Nathan Cole (July 26, 1825 – March 4, 1904) was a nineteenth-century politician, merchant and businessman from Missouri.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Cole attended common schools as a child and later took a partial course at Shurtleff College. He engaged in mercantile pursuits in St. Louis, was a director of the Bank of Commerce for forty-three years, most of which time he was also vice president of the bank, and was a director in a number of insurance and other corporations. Cole served as Mayor of St. Louis, Missouri from 1869 to 1871, was president of the Merchants' Exchange in 1876 and was elected a Republican to the United States House of Representatives in 1876, serving from 1877 to 1879, being unsuccessful for re-election in 1878. Afterward, he resumed his former business activities in St. Louis until his death there on March 4, 1904. He was interred in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.^[1]

His son, Nathan Cole Jr., was one of the founders of the Los Angeles Times, in 1881.^[2]