In mid-March 1865, U.S. and Confederate soldiers clashed on farmland during the Battle of Bentonville. (the Cole Plantation). Enslaved people like Levin Cole remained on the land while weaponry and soldiers cried out around them. Through this violence, Levin received his freedom as the Confederates retreated west. Levin remained in Bentonville, continuing to work on nearby farms for pay.

Cole married Harriet Morris, whom he likely knew and cared for before he gained his freedom, but was unable to officially marry beforehand. Both the white Cole and Morris families had farms near the battlefield, so it’s likely that both Levin and Harriet were enslaved on those respective farms.

They had been given their enslavers last names as a form of ownership and kept them after Emancipation.
Together, Levin and Harriet had either seven or nine children, depending on the source reviewed. They had three children together by 1870. Levin saved enough money to purchase land near where he had been enslaved and build his family a home that was truly theirs.

Art Monk who is the Hall of Fame receiver for the Washington Redskins during their championship years. Jazz legend Thelonious Monk’s grandfather, Hinton Monk was born enslaved on the Cole Plantation. Following emancipation, Hinton moved with his half-brother Levin Cole to nearby Newton Grove. Given the decision to adopt a last name, Hinton chose Monk, the surname of his enslaved father. His son, Thelonious Sr. married Barbara Batts, and eventually moved to New York City with his young son Thelonious Jr., who’d grow up to become one of the most iconic jazz musicians of the 20th century.

Nat King Cole and his daughter Natalie Cole can also trace their heritage back to enslaved black Americans who labored on the Cole Plantation.

Tuscarora singer-songwriter and musician Pura Fe also traces her lineage back to the Cole family line.

The Levin Cole house was most likely built in the early 1870s according to a report by Cole’s great grandson O.V. Cogdell. An early drawing of the floorplan of the house exists (it’s impossible to know exactly when it was done) that shows a single story with a porch and three main rooms. An “L” addition to the house was completed later. The drawing also documents the planting of an oak tree on the site in 1872.

According to the book The Historic Architecture of Johnston County, NC by Thomas R. Butchko and edited by K. Todd Johnson, the Cole farmhouse was considered the oldest and most substantial dwelling built by a former slave still standing in the county when the book was published in 2016.

There are also some copies of agricultural records of the Cole farm at the Johnston County Heritage Center, completed in 1880. The farm consisted of 120 acres, sixty of them tilled for crops, and sixty which remained as woodland and forest.

Of the tilled acres, twenty acres were planted with Indian corn, one acre with wheat, ten acres with peas, four acres with cotton, one acre with sweet potatoes, one acre with forty apple trees, and one acre with forty peach trees. Ten acres were devoted to wood products. The farm was considered successful and Cole is thought to have become a well-to-do businessman in the community.

A cemetery not far from the house serves as a family plot. It’s the final resting place for Levin and Harriet who were both buried there in the early 1900s. Other family members are buried there as well. There are twenty-two graves in all.
Descendants of the Cole family still live in the area, including one who lives directly in front of the cemetery.

Note: The Cole House is located on private property but may be able to be seen from Battlefield Road, Johnston County near the Old Cole Cemetery, not far from the Bentonville Battlefield.

Sources: The North Carolina African American Heritage Commission; The Friends of Bentonville Battlefield, Inc. ; NCGenWeb Project