Laura Louisa (Hartson) Cook (1827-1906)

HARTSON, COOK, BATES, BLAND

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 4/11/2017 at 21:20:18

From Nevada Representative November 12, 1906

OBITUARY

DEATH OF MRS. LAURA COOK

At her home in this city at two p. m., on Saturday, November 10, 1906, Mrs. Laura L. Cook passed from this life. She was born on February 18, 1827, at Mansfield, Connecticut, and in early youth with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Elisha Hartson, removed to northeastern Pennsylvania near the present city of Scranton. Here on November 26, 1848, she was married to William Cook and a few years later with her husband and one child joined the ranks of those who in the early '50 were filling up the rich prairie lands of Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois. Until 1863 the family home was in Green county, Wisconsin. During that year and for thirteen years after, La Salle county, Illinois, was the place of residence.

In 1876 Mr. Cook purchased the block in Nevada on which the present family residence stands; and in the fall of that year built the house in which both he and his wife died, his death occurring on April 22, 1897, and hers on last Saturday, nearly ten years after.

For more than thirty years Mrs. Cook has resided in the home two blocks west of the Court house and was well known and greatly loved and respected by all who knew her. Her life was one of good deeds rather than of many words. She was an earnest and consistent Christian for more than forty-five years and she died confident that the faith and her lifetime was founded upon the truth. She was always much interested in the lives of young people who were seeking educational advantages and was ever ready to assist them in a practical manner. To several young men who have been encouraged by her aid and counsel, this issue of the Representative will carry the sad news of her death.

Mrs. Cook was a true woman; loved by her family and friends, respected by all who knew her, a thinker of good thoughts and a doer of good deeds. Can greater words of praise be written than these?

Her health has been remarkably good until six weeks ago when she was made suddenly ill by an attack of peritonitis. Messages were sent to the near by children, Mrs. Mary E. Bates of Sioux City, Mr. and Mrs. E. N. Cook of Des Moines, who immediately responded and together with the other two, Mrs. Flora L. Bland of Sheridan, Illinois, and W. J. Cook of Los Angeles who arrived soon after, have taken almost the entire care of her during her last illness. Being of a retiring disposition and "loving her own" devotedly it was a constant source of comfort to her in her last illness to be surrounded and ministered to by her own children rather than by other friends. There is "only one mother the wide world over" and in harmony with her expressed wish the sons and daughters, so far as possible, have personally performed all the last and tender offices.

The funeral services were conducted by Rev. L. F. Starr of Stuart, Iowa, this afternoon. They were held at the home in which she had lived so long and from which she was tenderly and lovingly carried to be placed at rest by the side of her husband in the beautiful Nevada cemetery.
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We the sons and daughters of the late Mrs. Laura L. Cook desire to express our most sincere thanks to the neighbors and friends of our mother, who have so untiringly and so kindly assisted us during her last illness.

W. J. Cook.
E. N. Cook.
Flora L. Bland.
Mary E. Bates.