McDonough ILGenWeb

COLE, George W., of Bushnell, McDonough County, Ill., who is successfully engaged in the banking and grain trade, was born in that city March 25, 1870, the son of James Cole, whose biographical record appears in this volume. In youth and early manhood Mr. Cole graduated from the high school with the class of 1887, and later took a two years' course in the Bushnell Normal School. He then located in Chicago and was employed for six years in the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank and the American Trust and Savings Bank, after which he filled the position of cashier in a wholesale drug store. Relinquishing this position in 1897, he returned to Bushnell and became a Director in the First National Bank and entered into the grain business with his father. In 1903 he undertook the grain business at Bushnell alone, perchased the elevator at Adair and, in 1905, a half-interest in the firm of the Cole & McDonald, grain dealers at Walnut Grove, Ill., and has since conducted their operations. In addition to this occupation he organized and successfully established the Chilian Remedy Company, which manufactured and placed upon the market a number of eye remedies. In 1905 he sold out his interest in this company, and now devotes his entire time to the management of Cole's Savings Bank (of which he is Vice-President) and to the grain business. He is a careful and energetic business man.

On April 11, 1892, Mr. Cole was united in marriage with Marie Louise Williams, a native of Chicago. Two children have been born of this union, namely: Beatrice Marie and Helen Bernice. Politically, Mr. Cole is a member of the Republican party, and fraternally is connected with the I. O. O. F., McDonough Encampment, M. W. A., and N. A. U.

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Source: The Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of McDonough County, compiled by Dr. Newton Bateman, and Paul Shelby, 1907.