From what our oldest people say, the snakes, especially rattlesnakes, were the greatest dread of anything....Henry DYSON, a fine-looking old pioneer still living, tells us that his mother, Polly DYSON, kept a hoe hanging on the outside of her cabin with which to kill snakes, and many were the rattlers she dispatched. The famous rattlesnake den is south of "Big Hollow," a rocky ravine on the west side of the road near the watering trough. There they wintered by the hundreds. One fall John DYSON and Luther COLE fastened them in and kept them there several years till their rattling ceased. ("Memorial to the Pioneer Women of the Western Reserve," edited by Mrs. Gertrude Van Rensselaer Wickham, Woman's Department of the Cleveland Centennial Commission, 1896. ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/oh/portage/history/Hiram.txt)

BLM records show he purchased 40 acres 7/10/1844 in Daviess Co. Later purchases in surrounding area in 1853, 1854, 1859.

A Mormon descendent of Luther’s son Oren wove some of her ancestry into a “testimony” story posted at http://www.centerplace.org/library/testmny/bofmtst1.htm. The dates don’t really work, but the story is that the family left Vermont shortly after the Revolutionary War [actually, the Coles left Ct in 1811, the Loomises left Vt in 1818]. Luther Cole brought a large wagon train to Portage County, where there was a large Indian population. The population was descimated by smallpox in the late 1790s, and they were in need of medical help. Oren’s grandmother Mrs. Cole - Luther’s mother Mary, unless she means the family from Vermont, then Olive Hatch Loomis - spent six weeks caring for the sick in their camp.

Whatever the story, his children all consistently and correctly reported their parents birthplaces on the census, so there was probably a family story or two. Oldin, Edmond, Olive, Charles, William and Mehitable stayed in the Daviess County area. Loomis went early to California, and Oren moved around the Northwest. Solomon disappeared and has not been found in 1880.

1830 OH 1840 MO 1850 MO 1860 MO
1830 Portage Co, OH: Luther Cole: 3m u5 [Edmund, Orin, Solomon], 1m 5-10 [Oldin], 1 30-40 [Luther], 1f 20-30 [Chloe] (p. 282 Hiram) (10/26/03 Ancestry)
1840 Clay Co, MO: 1m u5 [Loomis?], 1 m 5-10 [Charles], 2 10-15 [Edmond, Orin], 1 15-20 [Oldin], 2 40-50 [Luther, ?], 1f 5-10 [Olive], 1 30-40 [Chloe] (p. 27 Unknown Twp) (10/26/03 Ancestry)
1850 Daviess Co, MO: Luther 55 b. CT, Clora, 47. Lomas 16 OH, Charles 14, William H. 11 MO, Mahetable 6 MO. Olive, Olden and Oren families nearby. (Dist. 27, p. 353) (7/22/95)
1860 Daviess, MO: Luther 65 CT (Farmer $2400 RE $150 PE), Clora 57 VT, Charles 24 OH, Mehitable 19 MO. (p. 490 7/7/1860) (7/9/96)
1870 MO Census: No Luther or Chloe. (7/9/96)

Migrated with family in 1818. See note under father. After Luther’s death, lived with her son William.

1870 Daviess Co, MO: Wm. H. Cole 29 MO Farmer, Margaret 25 IN, Cora 3 MO, John 1, Cloa 66 [Next door to Charles] (Jefferson p. 314 8/15/70) (11/25/03 HeritageQuest)
1880 Daviess Co, MO: Choc. Cole, 77 b. VT, F. b. VT. Living w/ W.H. Cole (son) and family. (Jefferson, p. 16D) (10/26/03 FamilySearch)