Coles, Samuel B., 1888-1957

Dates

• Existence: 1888 - 1957

Biographical Note

Samuel B. Coles (1888-1957) was an African American missionary from Alabama who spent three decades in Angola teaching agricultural and machining techniques and methods.

Samuel B. Coles was born on May 3, 1888, in Tilden, Alabama. His mother died when he was five-years-old, and he was raised by his father along with his two brothers. During his youth, Coles worked laying steel rails, in a logging camp as an ox driver, on a dairy farm, and as a blacksmith. He entered Snow Hill Industrial and Normal School in Alabama in 1908 and Talladega College in 1912. He graduated from the high school at Talladega in 1916 and served with the medical corps during World War I. Following his military service, Coles graduated from Talladega College in 1922 with a bachelor's degree in science.

While at Talladega, Coles read an account of Scottish missionary Alexander M. MacKay, who in the 1870s set up a forge and machine workshop in Africa, which influenced Coles' own missionary work. Coles traveled to Portugal for a year's language study and then journeyed to Africa in 1923 to serve as a missionary for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM). He returned to the United States for five years during World War II, during which time he studied at Cornell University, Alfred University, Barrow School of Pottery, Pratt Institute, Howard University, and the Biblical Seminary of New York City. At these institutions, he took classes ranging from cheese-making to pottery to blacksmithing.

During his time aboard, he spent 30 years engaged in agricultural efforts near Galangue, Angola, in Portuguese West Africa. Coles taught local populations how to use plows, to train oxen to pull them, to plant new crops, as well as masonry and carpentry. He also spent 18 months during 1935-1936 transferred to a mission in Liberia, and during his later years worked on establishing a children's village for orphans sponsored by the Pestalozzi Foundation. His book, Preacher with a Plow, describes his efforts as a missionary.

Coles married Bertha Terry Coles in 1919 and she traveled with her husband while overseas. The couple had three children: Laura Hill, Edward Coles, and Clarence Coles. Samuel B. Coles died in 1957.

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