Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/315

 COCKE

COCKRAN

the 2d artillery, 1832-33. He was promoted adjutant and resigned April 1, 1834. He was extensively engaged in planting, having large interests both in Virginia and Mississippi ; and from 1853 till 1856 was president of the Virginia state agricultural society. In the civil war he

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commanded the fifth brigade, Virginia volunteers, of the Confederate army at Manassas, and before the end of 1861 was obliged to leave the army by reason of physical disability and nervous pros- tration. He was married to Sally Elizabeth Courtney Bowdoin, June 4, 1834. He died at " Behnead,"' Powhatan county, Va., Dec. 26, 1861. COCKE, William, senator, was born in Vir- ginia in 1747; son of Abraham Cocke; grandson of Stephen Cocke; great-grandson of Thomas Cocke ; and great-grandson of Richard Cocke, who came to Virginia prior to 1632 and was a member of the house of burgesses from Henrico county in that year. In company with Daniel Boone he explored the territory afterward known as East Tennessee and Western Kentucky. In 1776 (see Ramsey's Historj- of Tennessee), with four com- panies of Virginians, he had a fierce battle with the Indians at Cocke's Fort, Tenn., in which the Indians received a crushing defeat. In 1796 he was elected by the legislature of Tennessee one of the first U.S. senators from that state. He drew the short term commencing Dec. 5, 1796, and served till the close of the first session of the 5th congress, July 10, 1797, when he was suc- ceeded by Andrew Jackson. He had previously been very proniinent in the convention which framed the first constitution of Tennessee. He was again elected to the U.S. senate in 1799, serv- ing until March 4, 1805, when he was appointed judge of the first circuit. Removing to Missis- sippi he was elected to the state legislature, and in 1814 President Madison appointed him agent for the Cliickasaw nation. He fought in two wars, served in the legislatures of four states (Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Missis- sippi) and in the senate of the United States. He was founder of the University of Tennessee, a trustee of Greenville college, and an incorpora- tor of Washington college. He died in Columbus, Miss., in the eighty-first j'ear of his age and was

buried there under a tombstone erected to his memory by the state of Mississippi. The date of his death is Aug. 22, 1828.

COCKER, Benjamin Franklin, educator, was born in England in 1821. He immigrated to Canada and thence to the United States, settled in Detroit, Mich., in 1857, joined the Detroit con- ference of the M.E. church, and was a circuit preacher 1857-69. He was professor of mental and moral philosophy in the Universitj' of Michi- gan in 1869-81; and of psychology, speculative philosopliy and the philosophy of religion, 1881-83. He received the honorary degree of A.M from Wesleyan university in 1864, that of D.D. from Indiana Asbury university in 1868, and tliat of LL.D. from Victoria university, Canada, in 1876. He is the author of Christianity and Greek Philoso- l)hif ; Theistic Conception of the World; and. Students' Handbook of Philosophy. He died at Ann Arbor, Mich., April 8, 1883.

COCKERILL, John A., journalist, was born in Adams county, Ohio, Dec. 5, 1845. He was employed in his boyhood in a newspaper office in West Union, Ohio, as compositor and assistant editor. In July, 1861, he enlisted as musician in the 24th Ohio volunteers, serving in western Vir- ginia and with the army of the Ohio until mus- tered out in 1863. In 1865 he purchased and personally conducted the Triie Telegraph, Hamil- ton, Ohio. In 1868 he was editor of the Dayton Daily Ledger and was later on the editorial staff of the Cincinnati Enquirer, becoming in 1872 man- aging editor. In 1877 he went to Europe as war corresi^ondent and was with the Turkish army in the Russo-Turkish war. In 1878 he returned to the United States and assisted in the establish- ment of the Washington Post, removing to St. Louis in 1879 to assume editorial management of the Evening Post-Desjxttch. In 1883 he removed to New York to become associate editor of the World. With his advent the circulation of that journal began to increase and during his con- nection with the paper it reached a degree of prosperity never before witnessed in American journalism. He was successively associate, man- aging and chief editor, resigning in May, 1891, to become editor of the New York Advertiser. In 1894 he relinquished the editorial chair and vis ited Japan as special correspondent of the New York Herald, during the Chino-Japanese war 1894-95. The emperor of Japan decorated him with the third order of the sacred treasure, a distinction seldom conferred upon foreigners. He died siiddenly while on his way home, at Cairo, Egypt, April 11, 1896.

COCKRAN, William Bourke, representative, was born in county Sligo, Ireland, Feb. 28, 1854; son of Martin and Harriet (Knight) Cockran. He was sent to France in 1863 and received his edu-