Hannah Allison Cole 1762-1848

I was interestested whilst in Colorado to find out my grandchildren's heritage on their father Jeremy Cole's side of the family. This is the cover of a book researched by the family. The first immigrants were Stephen and William Cole who left Bristol in the 1700's on the ship 'Providence,' and went to Virginia. One of William's grandchildren William Temple Cole, married Hannah Allison (Cole) and she bore nine children. They arrived in Missouri 1809, but the following year William was killed by native Indians ( known by that name) and Hannah was left to raise the children alone in the wilderness. She built a house on the bluff overlooking the Missouri river where the city of Boonsville now stands and was the first white woman settler. Her house was turned into a fort in the war of 1812 and was a safe haven and water source. She was also the first white woman to cross the Missouri river when she was given the first license to operate a make-shift ferry service, a platform on canoes. In 2004, several women from the Cole family were asked to provide a family likeness to Hannah, for the sculptor Harry Weber who made a life size statue of her. It was erected in Morgan St Park, Missouri and the inscription reads :- HANNAH ALLISON COLE, PIONEER MOTHER OF THE BOONSLICK, 2004, sculptor Harry Weber. Boonslick is a corruption of Boone's Lick where the sons of Daniel Boone settled. Another relation of Hannah's was Zerelda Cole, the mother of Jesse James, the notorious outlaw with a high price on his head. Every year there is a Cole family get-together to keep up the records. My daughter's father-in-law still has the iron cooking pot and trunk which were used in the wagon trains. What a brave woman was Hannah !