Cook, A. J.

COOK

Posted By: Joyce Hickman (email)
Date: 12/3/2008 at 13:57:07

A. J. Cook

(From the 1883 History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, by J. H. Keatley, p.17, Council Bluffs)
A. J. Cook, physician, Secretary and Medical Director of the Mutual Benefit Association, came to Council Bluffs in April, 1881; located here and began the practice of medicine, making chronic diseases a specialty. He is a physician of the old school. Dr. Cook is the originator of the Council Bluffs Mutual Benefit Association, which was incorporated, March 14, 1882, with W. F. Sapp, President; F. M. Gault, Vice President; A. J. Cook, Secretary and Medical Director; and Joseph Lyman, Counselor. This company now has in the field about one hundred regular agents working in Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, Kansas, Colorado, Dakota, Missouri and Wisconsin, and has at this time 513 policies. The main office is located at 103 Pearl street, Council Bluffs. Dr. Cook was born in Decatur County, ind., August 24, 1841, and remained there until the breaking-out of the rebellion, when he enlisted in the army at the age of nineteen, as a private, in Company E, Thirty-seventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and was mustered into service September 18, 1861. He was taken prisoner May 9, 1862, at the battle of Limestone Creek, Ala., and was kept in prison thirteen months. After getting out of prison, he was appointed independent scout, in the Army of the Cumberland, and served in that capacity during the rest of the war. He shot and killed the rebel General W. C. Walker, in Cherokiee County, N. C., on the night of January 3, 1864. Ten men were with the Doctor; undertook to capture the General; he resisted and was killed to prevent him from killing the chief of scouts. After leaving the army, he began reading medicine in 1866, and read and practiced under his preceptor until 1869. He took first course of lectures at Bennett Medical College, Chicago, in the winter of 1869-70; commenced practicing in Kosciusko County, Ind.; took second course of lectures in the winter of 1871-72, at same college, and then graduated at Louisville College of Medicine in the winter of 1873-74. After graduating, he did not engage in active practice until the fall of 1875, when he began at Rose Hill, Mahaska Co., Iowa, and remained there until the spring of 1879. He then moved to Bedford, Taylor Co., Iowa, and practiced there until coming to Council Bluffs. The Doctor was married in Mahaska County, Iowa, June 29, 1876 to Rosamond B. Clayworth, of that county. Is of English descent.