Fred Cole Becomes James Edward Sullivan

For many years my cousins and I believed our Grandfathers name was James Edward Sullivan. We searched and searched in vain to document his story. A few years ago using Ancestry DNA we were able to discover that his birth name was Fred Cole, born in 1885 in Marshall Town, Iowa. You can read my past posts to see the rest of that story. Since discovering his name change from Fred Cole to James Edward Sullivan we questioned, "Why did he change his name?" "Why did he pick the name of James Edward Sullivan?" After all these years I believe we have pieced together his life and I believe I now know why he picked the name of James Edward Sullivan. Here is a timeline of part of his life that I have pieced together.

* 1904, Reuben Hale and his group of San Francisco Merchant Associates were so confident of the city’s economic role in the United States that they proposed to host an exposition. Like the very popular Chicago and St. Louis World’s Fairs, this exposition would draw visitors to their beautiful city, create significant revenue and highlight the city’s income potential.April 1906, a violent earthquake hit San Francisco. The earthquake and subsequent fire was declared one of America’s worst natural disasters.

1 January 1908 - Fred Cole enlisted in the army and is stationed in Presidio, San Francisco, California.

31 December 1910 he is discharged from the Army.

1 January 1911 he re-enlisted in the Army and remains in Presidio, San Francisco, California.

* In 1911, President Howard Taft declared San Francisco the official winning site, beating out New Orleans, San Diego, Boston and Washington, D.C. With just over four years to opening, the exposition managers launched into frenzied planning to design and construct the most impressive fair city ever experienced by the world. Fair planners, committees and artistic directors designed and constructed buildings, sculptures, gardens and every imaginable amenity for expected visitors.

Partnering with the Military
* The Exposition Company was greatly dependent on a cooperative partnership with the U.S. Army, and their 300 acres of waterfront property, to make the fair a success. The City of San Francisco already had a developing relationship with the Presidio and Fort Mason commanding officers as during the 1906 earthquake the city relied heavily on the military to provide public safety and emergency shelter. The military agreed to lease their land in part because the Exposition Company, which came with a great deal of funding and political sway, offered to pay for infrastructure improvements, like pipelines from the Presidio’s water sources. When the fair’s designs for the west end of the Presidio water front required the relocation of the U.S. Life-Saving Station, the well-funded Company paid for the move.

* The partnership between the Exposition Company and the military continued during the fair’s daily operations. The Company used active-duty and honorably discharged soldiers to serve as security guards and veterinary staff; the soldiers also provided full military honors for many ceremonies, events and parades. In turn, the Company offered benefits to the servicemen: uniformed military men receive free admission to the fair and enjoyed exclusive facilities such as the Enlisted Men’s Club. After the fair closed permanently, the army officially reoccupied the land. They retained many of the landscape changes, took ownership of the infrastructure improvements and reused some of the fair buildings for several years.

Altering the Landscape
* In 1911…The Exposition Company and the U.S. Army perceived the marshlands of Harbor View and Presidio waterfront as money-making expansion opportunities, not as the balanced ecological system that it was originally. Between 1911 and 1914, construction workers filled in the marshy areas of Harbor View and constructed a seawall along the shoreline to prevent erosion.

Those paragraphs tagged with an * are copied from Panama-Pacific International Exposition, 1915, The World Meets in San Francisco brochure. https://www.nps.gov/goga/learn/historyculture/upload/PPIE-Brochure-FINAL-for-Web.pdf

3 April 1912 Fred Cole was discharged from the army. I believe he remained in San Francisco and found work helping with the construction of the Panama-Pacific Exposition. I'm sure there would have been many work opportunities for a young man willing to work. The brochure also stated that honorably discharged soldiers were used to serve as security guards.

In October of 1912 a man by the name of James Edward Sullivan becomes the Athletic director of the Panama-Pacific Exposition.

James Edward Sullivan, official representative of the United States at the Olympic Games just finished in Sweden, began his athletic career in 1877. He won the all-around championship of the Pastime Athletic Club, 1880-81, and for the last twenty-five years has officiated at all the American championship track and field events. He is also widely known as a writer. The Scranton Truth, Scranton, Pennsylvania, 9 Oct 1912, Wednesday pg 8

James Edward Sullivan was born in New York City in November of 1860. Newspaper articles speak volumes of praise for his executive ability, his knowledge of organization and the wonderful things he will do for the Exposition. In April of 1913 he makes an appearance in San Francisco and is enthusiastic over the outlook for the big series of games to be pulled off in 1915. Events to take place include track and field, swimming, gymnastics, archery, wrestling, boxing, rugby, College baseball championships, Interscholastic baseball championship and Amateur baseball championships.

One of the tidbits of information that Grandpa Fred Cole/James Edward Sullivan always shared was that he had played baseball while in San Francisco. Perhaps his participation in the Interscholastic or Amateur baseball championships gave him the opportunity to meet James Edward Sullivan and become associated with him. Perhaps he just admired him from a distance without ever officially meeting but I believe somewhere along the way that Fred Cole developed a kinship or an admiration of James Edward Sullivan.

September 16, 1914 - James Edward Sullivan died in New York City. He was operated on at a local hospital on Monday for intestinal trouble and never rallied.

Panama–Pacific International Exposition
The Panama–Pacific International Exposition was a world's fair held in San Francisco, California, from February 20 to December 4, 1915. Its stated purpose was to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal, but it was widely seen in the city as an opportunity to showcase its recovery from the 1906 earthquake. The fair was constructed on a 636 acre (1 sq. mi., 2.6 km2) site along the northern shore, between the Presidio and Fort Mason, now known as the Marina District.

Conclusion
    I believe that at this point his name was still Fred Cole. He would have had to retain that name while living in San Francisco and working with the Exposition were people already knew him. The Exposition ended on December 4, 1915 giving him two months to head to North Dakota for the land draw. (Feb 4, 1916 & Feb 18, 1916 Vanhook Journal) No one knew him in North Dakota so it was easy to say his name was James Edward Sullivan. He may have wanted to identify with someone he respected and who may have given him an opportunity for fame. He must have developed some kind of a relationship with James Edward Sullivan that he wanted to known by that name. The family doesn't believe that our Grandmother ever knew that he had changed his name. Years later when he retired the family tried in vain to collect money for his service in the military. They were never able to find any records of James Edward Sullivan serving in the Army and being stationed in Presidio, San Francisco, California. Of course not, he was Fred Cole at that time....