Civil War vet gets tombstone

By Jessica Farrish

The clear sunshine and bright, fall foliage were perfect backdrops to the highlight of Brenda Cole Grubb’s visit to Coal City.

Grubb, 66, and her daughter, Robyn Grubb, both of Arlington, Va., arrived in Coal City last Wednesday. Their purpose was to visit with Grubb’s brother, Roger Grubb.

On Monday, they were in a small cemetery behind an old Cole family residence, located off Coal City Road.

They watched as Les Haga Sr., husband of local historian and writer Pauline Haga, lowered a tombstone into freshly-turned earth, then poured cement to set it.

It wasn’t a decoration for thrilling trick-or-treaters: Les Haga was erecting the tombstone above the grave of Grubb’s great-great-great uncle, Bartley Dolphus Cole, who died on Sept. 21, 1920.

Grubb “discovered” her uncle’s unmarked grave while researching her family’s history. “I started doing genealogy work in 1997, and through the work, I’ve got in touch with Pauline,” said Grubb. “She helped me get started.”

Grubb and Roger often visit tombstones where ancestors are buried in Virginia and West Virginia.

It was during one such excursion that the brother and sister had discovered that Bartley Dolphus Cole — a Civil War veteran — lacked a marker on his grave.

Grubb had a picture of some of Bartley Cole’s family members standing around his grave. The grave was marked by a gray headstone.

“We were in search of the grave,” Roger explained. “When we came out here, there was no stone there.”

The federal government pays the cost of erecting monuments on the unmarked graves of war veterans, Pauline Haga explained.

Grubb notified Haga of the absent grave marker three months ago, and Haga located Bartley Cole’s obituary in the local newspaper and contacted the appropriate authorities with the information.

When Grubb learned from Haga that stones usually take around eight weeks to be completed, she felt disappointed; Grubb had just had surgery and would not be “released” for activities like travel for six to eight weeks.

She just assumed that she’d miss watching the tombstone be laid. When she called Haga Thursday, she learned the stone had arrived, she said.

The Hagas picked up the 230-pound stone from Egnor Monuments, and Les Haga placed it on Bartley Cole’s grave. “I wasn’t planning on being here,” Grubb said.

“All that searching, and we got finally our reward, to see this (marker) placed,” added Roger.

The Hagas place tombstones on unmarked veterans’ graves as a hobby, said Haga.

They receive calls from people in other states and have gotten inquiries on local plots by descendants from as far away as Switzerland and South Africa.

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Grubb learned of Bartley Cole by tracing back the ancestry of a cousin, surnamed Brooks, who had been killed during World War II in Germany. Haga had called Grubb to give her the phone number of a government official who was looking for possible family members of the soldier. “So I gave her the names of some people that lived in the Coal City area,” she said.

DNA testing by the government revealed the man was a Cole relative, and his remains were flown back to the United States and interred in Louisville, Ky., said Grubb.

Brooks was Bartley Cole’s great-grandfather, she reported. Cole’s parents are buried in a family cemetery at Odd.

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The life of the man buried at the Coal City family cemetery began on March 14, 1837, in Nottoway County, Va.

The brother of Grubb’s great-great grandfather, Thomas Cole, the Cole family moved to Wyoming County around 1844, traveling through rough mountains to settle.

The Coles were among the first to settle the area now known as Coal City — which was really named “Cole City,” according to Haga.

Bartley Cole was a farmer, and the plot of ground where he is now buried was once part of his farm. Both brothers enlisted in the Confederate Army on the same day at White Sulphur Springs, joining the Virginia 60th, Company I.

Bartley Cole became a lieutenant before deserting the militia, possibly to go back to his home for spring farming, said Roger Grubb. He later re-enlisted, and his new tombstone reflects his status as a private. “He did not keep his rank,” Grubb noted. “Let’s put it that way.”

After the United States defeated the rebel militias, Bartley Cole married Esther Adeline Sneed in 1866. The couple owned a grist mill which was flooded by the Stone Coal River several times. They had 21 children together. “My grandfather and grandmother had 18 children,” Grubb added. “But my grandfather fathered 23, between two wives.”

— E-mail: jfarrish@register-herald.com