Campaign button, 1904-1910, Collection of U.S. House of Representatives

COLE, Ralph Dayton, (brother of Raymond Clinton Cole), a Representative from Ohio; born in Vanlue, Hancock County, Ohio, November 30, 1873; attended the common schools; was graduated from Findlay College, Findlay, Ohio, in 1896 and from Ohio Northern University, Ada, Ohio, in 1900; deputy clerk of Hancock County 1897-1899; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1900 and commenced practice in Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio; member of the State house of representatives 1900-1904; elected as a Republican to the Fifty-ninth, Sixtieth, and Sixty-first Congresses (March 4, 1905-March 3, 1911); unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1910 to the Sixty-second Congress; resumed the practice of law in Findlay, Toledo, and Columbus, Ohio; legal adviser to the Comptroller of the Currency in 1912 and 1913; chairman of the speakers’ bureau, Republican National Committee, in 1916; delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1916, 1924, and 1928; enlisted in the United States Army June 6, 1917, serving overseas as major and lieutenant colonel in the Thirty-seventh Infantry Division, taking part in many major engagements; was honorably discharged from the service April 6, 1919; one of the founders of the American Legion at Paris February 16, 1919; resumed the practice of his profession; sustained serious injuries in an automobile accident near Parkman, Geauga County, Ohio, from which he died in Warren, Trumbull County, Ohio, on October 15, 1932; interment in Maple Grove Cemetery, Findlay, Ohio.