,   b. 1 Oct 1765,   d. 8 Nov 1836  (Age 71 years) 
    Children 
    +1. James Cole,   b. 8 Sep 1804, Woodford County, Kentucky Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 27 Feb 1827  (Age 22 years)
    Last Modified 16 Dec 2013 
    Family ID F518495448  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Histories
    History
Descendants of John and Susanna Cole of Culpepper Co., Virginia
    History Descendants of John and Susanna Cole of Culpepper Co., Virginia
    history_of_the_descendants_of_john_and_susanna_cole_of_culpepper_county_virginia_verision_2.pdf

  • Notes 
    • Owner of the famous Black Horse Tavern and great grandfather of Frank and Jesse James.

      Note: Only the stones of Richard Cole Sr. and Ann Hubbard Cole remain, there is an old cemetery photo and more info at www.tsgraves.com (Cole's Bad Inn)

  • Sources 
    1. [S3] Mary Frances Reynolds Eggleston.
      Richard Cole Jr, (1763-1839) married Sallie Yates and continued to operate the tavern after his father's death in 1814; [the Tavern was purchased by Richard Cole, Jr. in 1812] his children are: Polly Cole who married Elijak Finnie and Elizabeth Cole who married Thomas Martin (1792-1884) in 1812 and lived near Midway, Kentucky.

    2. [S32] Find-A-Grave.com, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Cole&GSfn=Richard&GSby=1763&GSbyrel=in&GSdy=1839&GSdyrel=in&GSst=19&GScnty=1108&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=8713195&df=all&.
      Birth: Apr. 23, 1763
      Pennsylvania, USA
      Death: Jul. 9, 1839, USA

    3. [S3] Mary Frances Reynolds Eggleston, http://tsgraves.com/coles-bad-inn.
      This tavern is located halfway between Lexington and Frankfort on the Old Frankfort Pike and U.S. Highway 62, between Versailles and Midway in Woodford County, Kentucky. This location during the early pioneer days was listed on maps as LEESBURG until about 1870. The tavern is composed of two structures; a four-room log cabin and a two-store brick addition. Historians from the National Heritage Commission have placed this residence on the National Register of Famous Historical Places and believe the Tavern to be the oldest existing log building in Kentucky. (They say it is unique, fascinating and also puzzling.) Additional log rooms were added between 1787 and 1789, prior to the brick. The brick room was added in 1799 by Maj. John Lee to increase its use as an Inn. It later became the first stagecoach stopover inn west of the Alleghenies. In the log structure, the doors are walnut, board and batten, with hand-wrought hinges and locks. All rooms have random width wood floors of ash, except the first log section, which has a poplar floor. Most rooms have delicately hand-planed chair rails. The window frames are made of black locust wood, mortared and pegged. The windows have very thin supports and contain nearly all the original glass panes, plaster was applied above the chair rail, below are 28 to 30 inch wide poplar boards. The north end has as double-hipped brick chimney with two fire places, one below and the other in the above room; with original mantels and brick hearths. At the back of the log entrance is a door leading into a large room, originally used as a bar room. It has four equal spaced 4x4 pane windows with an outside door and a large stone fireplace. This room is well suited for a dining room. The brick structure contains similar molding and floors. The chimney is flush with the outside wall. Inside, the fireplace has the original hand carved mantels with built-in poplar closets on each side. The entrance door is walnut with cross and bible paneling. The main log entrance room has an interesting winding stairway with cherry rails and ash tread steps, which lead to the upper rooms. To the right of the stairway is a unique space, which was used for a pay room. The opening has a sliding door that looks into the dinning area. Here were kept the daily receipts, wine and liquors. To the left of the stairway was a closet. When uncovered many years later, it had forty or more layers of wallpaper covering up the entrance and inside it contained old guns, a pair of leather boots with the appearance that they had never been worn. Inside one boot had the name Zerelda Cole written on a piece of leather like material, old button-up shoes and clothing, a door and steps that led to a dugout basement.
      Traveling up the winding stairway, a narrow hall leads to a bedroom with a fireplace. Halfway down the hall, a double batten door with a heavy chain and lock. It opens into a 5 x 8 room containing an unusual enclosed alcove sleeping quarters for special quest, or celebrities. This alcove has a heavy oak bed frame suspended by chains from each corner. The frame is strung with ropes to support heavy bedding. Beneath the frame is a similar one with a wooden bottom and on casters so it could be pulled out for storage of extra bed clothing, or extra sleeping facilities. Within the alcove room and next to the bed near the top, heavy wool-like blanket was rolled up on a shaft, when unrolled it could be used for privacy or warmth. Inside the alcove were many pegs where clothes or guns and other proper things could be hung and retrieved quickly. At the end of the alcove is a small window that opens to the outside; too small for anyone to enter or leave by. The brick addition originally built in 1799 and attached to the log structure had no passageway to the log living quarters. However, in 1939 a passage was cut through to make it more suitable for residential purposes. The main entrance has a six-foot wide hall, with a stairway constructed of ash wood steps and cherry wood rail. At the top of the stairs a large room has a heavy wood swinging partition, which can be swung to the ceiling and fastened to form a ballroom. This partition has three large rat-tail hand wrought hinges to support it. (No other swinging partition in an old Inn is known to exist today.) The upper floor has 2 inch thick wood, the joist are two by ten inches; twelve inches apart, supposedly to support ballroom dancing. Early historians claim this partition had a pulley system to raise or lower it. However, during restoration, no signs of a pulley system could be found, only large loops of medal piercing the partition and held up by placing a piece of wood or medal through it. This partition, when not in use for dancing could be lowered to make a bedroom. The large brick room below, where Zerelda Cole was born in 1826, has two windows on the east and west sides, with 6 over 9 panes of glass to each window. This style existed between 1750 to a little after 1820. This room has a fireplace with its original mantle and brick hearth. A large poplar wood closet is to the right side of the fireplace. The chair rails and entrance door are walnut.

      The two-story log structure is covered with beaded cherry weatherboarding, of which 70% of the original remains. On the north side, stands a double-hipped chimney similar to those built in Virginia around 1750. 'Thus far, only a few double-hipped chimneys are found in Kentucky, but none similar to this one. The west end of the log structure has a stone chimney outside; inside the room is a beautiful stone fireplace. This log room was the first part of the house to be built in 1774.

      The other log rooms were added later in 1881, and the stone chimney restored to simulate the old chimney, during restoration in the 1980's.

      Surrounding the tavern were other buildings; a blacksmith shop, an eight stall log bam, a carriage house, log servant quarters; a two story 42x58 log residence and a two story 12x12- foot log kitchen, with a 9 foot wide fireplace for cooking. Parts of the rock foundation and walkways exist today just a few inches under the grass. During restoration these old walkways and foundations were found and measured along with their location relative to the tavern. Just a few yards to the west of the tavern, a 9-meter square was laid out and checked by archaeologists. They found over 2000 artifacts, many prehistoric, and these artifacts may be found at the University Of Kentucky Archaeologist Department. Hopefully, someday all of the old surrounding buildings will be replaced along with the many artifacts, and this historic place will be given a new life for historians, the general public, and tourists to enjoy.

      The earliest document recorded concerning this log cabin has it referred to as a station camp. It was mentioned by John Ashby in his day diary, quote: we came upon a large mound in which a large buffalo road running east and west and another crossing it running north and south, and a large amount of trees felled by someone before us, possibly the French. With a group of 47 surveyors we built a log building for storing surveying equipment. This place was surveyed for Hancock Taylor. Later he was wounded and died by an Indian attack. Hancock Taylor died July 23, 1774 while surveying for the Ohio Land Company. It became the property of Zachary Taylor and later John Lee and to his son, Maj. John Lee, who moved to Kentucky in 1781 with his new wife and a son by a previous marriage, Willis Atwell Lee. John and his son repaired and built additional log portions to the old log structure, previously used as a survey headquarters.

      Old records, recorded in the Woodford County Courthouse; document two buildings being erected in 1799. A two-story brick building was added to the old log cabin, and a new two story log dwelling, 42 x 58 feet. The remains of a stone foundation with the same dimensions are located about 100 feet southwest of the tavern. This location has been used for the past fifty years as a garden site. From the same location, over a period of years, unusual arrowheads and other Indian Artifacts, including Egyptian head figures that were identified by marks, at the University of Kentucky. An old lease to Kennedy and Daily shows the location of buildings where a large amount of rocks from a foundation existed, and where Maj. John Lee resided during the time he ran the Inn and at the time of his death in 1802.

    4. [S40] Will, Richard Cole, Jr. Woodford Co., KY 1839.
      I Richard Cole, Of the County of Woodford and State of Kentucky at present of sound mind and memory but impressed with the uncertainty of life do make and ordain the following for my last will and testament, after the payments of my debts and such funeral expenses as my Executors may as their decision incur. I devise all the residue of my estate as follows To Wit:

      First, I devise to my beloved wife Sara Cole 220 acres of land on the north side of South Elkhorn fork of Elkhorn, which is to be constituted of the tract computed at 156 and ½ acres formerly purchased of Sir William of the representatives of Wm. Alexander, decd. And 25 acres which I purchased from Vansant and which one belonging to Henry Hardy and the residences to be laid off out of land I purchased from Lee, by a live oak to his south line. The houses all to be removed from the Hardy track and the brick house alone to be entitled. To be held and occupied by my said wife during her life, but without the commission of warrant, also thence slave less choice of my slaves for life and their horse, four cows, fifteen sheep, six hogs, two boars, with a remarkable supply of furniture and such farming hand tools and kitchen furniture as may desire to be selected by her from my stock and three hundred dollars in money, but ?A? expressly declared that if my said wife Sara Cole shall marry again, this provision shall cease and all estate embraced by ?A? shall be forfeited by her, to be disposed of as is herein provided relative to the family upon which I live.

      Second, to my daughter Mary Finnie and her children who may survive her, and the children of her children who may have died before her if there be any such. I devise all the residues of it, land I purchased of the heir of Hancock Lee lying mostly on the North side of the South Fork of Elkhorn and including all the land I own on the North side of the said creek not embraced by the devised aforesaid to be held by said daughter during her life and by said children and their heirs forever, their grandchildren, however who may have survived their parents at her death and to take the share that would have been of their father or mother and also give to my said daughter Mary and her children as aforesaid slaves, Charlotte and Henry and their increase forever and accessories give to my daughter Mary Finnie, 1 Dog, 10 sheep, her hogs and $200.00 in money.

      Third, the plantation on the North side, except one piece of ground, including the graves, if and with a convenience to say to it I require to be sold upon a credit of two years with a lien upon the proposed for the price and all residues of my estate. I require to be sold at credit of 12 months the proceeds to be devised between my daughter Elizabeth Martin and, Paine, and my son James Cole and Sara Ann Cole, the daughter of my deceased son Jesse and children of Fanny Bevin and Jesse Cole, son of my son James, and Zerilda Cole the daughter of my son James, in the following portions to wit. My Daughter Sarah and Elizabeth are to have full shares. James and his two children aforesaid are to have one share. Lloyd Cole and Sara Ann Cole to have one each and one third of a share. It being my especial desire that Lloyd be well educated out of his portion.

      Fourth, It is moreover my desire that upon the death of my said wife, or upon her marriage, If she shall marry again that the land and slaves devised to my wife aforesaid upon the condition aforesaid, to be sold and the proceeds be distributed as above provided touching the land upon which I live.

      Fifthly, It is my intention and desire that the shares of a portion of the money hereby devised shall not be paid over to the infants until they retain their full age respectful, but shall be put to interest and well secured. I do hereby appoint my friend Benjamine Harrison and Thomas Martin my Executors of this will, forsaking all others by me at any time made.

      Witness my hand and seal this 15 th day of December 1834.

      Signed and Sealed, Richard Cole Jr.

      Witness, I Hagan, Hancock Lee, Edward C. Hifter

      Codicil; I now make an alteration in my will as reflects, Lloyd Cole; I have a trial with him and think he would be better off without property than with it. I therefore consider he shall not have the part mentioned above, I wish him to have three hundred dollars cash only, and I also wish my Nephew Thomas Jett to be one of my Executors in addition to the two mentioned above. July 12, 1837.

      In the August 1839 Session of Court for the County of Woodford, the foregoing instrument of writing purported to be the last will and testament of Richard Cole Jr., deceased, was this day produced in court and proven by the oath of Hancock Lee one of the subtending officers thereunto and ordered to record and on testament of writing there under written purporting to be the codicil to the last will and testament of the said Richard Cole by oath of George Weir, Hancock Lee and Hancock W. Davis, and ordered to record.

      Attest Herman Boulman