COOK, Benjamin T.

COOK, SPENCE, ELLIS, FINCH, BISLEY, HOWARD, DEPUE, WILSON

Posted By: Administrator
Date: 12/27/2001 at 18:18:51

PORTRAIT & BIOGRAPHICAL ALBUM OF CLINTON COUNTY, IOWA 1886 (CHAPMAN BROS.)

Containing full page portraits & biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county. (Also available on FHL film 1036331 Item 9)

(P. 355) BENJAMIN T. COOK, one of the old settlers of Clinton County, is the subject of this personal sketch. He is a well-known and highly respected resident of Deep Creek Township, and makes his home with his eldest son on section 2. He was born in Oneida County, N.Y., June 5, 1811. The original progenitors of the Cook family in the United States formerly came from England, and settled in Rhode Island; our subject, who is their great-great-grandson, is not in possession of the names of the first two brothers who came from the old country. It was in the beginning of the sixteenth century that the first ancestors came to Rhode Island and lived out their days, as did the succeeding generations. The great-great-grandfather of our subject, whose name was Peter Cook, lived in Rhode Island and was a farmer. He was twice married and reared a very large family, which is now scattered over the country far and wide. One of his sons, Charles, is the grandfather of Mr. C. of this notice.
Charles Cook became a farmer, learned the blacksmith’s trade, and spent his entire life in Rhode Island. He married and reared a family of sixteen children, twelve of whom lived to be men and women, and settled in homes of their own. Their mother, grandmother of our subject, and wife of Charles Cook, lived to an advanced age. Of this numerous family there was born, in 1769, one by the name of David, who was the father of our subject. Benjamin was the second child of his father’s second marriage, and by his first alliance, with Sallie Spence, he had three children, as follows: Ara, Mary and William. By his second marriage there were eleven children, as follows: Joseph, Benjamin T., Caleb and Philip; Daniel, David, Mary, Sarah, Harriet, Phoebe and an infant, all deceased.The second marriage of David Cook took place in Oneida County, N.Y., where he remained for a time, and then came to Lake County, Ill. From there he came to Clinton County and settled in Deep Creek Township, where, at the home of his son, our subject, he lived all the last years of his life, and eventually died there in 1868.
Mr. Cook, who, as previously stated, had learned the blacksmith trade while young, followed it till he came to Lake County in 1839. Four years previous to this venture he married, in Oneida County, N.Y., Miss Matilda Ellis, a lady born and reared in that State. The date of their nuptials was in July, 1835. At the age of five years she went to Oneida County, where she was reared to womanhood. She died at her home in Deep Creek Township, Sept. 20, 1884, aged sixty-eight years. She had reared a family of nine children, six of whom still survive, having homes in which they are pleasantly located. The children are, named in the order of birth, Charles Wesley, who is married and farms a part of the homestead; Elenor Jane, died at the age of five years; Mary Penelope, married Ambrose Finch; Nathan Ellis, married Mary Bisley, and lives on section 12, engaged in farming; Harriet M., married Rev. S.N. Howard, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church; Emma J., the wife of Benjamin De Pue, they are farmers in Deep Creek Township; Callie, the wife of John Wilson, lives in Deep Creek Township; and twins (boys) who died in infancy.
Mr. Cook first came to Deep Creek Township, Clinton County, in 1853, and has been an active and energetic worker in this section of country. His farm of 400 acres is finely located on what is known as Vernon Prairie. He is a man of ripe years, possesses fine mental endowments, and it is to be hoped that he has many years of life work before him. He is an active laborer in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and into the details of his daily life are woven the principles that arise from the religion of Christ Jesus as lived by his followers. In political principle he is Democratic.