Hannah Allison Cole

<br>Hannah Cole was one of the earliest settlers of the present site of Boonville. She was born in Virginia about 1762. In 1789 she married William Temple Cole. They moved to Kentucky about 1805 and then to what would soon become Missouri Territory in 1807 where they joined the Cooper family and others at Loutre Island (across from present-day Hermann, Missouri).<br><br> In July 1810 Hannah's husband was killed by Indians, and in either the fall of 1810 or sometime in early 1811 Hannah and her nine children, along with the family of her sister Phoebe and Phoebe's husband Stephen Cole, came with the Coopers and others to the Boonslick area of central Missouri and settled in the river hills were Boonville now stands.<br><br> During the Indian troubles associated with the War of 1812 the Coles erected crude fortifications around their cabins, but later moved across the river where Forts Hempstead and Kincaid afforded better protection. After the war the Coles returned to their homes, and for a brief period Hannah Cole's Fort was the county seat of Howard County. Hannah was issued the first business license to operate a ferry across the Missouri River in June 1817.<br><br> When Cooper County was formed out of the southern half of Howard County in 1818, Boonville was made the county seat. Hannah Cole's Fort then became the site for the first school, first church service and first voting place in Cooper County. Hannah later sold her preemption right to most of the land on which the town was platted and moved about fifteen miles south of Boonville where she died in 1843. She was buried in the Old Briscoe Cemetery next to Hannah Cole Roadside Park on Highway 5, not far from her home.<br><br> [Statue marker reads]<br> <center>Breaking New Ground<br> <b>Hannah Allison Cole<br> 1762 - 1843</b><br> Pioneer Mother of the Boonslick<br> Dedicated: June 6, 2004<br> Sculptor: Harry Weber</center>