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COLE, PRESLIE B., JUDGE
Vol. 5, p. 1811

While the present generation of lawyers in Oklahoma will have no
difficulty identifying Judge COLE on account of his long established
position as a member of the McAlester bar, there is a question that
he deserves the grateful remembrance of a later generation,
particularly on account of a splendid record while on the District
Bench, from which he retired early in 1915 after eight years of
capable service as judge.

Judge Cole represented the best quality of the judiciary and in his
official capacity set some high standards of service for his
successors to follow. For fully a quarter of a century he has given
all the energy of his nature to the profession which represents to
him the dignity and service associated with the law.

He was nearly thirty years of age when admitted to the bar and his
earlier career has been one of struggle and hard work to support
himself and gain the object of his steadfast ambition. He was born at
Turin, Georgia, December 6, 1862, a son of Monroe W. and Nancy
(RUSSELL) Cole. His father was born at Danville, Virginia, of German
lineage, while the mother was native of South Carolina and of Scotch-
Irish ancestry. Judge Cole's parents were married in Georgia, where
they afterwards lived until their death. His father was an architect
and building contractor, and during the War Between the States he
made a fine record as lieutenant of his company.

Reared in Georgia, Preslie B. Cole accepted such advantages as were
presented by the local schools where he spent his boyhood, but most
of his liberal and broad education and knowledge of men and affairs
have come as a result of his varied experience since leaving school
and becoming dependent upon his own resources. When nineteen he left
home and undertook to make his own way in the world. From Georgia he
removed to Arkansas, and at this stage of his early career was not
too proud to accept any honorable means of earning a living. He
finally became clerk in a small store at Hackett City, and later
developed as a traveling salesman. His headquarters at first were at
Fort Smith and later at St. Louis. With this experience back of him
he realized that his real talent pointed in another direction and he
quietly but determinedly took up the study of law while in Arkansas.

Judge Cole was admitted to the Arkansas bar in 1891, but in the same
year moved to Indian Territory and established his home and began
practice at McAlester. That city has been his residence ever since,
and in a few years his abilities had gained him recognition as one of
the leading attorneys of the old territory. His experience and other
qualifications made him the logical candidate when Indian Territory
became merged with Oklahoma Territory. As the new state, for the
office of district judge, and he was nominated and elected judge of
the Fourth Judicial District. In that office he served eight years,
his term ending in January, 1915.

While Judge Cole sat on the District Bench more than 1,000 criminal
cases came before him, 100 or more of them being murder trials. It is
a supreme tribute to his judicial temperament, his fairness and
impartiality, and his sound knowledge of precedence and equity, that
in only two instances were his decisions in criminal cases reversed
by a higher court. At the same time a great number of civil cases
were tried before him, and in that class of cases there resulted not
more than half a dozen reversals altogether.

Judge Cole has long been an active democrat, and was a delegate to
the National Democratic Convention at Baltimore in 1912, where he
served as a member of the committee on credentials. He was an ardent
supporter of the candidacy of Champ Clark for president, and served
as a member of Clark's advisory committee.

Thoburn, Joseph B., A Standard History of Oklahoma, An Authentic
Narrative of its Development, 5 v. (Chicago, New York: The American
Historical Society, 1916).