Correspondence, family documents, genealogical research, poems, school compositions, and writings related to John A. Cole, his wife Julia A. Cole (née Alvord), as well as his sister Ella Cole Barrows, his brother Arthur Wells Cole, and his parents John and Mary E. Wells Cole. John A. Cole’s mother, Elizabeth Shaw Cole died on April 13, 1843 and there are a few documents related to her in this series too. John A. Cole refers Mary E. Wells Cole as “mother” in his letters and is thus referred to as such. Ella is referred to by her married name, Barrows.

Many letters relate to John A. Cole’s time with the United States Christian Commission during the Civil War and his work with the Lincoln Industrial Mission and Howard University after the war. In 1862 he volunteered as a delegate of the United States Christian Commission, and became the General Field Agent for all the fieldwork east of the Allegheny Mountains in 1863. His work with the commission took him to the battlefields of Antietam, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, and he was present for the Confederacy’s surrender in Appomattox. After the surrender, he served the commission in Louisiana and Texas, after which time he moved to New York City and worked as the secretary of the American Christian Commission. He then moved to Washington D. C. and opened an office as a civil engineer and became connected with the First Congregational Church there. For some years he was superintendent/president of the church’s Lincoln Industrial Mission, an educational and social aid mission that worked with freedmen, women, and children in the city. He also served as secretary and the financial agent at the newly founded Howard University for several years, and helped champion the arts education programs.

When the Civil War broke out Julia A. Cole’s father Reverend John Watson Alvord went to the front representing the American Tract Society in relief work until the establishment of the United States Christian Commission and later worked for the Freedman’s Bureau. She graduated from high school during this time, and not long after the family relocated to Washington D. C. to Wisewell Barracks where officials belonging to the Freedmen’s Bureau were stationed. Eventually, her father bought a lot and built a home near the newly founded Howard University.

Julia A. Cole taught classes in the Normal Department at Howard University, and she spent her Sunday afternoons at the Lincoln Industrial Mission, which is how she and John A. Cole met.

The genealogy research contains ancestral charts, biographical notes, family recollections, letters, maps (many are topographic), photographs, and postcards related to Julia A. Cole’s Alvord family genealogy. Julia’s brother John Watson Alvord, her uncle (mother Myrtilla Mead Peck’s brother) General Lewis M. Peck, and Samuel Morgan Alvord assisted in the compilation of the genealogy research. There is a folder related to Cole genealogy as well. More Cole genealogy research is in the second series as it relates to Elizabeth Cole Fleming’s (John A. and Julia A. Cole’s daughter) genealogy.