Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/759

Rh COOK, Lemuel, soldier, b. in Plymouth, Litch- field CO., Conn., in 1764; d. in Clarendon, N, Y., 20 May, 1860. He entered the army at the age of seventeen, participated in the campaign against Cornwallis in Virginia, and received an honorable discharge at the close of the war. signed by Gen. Washington, which he retained until his death. Soon after leaving the army he married Hannah Curtis, of Cheshire, Conn., by whom he had eleven children. He married again when he was seventy years old. In his earlier married years he was a farmer near Utica, N. Y. ; during the last thirty years of his life he lived at Clarendon. His pen- sion for many years was $100 a year, increased in 1863 to $200, and the last year of his life to $300.

COOK, Marc, author, b. in Providence, K. I., 1 March, 1854 ; d. in Utica, N. Y., 4 Oct., 1882. He was a son of the Rev. Theodore Dwight Cook, a Universalist clergyman. His early education was received in the public schools of Utica ; but before he had learned to write he showed his precocity by dictating verses and stories to the older boys. A few years later he established a semi-monthly paper, entitled "The Boy's Companion," which was fol- lowed by " The Enterprise," a monthly of more pretentious character, the joint production of him- self and E. M. Eewey. He entered Hamilton college at the age of sixteen, but did not complete his course.. While there he wrote " To a Pretty School ma'am," and other poems, which were wide- ly copied. In 1874 he left college and devoted him- self to journalism. In 1879 he made the experi- ment of a prolonged sojourn in the Adirondacks for the cure of consumption, and as a result of sev- enteen months' experience published " Camp Lou " in " Harper's Magazine " for May, 1881, which at- tracted wide attention and was expanded into " The Wilderness Cure " (New York, 1881). Many of his vers de societe had appeared under the pen- name of Vandike Brown, and his widow collected a sufficient number to fill a volume, and published it under that title (Boston, 1883). — His brother, Theodore Pease, journalist, b. in Boston, Mass., 21 Dec, 1844, entered the army at the age of eighteen and served through the civil war, being finally on the stall: of Gen. John C. Robinson. He was gradu- ated at Columbia law-school in 1867, but devoted himself to journalism in Utica. During the presi- dential canvass of 1876 he wrote the " Lives of Til- den and Hendricks" (New York, 1876). The best known of his poems are " Blue-Beard " and " An Ode for Deeoration-Dav " (1872).

COOK, Martha Elizabeth Duncan Walker, author, b. in Northumberland, Pa., 23 July, 1806; d. in Hoboken, N. J., 15 Sept., 1874. She was a sister of Robert J. Walker, secretary of the treasury, and Avas educated by her father. She married at the age of eighteen Lieut, (afterward General) William Cook. Mrs. Cook was for nearly two years, 1863-4, editor of the " Continental Month- ly," published in New York, and contributed many poems, sketches, and tales to that periodical. She was a good linguist, and translated several works from the German and French. Among these were Liszt's " Life of Chopin," translated from the French (Philadelphia, 1863) ; " The Undivine Com- edy, and Other Poems," by Count Sigismund Kra- sinski, translated from the Polish through the Ger- man and French (1875); and "Life of Joan of Arc," from the German of Guido Goerres, pub- lished as a serial in the " Freeman's Journal."

COOK, Philip, soldier, b. in Twiggs county, Ga., 31 July, 1817. He was educated at Oglethorpe university, 'studied law at the University of Vir- ginia, was admitted to th-e bar, and practised his profession in Americus, Ga. In 1859, 1860, and 1863 he served in the state senate. He entered the Confederate service in April, 1861, as a private, and before the end of the war had risen to a briga- dier-generalship. In 1865 he was elected to con- gress, but was not allowed to take his seat, by rea- son of the " disability clause," incurred by his taking up arms against the Union. After the re- peal of the law creating this clause he was elected to congress three times, serving from 1 Dec, 1873, till 3 March, 1879.

COOK, Russell S., secretary of the American tract society, b. in New Marlborough, Berkshire CO., Mass., 6 March, 1811 ; d. in Pleasant Valley, N. Y., 4 Sept., 1864. His early life was devoted to study. On arriving at manhood he entered a law- yer's office in Syracuse, N. Y., but soon changed his choice of a profession and entered the theo- logical seminary at Auburn, and, after gi-aduation, was ordained pastor of the Congregational church in Lanesboro', Mass., in 1836. In 1838, his voice failing, he became connected with the American tract society, and in May, 1839, was elected one of the corresponding secretaries, tilling the office for eighteen years. His first efforts were directed to the expansion of the volume circulation, and in three and a half years he succeeded in distributing 800,000 volumes. In 1841, that he might meet the wants of remote neighborhoods, Mr. Cook began what was afterward developed into the system of American colportage. With this great work he was wholly identified, devoting to it his untiring energies: and so successfully that, in 1856, after fifteen years, the society had on its list 547 colpor- teurs, besides 115 students who labored only during vacations. Its current receipts had increased from $131,000 in 1839 to $415,000 in 1856. He estab- lished in 1843 the " American Messenger," a month- ly publication, with a German edition, the " Bot- s'chafter." This was soon followed by the " Child's Papei-," the first of illustrated papers for children. The monthly issue of these jieriodicals soon reached an aggregate of 500,000 copies. In 1853 and 1856 he went to Europe and established his system of colportage in Scotland. Failing health obliged him to give up his labors as secretary in 1857 ; but, somewhat regaining his vigor, he afterward became identified with various religious undertakings, and labored with unabated resolution to tlie last.

COOK, Valentine, clergyman, b. in Pennsylvania in 1765 ; d. in Logan county, Ky., in 1820. His father removed to western Virginia when Valentine was a child. He became a convert to Methodism at an early age, and immediately began preaching. His father sent him to Cokesbury college, but at the end of a year or two he returned home, and in 1788 began "itinerant labors, and in 1794 became presiding elder. About 1796 he originated the custom of calling anxious sinners to the front to be prayed for, which afterward became universal in the Methodist denomination. In 1798 he moved to Kentucky, and there married a niece of Gov. Slaughter, 'in 1799 he took charge of Bethel seminary, and was afterward for some time principal of Ilarrodsburg academy, finally settling in Logan county. In 1819 he made a preaching-tour to the east on horseback, visiting Lexington, Cincinnati, Pittsburg, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. He possessed rare power as a preacher, and instituted revivals wherever he went, but was erratic in his manner and negligent in his dress. He was well versed in German, and on one occasion stayed with a German family, who, ignorant of his knowledge, indulged in many uncomplim-entary remarks about him. Before re-