Walter COLES, Congress, VA (1790-1857)

COLES, Walter, (son of Isaac Coles), a Representative from Virginia; born at Coles Ferry, Halifax County, Va., December 8, 1790; moved with his parents to Pittsylvania County, Va., in 1798; attended Hampden-Sidney College, Prince Edward County, Va., and Washington College (now Washington and Lee University), Lexington, Va.; served as a second lieutenant in the Second Regiment of Light Dragoons in the War of 1812; promoted to the rank of captain of riflemen on the northern frontier; was honorably discharged in 1815 and returned to Virginia, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits; justice of the peace; member of the State house of delegates 1817, 1818, 1833, and 1834; elected as a Jacksonian to the Twenty-fourth Congress and reelected as a Democrat to the four succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1835-March 3, 1845); was not a candidate for renomination in 1844; resumed agricultural pursuits; died at his home, “Coles Hill,” near Chatham, Va., on November 9, 1857; interment in the family burying ground at “Coles Hill.”

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present