My Genealogy Hound

WILLIAM COOKE, our subject, was born in Ireland, a country that our people have heard or read more or less of, the fatherland of the brain, the energy and muscle that move the rest of the world. His birth occurred in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, North Ireland, March 9, 1831, and he was the son of Edward and Ann (Irving) Cooke, both natives of the Green Isle of Erin.

Edward Cooke was born in the same part of Ireland as his son, and was a wealthy citizen, owning large tracts of land in his native country. He was a man of education and belonged to the higher class, being known as the county “squire.” He selected his wife in the person of Miss Ann Irving, a native also of Ireland, and the daughter of William and Mary (Ball) Irving. In the year 1839 Edward Cooke brought his family to the United States, after an ocean voyage of nine weeks, and landed at Baltimore, Md. His mother-in-law came with the family and died in Knox County, Ohio, at a good old age.

About 1840, Mr. Cooke moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, having spent the previous winter in Pittsburg, and subsequently to Knox County, that State, where he purchased two hundred and forty acres of land. He possessed good sound sense, indomitable will and no lack of energy, and has made them all tell in his career, for he was one of the substantial and influential men of his section. This farm he improved in every way, and on it received his final summons June 2, 1847. His children, eleven in number, were as follows: Mary A., who married George Little; John, Eliza, Ellen, Rebecca (deceased), William, Jane, Fannie, George E., one who died in infancy and Edward. The mother of these children passed away in the year 1862.

After the death of his father, the mother made her home with our subject until he was thirty-five years of age, or until his marriage to Miss Mattie Sefton. This lady was a product of Wayne County, Ohio, and the daughter of Henry and Mary (Beatty) Sefton, both natives of the Keystone State. Mr. and Mrs. Cooke’s union was blessed by the birth of one child, a son, Edward P., who is a graduate of the Dowagiac High School. For some time the latter has been a school teacher in Berrien County and has also taught in Colorado. He is a prominent educator, and is well known as a young man of unusual ability and prominence.

Following his marriage, our subject went to Iowa, and after a short residence there, in the year 1868, moved to the State of Michigan. He immediately engaged in the sawmill business in Big Rapids, remaining there and meeting with fair success until 1874. He then came to his present farm and bought ninety acres of partly improved land. He is an intelligent gentleman, of superior mental attainments, who seeks to develop himself as well as his agricultural interests in the best and broadest directions. In politics he is a Democrat.