Born in Windsor county, Vermont, May 9, 1812.
When six years of age he was taken to Lincoln county, Missouri.
He was educated in st. Louis, St. Charles, and Tryo. Save two
years during which he was engaged as a clerk in Galena, Illinois, and
in the lead mines of Wisconsin, just across the line. Mr Cottle resided
in Lincoln county until he came of age. At that epoch in his life
he proceeded to Quincy, Illinois, and there dwelt for five yeras, after
which he located in Winconsin. In 1850 recrossed the plains to
California, and soon after engaged in the stock business in Peach Tree
valley. In the Fall of 1854 Mr. Cottle returned to the East but
recrossed the plains in tje Spring of the following years with a
band of stock which he drove into Santa Clara county, arriving at San
Jose September 20, 1855. These he moved into
Gilroy township
and after keeping them there for two years transferred them to Peach
Tree valley. Five years thereafter he sold his stock and
commenced agriculture, but at the end of six years more he disconinued
this occupation and purchased an interst in the
Gilroy Hot Springs.
Married, firstly, September, 1837, Julia K. Stone, a native of Troy,
Lincoln county, Missouri, who died in the Winter of 1850; and secondly,
Priscilla Cottle in 1852, who died in 1862. He married his
present wife Cordelia Cottle, a native of St. Charles county, Missouri
ni 1864, his only surving child being a son by his first wife, named
Henry Edword, born in Septbember, 1839.