Cook, W. W.

COOK, WHITE, REED, FULTON

Posted By: mjv (email)
Date: 9/9/2020 at 14:41:20

W. W. Cook resides on section 25, Cedar Township, and has been a resident of Washington County since October, 1859. He is a native of Knox County, Ohio, born Jan. 28, 1828, and is the son of Thomas and Jane (White) Cook, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Ireland. When our subject was but five years of age the family moved to Logan County, Ohio, where a farm was made out of the heavy timber, and where the father died in 1838, at the age of thirty-seven years. The mother survived him for many years, dying in 1882, aged eighty-two. They were members of the Presbyterian Church.

The subject of this sketch was reared upon a farm in Logan County, Ohio, and educated in the schools such as were common in that early day. His father dying when he was but ten years of age, made it necessary for him in his youth to learn what it was to do hard work. He helped to clear the farm out of the heavy timber, and at all times did his share of the farm labor. He was married, Jan. 2, 1851, to Jane G. Reed, a native of Pennsylvania, and daughter of Thomas Reed. By that union there were eleven children, five of whom are living: Thomas L. died at the age of two years; Robert W. is now engaged in the mercantile business at West Chester, Iowa; John R. Died at the age of two years; Ella P. resides at home; Clara Jane and Bessie Agnes died at the age of two years; William Howard, James Elmer and Frank Knox are at home. Two died in infancy. Mrs. Cook died Jan. 3, 1875, at the age of forty-five. Mr. Cook’s second wife was Mary Ann Fulton, a daughter of James Fulton, and a native of Butler County, Pa. They were wedded in 1879.

In the fall of 1862 Mr. Cook in Co. A, 25th Iowa Vol. Inf., enlisted as a private, and served until the close of the war. He was in nearly all the battles and campaigns of his regiment, including the siege and capture of Vicksburg, the Atlanta campaign, and was with Sherman on his march to the sea. After participating in the grand review at Washington, he was mustered out in that city on the 6th of June, 1865. Mr. Cook has been a resident of Washington County, Iowa, a little more than a quarter of a century. Like hundreds of others, he came to this county comparatively poor, but by strict attention to his business, coupled with never-failing honesty, he has acquired a fine property, his farm now consisting of 160 acres, all of which is under a high state of cultivation, the improvement on the place being of the better class. He and his wife are members of the United Presbyterian Church, and politically, he is a stanch Republican.

Source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington County, Iowa (1887). Excerpt from Biographical Sketch of W. W. Cook, page 258.