Levi Cook (1825-1903)

COOK

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 3/24/2022 at 22:28:22

Levi Cook
(April 14, 1825 – November 18, 1903)

Levi Cook, a retired farmer of Calhoun County, now living in Lake City, was born in Preble County, Ohio, April 14, 1825, and is of English lineage, his grandfather having been born in England, whence he emigrated to the new world and became one of the pioneer settlers of Preble County, Ohio, taking up his abode there, together with other members of the family, about 1805.
His son, Eli Cook, the father of our subject, was born in South Carolina ere the emigration of the family to the Buckeye state. The grandfather bore his part in the early development and progress of Preble County, and there died in 1828. He was of the Quaker faith. In his family were eight children, including Eli Cook, who was reared amid the wild scenes of frontier life. After arriving at years of maturity he married Miss Elizabeth Denny, a native of Virginia,
and in 1839 they left their Ohio home for the west, settling in what is now Henry County, Iowa. There the father entered a tract of wild land from the government and transformed it into a valuable farm upon which he made his home until his death, which occurred in 1874, when he had attained the age of eighty years, while his wife passed away in February 1874, at the age of seventy-two. In their family were twelve children : Levi : Mrs. J. Susan Lamb, now deceased; John and Joel who have passed away; Mrs. Phoebe Stanley, also deceased; Nathan, Jesse and Jonathan, who have departed this life; Joseph; Delila, the wife of Nathan Bales ; Martha, deceased ; and Lewis, who is living in California.
Levi Cook was a youth of fourteen years when he accompanied his parents to this state and in the common schools of Henry County he continued his education which had been begun in Ohio. He afterward engaged in farming for a few years, and then became connected with the milling business, which
claimed his attention for fourteen years, or until 1865, when the mill was destroyed by fire. He then removed with his family to Madison County, Iowa, where he engaged in farming until 1869 — the year of his arrival in Calhoun County. Here he purchased land in Jackson Township, and for many years
was numbered among the progressive and enterprising agriculturists of the community, but in 1889 he put aside all business cares and took up his abode in Lake City, where he is now living a retired life, enjoying a well earned rest. His business career was one of untiring industry and unfaltering honesty, and he well deserves the success which crowned his efforts.
On the 30th of March, 1848, Mr. Cook was united in marriage to Miss Ursula Wilson, a native of Parke County, Indiana, a daughter of Payton and Anna (Holliday) Wilson, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of North Carolina. Her parents removed to Iowa from Indiana in 1836 and here the father followed farming until his death, which occurred in 1868, when he was seventy-four years of age, while his wife died in 1859. Mrs. Cook had two brothers and five sisters, and of the family, four are now living. By her marriage she became the mother of ten children, of whom five are living. The complete record, however, is as follows : Deborah Ann, the wife of Henry Harshbarger, of Calhoun County; Emma J. and Phoebe E., both deceased; Vestal W., a druggist of Lake City; Eugene F., an insurance agent : Marion P., a resident of Colgate, North Dakota; Lizzie H.. deceased; William S., a resident of Chicago; Gulialma and Payton E., who have also passed away. The parents are members of
the Christian church, in which Mr. Cook holds the office of deacon. He has always been true to his profession and his life has been upright and honorable. Few men in the state have longer resided within its borders. He has watched the greater part of its development, lived here at the time of
its admission into the Union and through-out all the years he has been loyal to its best interests. [Source – Biographical Record of Calhoun County, Iowa, by S. J. Clarke, 1902, p.252]