This home was built by a long-time express agent

With the cooperation of the Southeast Iowa Union/Mt. Pleasant News, The Mt. Pleasant Historic Preservation Commission will be publishing, every week or two peeks at some of the featured homes in the 1909 book, Mt. Pleasant Beautiful.

In the series, the 1909 picture will be contrasted with one of recent vintage. The Commission has been collecting information for the eventual issuance of a new book updating the information on the still standing homes from the 1909 publication.

You can test your knowledge of historic Mt. Pleasant with this column. The identity of the featured home will be published with the next featured home. The last featured home was the Kitch House at 601 North Jackson. We apologize for a glitch in the headline for that story. The two houses in question were actually side by side at the corner of Pearl and North Jackson.

This week’s featured house was built in 1895 by Elbert Cole, a 37-year-old bachelor. He was a native of Western New York and had been raised in Waverly, Iowa.

Cole’s status changed dramatically in August of 1895 when he wed local girl, Eloise Roper. She was active in P.E.O. and although other details of her activities are not readily found, she did present Mr. Cole with two daughters.

Cole was employed by the local express agency. Initially with the American Express Company which was absorbed by Adams Express and the Adams company took over the local operation in 1893. Cole had been hired in 1891. Express agencies might be considered the UPS and FedEx of their day but early on at least almost all of their good’s transportation was handled by America’s extensive railroad network.

By 1900 there were four primary companies in the express business: Adams, Southern, American and Wells Fargo. In 1917, with the US entry into World War I and a national transportation need, President Woodrow nationalize the railway system in December. By mid-1918 the major express agencies were consolidated by the federal government into the American Railway Express Agency, later to become Railway Express Agency or REA which terminated operations in 1975, the victim of many things, the Interstate Highway system being one of the important ones.

Elbert Cole’s long and successful career as the express manager in Mt. Pleasant came to an end in 1921after about 30 years. He suffered a nervous breakdown and one can only speculate as to whether or not this was related to the new employment situation brought about by the consolidation of the express system.

Eloise and Elbert moved to Keokuk to be near their daughters and Elbert passed away just four years later. Our featured house remained the property of Eloise who retained it as a rental until selling it in 1937. Eloise passed away in 1953, almost 30 years after Elbert. They are buried in Forest Home Cemetery in Mt. Pleasant.

The 1937 buyers were Rev. Charles and Jessie Cochran, a Methodist minister who served a large number of parishes in Southeast Iowa. He became the subject of controversy during World War I while serving in Wayland. He was reprimanded by the Henry County Council on Defense for statements he made about those holding to conscientious objector status.

Cochran, who was born in 1870 died in 1946 and his wife in 1949.