Samuel Jacob Cole and his wife, the former Virginia Lee Barbour, left 
  their home in Missouri in 1880 and settled in Barber County. They lived 
  most of their married life in Sharon Valley where they raised a family of 
  seven children. I being the youngest, born in 1909. Today I am the last
  one; all are gone, but the memory of them lives on.
     I remember my sister laughingly telling how they charged admission to
  see me as I weighed a little over two pounds and fit nicely in a 1/2
  gallon syrup bucket.
     I remember my mother telling me every time she heard the mournful
  cry of the turtledove, it reminded her of the times she was left alone
  on the prairie, when my father and his brothers would go on a cattle
  drive, and how lonesome she was.
     I remember the horse drawn hearses and the tolling of the church bells
  when someone had died. It was an awesome sight and sound for a little 
  girl.
     I remember the Indian Peace Treaty celebration which was held then
  on the banks of the Medicine Lodge River, and how the different tribes
  of Indians would be camped in their tepees. It was an exciting time for
  me as we watched the Indian dances and saw the meat being put up to dry
  by the campfire.
     I remember the livery stable my father owned. The big stallion with
  colored ribbons braided into his tail and all the blue ribbons he had won
  on the wall of my father's office.
     I remember the excitement of the fairs and how my mother hardly ever
  got to go. She was always taking care of the relatives that came to town
  for the fair. She was known to all as "Aunt Jennie," and they only had
  to call and she would be there doing what she could to help.
     My father died when I was only ten, and my mother and I had some
  pretty hard times after that, but were very close. She bought the hotel
  at the south end of Main Street and soon her fame for her home cooked
  meals was known miles around.
     She died in 1945 in my home at the age of 82, and a finer person never
  lived. She didn't leave me riches, but she left me with the love of God
  which she had instilled in mea nd to me that is more precious than gold.
     I was married in 1927 to Ray F. Keoppen of Attica, ten miles east of
  Sharon. We had four children, Peggy, Ted, Gary and Roxie.
     They gave us eight grandchildren, and we love them all. My husband and
  I are in fairly good health and live in Topeka now, having left Sharon
  in 1944.
     I study the Bible and attend Church regularly and have had many hobbies,
  some of which include water skiing, oil painting, dance roller skating,
  sewing, and I also play the organ.
                 
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas,  pg. 264 
     Submitted by: Bertha M. Koeppen (Cole)