Fargo, North Dakota
was born in Avon, Rock County, Wisconsin, on October 8, 1858. His parents moved to Steele County, Minnesota. In the spring of 1863 they settled down on a farm two miles north of the present Blooming Prairie. He grew up on the farm and moved from there to St. Croix County, Wisconsin, and worked there for two years on a farm. He went down to school in the winter. He turned around after that and returned to Blooming Prairie and worked as a salesman in a Lumber Yard for several years.
After that he came to Ellendale in Dickey County, North Dakota in about the fall of 1884. After that he spent four months in what is presently South Dakota in the fall and into thet winter of the following year. The most part of this four months was spent in Ashton in Spink County. He was a wheat buyer for the elevator in Ellendale for five years. He was elected as a Legislative member in 1889. He was the chairman of the "Committee on Warehouse Grain, Grading and Dealing". He was also a member of the Temperance Committee.
He was a Secretary in County Temperance Alliance in Dickey County from 1887 to 88 and 89. Dickey County voted its saloons down with a majority of 200 in accordance with County Option Law in 1887 and held it out with a majority of 500 in 1888 out of a total poll of 1651. A majority was given for prohibition owing to a law attachment with a constitutional determination in 1889 with a majority of 429 out of a total poll of 1500.
He was also one of the men who put in the acclaimed lottery bill in the first Legislature and helped to serve to that end. He functioned as a State attorney in Dickey County in the years from 1895 to 1896, since the State Attorney was sick almost the entire time. He became authorised as an attorney in April of 1891 and has practiced as a lawyer since and is now and has been the editor of "Search-Light'' in all of its lifetime except for the first five months. Cole’s parents came to Wisconsin from Norway in 1841. He was a candidate for District Judge in the 3rd of District in the election in 1916. He now has lived in Fargo for 20 years. Cole's father, Andreas Karl Cole, was from Kristiania. His mother, Turi Asleseli, was from Numedal.
Source: Norwegians and Norwegian Homes in America by Hans Jervell - 1916 - Page 165