Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/381

 COOK

COOK

■vice-commander of the Washington branch. He was married Sept. 3, 1868, to Carrie Earle of San -Francisco, Cal., and his son, Frank Clarenden,

•••BPOOKLYA/---

'was assistant surgeon, U.S.N., from Dec. 22, 1893, and another son, Harold Earle, a navel cadet in 1898.

COOK, George Hammell, geologist, was born in Hanover, N.J., Jan. 5, 1818; son of John and Sarah (Munn) Cook; and great-grandson of Lieu- tenant-Colonel Ellis Cook of Hanover, N.J., prominent during and after the Revolution, being a member of the conunittee of correspond- -ence and afterward of the legislature; lieu- tenant-colonel of militia, and a member of the provincial congress of 1776, which organized the state of New Jersey by its constitution. His first ancestor in America came from England to Lynn, Mass., in 1640, removing soon afterward to Southampton, Long Island, and thence to Han- over, N.J. George received a district school training, taught himself surveying and engaged as a boy on the engineer corps then laying out the Morris and Essex railroad, and surveying a Toad through Greene and Schoharie counties, New York. He was graduated at the Rensselaer polytechnic institute in 1839 with the degree of ■C.E. He then engaged in teaching. In May, 1840, he returned to the institute, where he pur- sued a ix)st-graduate course while serving as tutor, and received the degrees B.N.S. and M.S. He was made adjunct professor and in May, 1842, senior professor, holding the chair of geology and <!ivil engineering. From 1846 to 1848 he engaged in the manufacture of glass in Albany, and in the latter year accepted the chair of mathematics .and natural philosophy in the Albany academy. He was principal of the academy, 1851-53. In 1852 he was sent to Eui'ope by the state of New York to study the salt deposits. He was profes- sor of chemistry and natural sciences in Rutgers college, 1853-89. In 1854 he was made assistant geologist of New Jersey and was in charge of the southern division of the state for three years. In 1864 he organized the New Jersey state college for the promotion of agriculture and mechanic arts, which was attached to Rutgers college as a scientific department, and he was made vice- jjresident of the combined institutions. In 1878

his chair in Rutgers became that of analytical chemistry, geology and agriculture, and in 1880 he relinqviished the branch of chemi.stry, retain- ing the other two branches. He aided in forming a state board of agriculture in 1873 and was a member of its executive committee. While assistant geologist of the state he published three annual reports and a geological survey of Cape May county (1857). After this the office was vacant until 1864, when the legislature, through the efforts of Professor Cook, reorganized the department and appointed him state geologist. His annual reports and " Geologj' of New Jersey " (1868), together with a .series of geological maps of the several counties of the state, certify to the wisdom of the act of the legislature. His inves- tigations and reports on the clays of New Jersey and the fiora of the state, and his maps relating to geological formation and mineral deposits, were used as models by the U.S. geological sur- vey. He organized and became chief director of the weather service of the state in 1886. He was a member of the state board of health, sec- retary of the board of agriculture and president of the New Brunswick board of water commis- sioners. In 1878 he was a delegare to the inter- national geological congress in Paris. He was a , member of the American philosophical society, of the academy of natural sciences of Philadel- phia, of the American institute of mining engineers, of the National academy of sciences ; vice-president of the American association for the advancement of science, and a member of the Royal agricultural society of Sweden. The University of the city of New York conferred upon him the degree of Ph. D. in 1875 and Union college gave him that of LL.D. in 1866. He died at New Brunswick, N.J., Sept. 22, 1889.

COOK, John, soldier, was born in Belleville, 111., June 12, 1825; son of Daniel Poi^e and Julia Catharine (Edwards) Cook; grandson of Ninian Edwards, governor of Illinois, 1826-33 ; and great- grandson of Benjamin and Margaret (Beall) Edwards, in whose home in Maryland William Wirt was brought up and educated. John Cook was left an orphan in 1827; was brought up by his maternal grandfather. Governor Edwards, and was educated by a clergyman who prepared him for Illinois college. Failing eyesight obliged him to discontinue his studies and he entered mercantile business at Springfield, III., in 1846. In 1855 he was elected mayor of Springfield and in 1856 sheriff of Sangamon county. He served as quartermaster of the state and on April 24, 1861, he was commissioned colonel of the 1st Illinois volunteer regiment, the first commission issued by Governor Yates. He commanded a brigade under Gen. Charles F. Smitli, and after the capture of Fort Donelson, for gallantry