George Edward Cole (23 December 1826-3 December 1906) was a delegate to the US House of Representatives (D-WA AL) from 4 March 1863 to 3 March 1865 (succeeding William H. Wallace and preceding Arthur A. Denny) and Governor of the Washington Territory from 8 January to 4 March 1867 (succeeding William Pickering and preceding Marshall F. Moore).
Biography[]
George Edward Cole was born in Trenton, New York in 1826, and he worked as a store clerk before moving to Illinois, taking part in the 1849 California Gold Rush, and settling in Oregon in 1850. Cole served in the Oregon House of Representatives from 1852 to 1853 and supported splitting the territory, helping oversee the establishment of the Washington Territory. He moved to Walla Walla in 1860 and served as a territorial delegate to the US House of Representatives, and he was the last Democratic congressman from Washington until 1885. He briefly served as governor of Washington, after which he returned to Portland, Oregon to work in the railroad industry and became a Republican. He served as Postmaster of Portland from 1873 to 1881 and thereafter in the railroad industry and as county treasurer of Spokane County from 1889, and he died in 1906.