Born in New York City, on August 20, 1804. In 1815, he removed with his father to Ohio. In 1824, he settled in Bond County, Ill., and taught the first free school in that part of the country. Here he was married to Lydia Hunt in 1826. In 1831, he removed to McDonough county, Ill., where during his three years’ residence he was engaged part of the time in improving land and part in merchandizing in the then new town of Macomb. In April, 1836, he removed to what is now the state of Iowa and settled in Des Moines County. He was enrolling clerk in the first territorial legislature of the then territory of Wisconsin, and afterward a Justice of the Peace and Probate Judge of Des Moines County. He assisted in the first government land sales of Iowa held at Burlington in 1839. During his residence in Des Moines County, he improved a large farm near Burlington. In 1843, Mr. Coles moved to Henry County, where he improved another farm, and in 1846 moved to Wapello County and settled near Eddyville. In 1852, he was chosen to represent Wapello county in the state legislature. On April 10, 1853, President Franklin Pierce appointed him Register of the Land Office at Chariton, in which position he served four years with marked ability and integrity, disposing of nearly two million acres of public land. After leaving government he was a merchant in Chariton, most of the time a grocer, and farmed in addition to preaching and serving as a free-lance orator.
Note: By act of the Iowa Legislature in 1853 (ch 39), Robert Cock became Robert Coles (his mother’s maiden name). He was a son of Oliver Cock and Zipporah Coles. They appeared with the surname Cock in the 1850 census of Wapello County. The family arrived in Chariton under the surname Coles.
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