Royal Cole - Wellsboro Cemetery, Wellsboro, PA - War of 1812 on Waymarking.com

Royal Cole participated in events of the Revolution and the War of 1812. His son was killed in the war of 1812, so he felt that it was his duty to take his place and fight. Cole participated in the events that happened at the St. Lawrence and the banks of Lake Champlain. He was born in Rhode Island and later moved to Wellsboro, PA, where he died on July 4, 1849, and is now buried in the Wellsboro Cemetery.

I found his obituary:

COLE Royal
The Tioga Eagle - July 11, 1849.
Died in Wellsboro on the 4th 'of July, 1849, ROYAL COLE, in the 90th year of his age. He was born in the year 1760, in the State of Rhode Island. In the year 1780, though but a boy, he volunteered his services to guard the cattle of the settlers on the frontiers from the British and Indians. As winter approached, his services not being needed any longer to protect the cattle of
the settlers, he volunteered to supply the place of his sickbrother in the armv, and spent the winter of 1781 in: the army of Washington. After peace was established he removed to the state of New York, where he remained until the year 1817. When the War of 1812 broke out with Great Britain, his eldest son was a volunteer, and received mortal wound at the battle of Queenstown. The heroic old father, when he heard of the death of his son, immediately prepared to supply his place. Winter was approaching and he had a young and helpless family of girls to provide for, and but small means to aid him. In the face of these objections, he shouldered his musket and knapsack to avenge the death of his son. He remained in the service of his country nearly the whole of the following year, and participated in some of the stirring events that surrounded that took place on the banks of the St. Lawrence and Lake Champlain. In the year 1817, himself and family emigrated to this village, and located near where the Methodist Church now stands. It is impossible to imagine at this time the difficulties that surrounded the first settlers of this country; without mills or roads, and many times without provisions or the possibility of obtaining them; without luxuries or even necessaries; and worse than all, surrounded by utter destitution, and the country scourged in summer by the most malignant fevers; it needed the resolution and energy of a Kentucky pioneer to succeed. But Mr. Cole was eminently qualified to succeed in all those requisites. He was bold, hospitable and energetic, qualitites that endured him to his friends and made him useful as the pioneer of a new country. The last years of his life his pecuniary circumstances were good and the kindess of his relations made his old age happy and contented. Mr. Cole was eminently a patriot. He had a heart full of hope and manly trust in the glorious institutions of our free republican country. When but a boy he showed his confidence in the “experiment for freedon,” and bared his breast to the worse than British bullets, the inclement winter of 1781 in the army of the Revolution. In later life, when smarting under the loss of his first born son, who had been killed defending the liberties, he fought to establish; too old to be drafted and unfitted to endure the fatigues of a campaign; nothing daunted when his country called he answered in person to the call for volunteers; and as long as his country needed, he remained in the service. He always regarded the 4th of July as the greatest of days and never failed to celebrate it in a becoming manner. Its approach was hailed with the warm feelings of a patriot, and when his disease threatened his life, as early as the month of March, he told his friends that he desired to live to see another 4th of July, and then he would die in peace. Strange as it may seem, he lingered on in the full enjoyment of his mental faculties up to two o’clock of the 4th, when he heard the noise of cannon. “Now,” said he, “I am ready to go,” and calmly composing himself, with his relatives around his bedside, he quietly breathed his last about 3 o’clock of that day. – Seventy-three years from the Nation’s Birthday, and sixty-eight from the time he volunteered to fight for her liberties he closed his career – a moral and an honest man; a good husband and a good neighbor; leaving behind him a large and respectable number of relatives and friends to mourn his loss.

His stone reads:
Royal Cole
DIED
July 4, 1849
AGE 89y 5M & 2???

The stone is an original tablet that is now laying flat on the ground, and has two Veteran Flags. It can be found by entering the cemetery from the Nichols St. entrance. Once in the entrance take the right and you will only need to go about 100 feet. The stone is along the drive, and can be recognized because it is flat, and because of the two flags that I've mentioned.

Date Erected/Dedicated: July 4, 1849 Who put it there? Private/Government?: Private Location/Address: Nichols St Wellsboro, PA United States 16901 County/Province: Tioga County Hours or Restrictions if Appropiate: From: 9:00 AM To: 8:00 PM Rate the Site: Photos Will Be Uploaded: yes Website (related) if available: Not listed

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