Cole Younger Cole Younger Thomas Coleman Younger (January 15, 1844 – March 21, 1916) was an American Confederate guerrilla during the American Civil War and later an outlaw leader with the James–Younger Gang. He was the eldest brother of Jim, John and Bob Younger, who were also members of the gang. Younger, was born on January 15, 1844 on the Younger family farm in Jackson County, Missouri. He was a son of Henry Washington Younger, a prosperous farmer from Greenwood, Missouri and Bersheba Leighton Fristoe, daughter of a prominent Jackson County farmer. Cole was the seventh of fourteen children. During the American
Bob Cole (composer) or Cole’s changing ideals in black musicals – he desired to test out another path in vaudeville plays and songwriting In 1899, Cole met two brothers from Jacksonville, Florida. who paved the path of the rest of his career in show business: his partnership with James Weldon and J. Rosamond Johnson, especially J. R. Johnson, lasted until his retirement in 1911. As Thomas L. Riis claimed, Cole’s “association with the Johnson brothers indicated that Cole was turning away from coon-song composition” (140). There was little evidence as to the reason behind Cole’s drastic shift from traditional “coon songs”; one possible