Probably the most wonderful traffic convenience in our town is the underpass. This is a picture of it being built. It came from the Ames Historical Society Web Site.
Why am I featuring it? Because today I want to brag about my family. This is a picture of my grandfather and his three brothers
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| The Cole brothers, left to right: Ben, William, Lew, and Clarence. |
The four Cole brothers, who were active in the business and professional life of early Ames. Lew Cole (1880-1954), a farmer and owner of a Landfill South of town; William (Will) Cole (1871-1955); Clarence "Dig" Cole (1882-1968), a veterinarian who from 1927 to 1952 was the head of the Hog Cholera Station, the forerunner to the National Animal Disease Laboratories, in Ames; and Ben Cole (1873-1939), a builder whose company, Ben Cole & Son, constructed the Grand Avenue underpass in 1937-1938 (See picture above) and the new Ames High School (since 1990, the Ames City Hall) which opened for classes in the fall of 1939 on the west corner of Sixth Street and Clark Avenue.
John Cole, (My great-grandfather) a Civil War veteran, came to Ames in 1865 at age 19. He became a builder and erected this building on Onondaga (Main) Street in 1895 at the commission of Professor Joseph L. Budd, head of the Horticulture Department at Iowa State College.
The building's first occupant was the Fair Store, founded by Joseph Jacobs in September, 1895. Located on the south side of Main Street, east of Kellogg Avenue,... Shown here (around 1913) are E. W. Valentine, Joseph Jacobs, three unidentified male clerks, Catherine Cole, Ethel Meeker, and Kate McMichael (later Mrs. Lew Cole).
My great uncles were a part of my life as I was growing up from 1941 until my mother remarried and we moved to Atlantic Iowa in 1951 (?) My Uncle Lew and my Aunt Kate (Kate McMichael in the picture above) were my school lunch program while I was in school. Their home at 522 Crawford was about 4 blocks from school and I would go there every day for lunch and also on Wednesday evening. On Wednesdays I would hang out with the slightly older boy who lived with his parents in the apartment upstairs. I loved the house and the neighborhood (still do) It had been built by my maternal great grandfather George Underwood who was tall and built it with high ceilings and doors. He was mayor of Ames for a period and was also Master of Arcadia Lodge #249. (His daughter is in the picture just above Ethel Meeker).
My Uncle Billy is a more distant memory because he was killed in a car accident when I was little. I don't remember Uncle Ben at all but I do remember his son who took over the Construction Firm. My mother and I lived with my grandfather who did not like the name Clarence and went by "Doc" or "Dig" (He and the other Clarence who worked at the station called each other P.T. I found out later that the initials stood for Pig Turd. They did work at the Hog Cholera Research station after all.)
There were five sisters - Elizabeth, Avis (school teacher in Ames for 40 years at Roosevelt School,) Catherine (Kate) who worked at the University (in the picture above) When I was little three of them lived in the "home place" at 13th and Burnett Ave. Aunts Jess and Nell were married and I did not know them very well)
Every Saturday night I would spend the night there and we (Aunt Kate, Aunt Kate Mike, Aunt Avis and I would all pile into Uncle Lew's car and go for a drive. Many times we would stop outside "Red Shipley's Barber Shop in Campus town and wait while Uncle Lew went in and got his hairscut. I remember his old Nash and how neat it was when I was finally able to stretch from door to door. Uncle Lew seldom closed the door to his car. He would just get in and gun the engine and the doors would close automatically. People describe him as a hard man to work for and he probably was but he treated his great nephew wonderfully. I adored him and would ride around with him and go to the land fill where people were going through the mounds of trash to find things of worth that they could pick. I suppose they were the first American Pickers.
William was my great-great grandfather and he was the one who brought the family to Ames in 1865. With all the history of the Cole family and the building that they did in this town it seems strange to me that there hasn't been a Cole Street somewhere in the town.
Why did they come to Ames in 1865. Simple - that was as far as the trains went at that time. I think that it was a good move. Ames has been a great place to live and I think my family has made some good contributions to Ames.
Oh, one more thing. Mrs. Meeker (my grandmother's sister) was a photographer and took lots of pictures. I had books and books of pictures which I had in the basement for a long time. No longer...what did I do with them? I donated them to the Historical Society. Seems to me they are better preserved there.
Thanks for stopping by. Hope you enjoyed the little story. Hugs, j
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