John Cook
SOURCE: "History of Champaign County, Illinois with Illustrations," 1878
JOHN COOK was born in Bedford county, Pennsylvania, on the 8th day of March, 1826.
His father, Ezekiel COOK was a native of Virginia, but removed to Pennsylvania at a very early age. Elizabeth LEADER, whom he married, was a native of Bedford county, Pa. and of German extraction. Eleven children were born to them. Ezekiel died in Bedford county, Pa., about the yrar 1868. Six children of that large family yet survive, of whom John is the eighth. He was reared upon the farm. On the 15th day of January, 1851, he married Barbara LEE, born in Bedford county, of German descent. Six children have been born unto them, three boys and three girls. The eldest two of the daughters are married and live in Tolono township, the rest of the children still remain beneath the parental roof. Mr. Cook came to Illinois and settled in Tolono, in the month of October, 1866, and embarked in the lumber business in connection with H. C. Smith. The partnership continued until 1872, when it was dissolved, and Mr. Cook continued the business.
In 1875 he added the agricultural business with it, and continues in it at present. He is a Republican in politics, but cast his first vote for Cass and Butler in 1848, in 1852 voted for Gen. Winfield Scott, but in 1856 for John C. Fremont, and has ever since adhered to the Republican party. He is not a politician, but has been frequently honored in local politics with offices in his own town, both here and in his native state.
Both he and his wife are members of the Presbyterian church. In educational matters, Mr. Cook keeps abreast with the times, and gives his children the best education the schools of the county afford. In 1864 he enlisted in Co. F. 99th Penn Infantry, Col. Biles. The regiment was attached to the Army of the Potomac, 2nd Army Corps, under Gen. Hancock, and in June, 1865, at the close of the war, was honorably discharged.