Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/760

718 tiring for the night he asked permission to pray, began his invocation in English, and then changed to Grerraan. Consternation seized the members of the househokl when they recalled their remarks, and they fled, leaving him to care for himself.

COOK, Zebedee, insurance manager, b. in Newburyport, Mass., 11 Jan., 178(5; d. in Framingham, 24 Jan., 1858. At an early age he went to Boston to seek his fortune. He first entered on a mercantile career, but in 1815 turned his attention to insurance, and was among the first to introduce into this country the system known as " mutual insurance." He was made president in 1823 of the Eagle insurance company, and held the office until 1828. During the next ten years he developed his ideas so thoroughly that in 1838 he was invited to New York to become president of the Mutual safety insurance company, the first established in that city on the system of a division of profits between the insurers and the insured. The business transacted was entirely marine. While Mr. Cook was a resident of Boston he was, in addition to his business requirements, deeply interested in horticulture and rural improvements. By an article published 9 Jan., 1829, in the "New- England Farmer," he gave the first impulse to the formation of the Massachusetts horticultural soci- ety. On 24 Feb. a meeting was held in liis office, and the society was incorporated on 12 June. Gen. Dearborn was the first president, and Mi'. Cook vice-president. On the resignation of Gen. Dearborn in 1834, Mi-. Cook was elected to the vacancy. By his efforts the Isabella grape was in- troduced into New England. He procured the cuttings and began the culture. He served in the Massachusetts legislature from 1835 till 1839. After nearly twenty years' residence and business in New York, he retired, at the age of seventy-one, to Framingham, Mass.

COOKE, Amos Starr, missionary, b. in Dan- bury, Conn., 1 Dec, 1810 ; d. in Honolulu, Sand- wich islands, 20 March, 1871. He was graduated at Yale in 1834, entered the service of the American board of commissioners for foreign missions in 1836, and arrived at the Sandwich islands in April, 1837, where, in June, 1839. he took charge of the education of the royal family and nobility. He retained the direction of the royal school for ten years, educating the last two Kamehamehas, and doing nnich toward shaping their characters.

COOKE, Edward, educator, b. in Bethlehem, N. H., 19 Jan., 1812; d. in Newton Centre, Mass., 18 Sept., 1888. He was graduated at Wesleyan university, and taught in Amenia seminary, N. Y., from 1838 till 1840, when he became principal of the newly established seminary at Pennington, N. J. From 1847 till 1853 he was pastor of Meth- odist churches ia and near Boston, and in 1853 became president of Lawrence university, Apple- ton, Wis. While holding this office he was one of the first to become interested in the education of the northwestern Indians. In 1857-'60 he was one of the regents of normal schools in Wisconsin. Harvard gave him the degree of D. D. in 1855, and on his return to Massachusetts, in 1861, he be- came one of the board of examiners of that college, and pastor of the Cambridge Methodist church. From 1864 till 1874 he was principal of the Wes- leyan academy at Wilbraham, Mass., and from that year till 1884 president of Claflin university and State agricultural college at Orangeburg, S. C. In the latter year he resigned on account of ill health, and afterward resided at Newton Centre, Mass.

COOKE, Edwin Francis, soldier, b. in Brooklyn, Susquehanna co., Pa., 11 Sept., 1835; d. in Santiago, Chili, 6 Aug., 1867. He was educated at Mount Retirement seminary, Deckertown, N. J. He entered the national service at the beginning of the civil war as a captain in the 2d New York light cavalry, rose to the command of his regiment, and finally became chief of staff in Gen. Kilpat- rick's cavalry division. In 1863 he was associated with Col. Dahlgren in command of the force that was sent to enter Richmond from the south, and his horse was killed under him by the same volley that terminated Dahlgren's life. Being taken pris- oner, he was confined for several months in one of the imderground cells in Libby prison, where he lost his health. From Libby prison he was sent to other prisons in South Carolina and Georgia. He once succeeded in escaping, but. after wandering two months through South and North Carolina, was recaptured. He was finally exchanged in March, 1864, and on 13 March, 1865, was brevet- ted brigadier-general of volunteers. He accepted the office of secretary to the Chilian legation, in the vain hope that the climate might benefit his health, received his commission on 11 Nov., 1865, and remained in Santiago till disease, induced by his imprisonment, terminated his life.

COOKE, Eleutheros, congressman, b. in Granville, N. Y., 25 Dec., 1787; d. in Sandusky, Ohio, 27 Dec., 1864. His name was given him in commemoration of the framing of the Federal constitution in 1787, the year of his birth. After receiving a liberal education, he studied law and began practice in Granville, but removed in 1817 to Madison, Ind., in 1819 to Bloomingville, Ohio, and in 1820 to Sandusky, where he rose to the front rank of his profession. He was for several years a member of the legislature, and was elected to congress as a whig, serving one term, from 1831 till 1833. He was a candidate for re-election, and received a majority of the votes cast, but was defeated on a technicality. While he was in congress, Mr. Stanberry, of Ohio, was assaulted on the street by Gen. Houston, in consequence of remarks made on the floor of the house. In bringing the matter before congress, Mr. Cooke said that if he and his friends were denied protection by that body, he would &ldquo;flee to the bosom of his constituents,&rdquo; and this expression was taken up by his political opponents and remained a catch-word for some time. Mr. Cooke was the pioneer of railroad enterprise in the west, having been the projector of the Mad River railroad, now the Sandusky, Dayton and Cincinnati railroad.—His son, Jay, banker, b. in Sandusky, Ohio, 10 Aug., 1821, went in 1838 to Philadelphia, where he entered the banking-house of E. W. Clark &amp; Co. as a clerk, and became a partner in 1842. He retired in 1858, and in 1861 established a new firm of which he was the head. Through the influence of Salmon P. Chase, Mr. Cooke's personal friend, this house became the government agent for the placing of the war loans, and by his success in negotiating them Mr. Cooke contributed materially to the success of the national cause. After the war the firm acted as agents for the Northern Pacific railroad, and its suspension in 1873, growing out of its connection with that enterprise, was one of the causes of the financial panic of that year. Mr. Cooke subsequently resumed business with success.—Another son, Henry David, journalist, b. in Sandusky, Ohio, 23 Nov., 1825; d. in Georgetown, D. C., 29 Feb., 1881, was graduated at Transylvania university, Kentucky, in 1844, and began the study of the law, but soon turned his attention to writing for the press. In 1847 he sailed for Valparaiso, Chili, as an attaché to the American consul there, but