Saguache County CO Archives Biographies.....Cook, John Willis  December 20, 1866 - ?
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net December 20, 2005, 12:43 am

Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado

     This enterprising, far-seeing and progressive citizen of Saguache county,

who, as the owner and editor of the Saguache Crescent, is one of the leaders of

thought in southern Colorado, and one of its representative men, is a self-made

man and, having learned by trying experience the needs and aspirations of the

plain people of this country, is well able to state and advocate them, as he

does in his paper and in all his public utterances.  He was born at Cook’s Fort,

a block house built by his grandfather, George W. Cook, as a protection against

the pro-slaveryites, in Jefferson county, Kansas, on December 20, 1866, the son

of William M. and Frances (Pennick) Cook, the father a native of Indiana and the

mother of Missouri.  The family are of the good old Puritan stock, tracing their

lineage as they do in an unbroken line from Francis Cook, one of the immortal

band of Pilgrims who landed on Plymouth Rock that bleak December day in 1620. 

They have ever followed the star of empire westward, moving to Hartford,

Connecticut, in 1636, thence to Marietta, Ohio, in 1788, to northwestern Indiana

in 1816, to Iowa in 1852, to Kansas in 1854.  Four patriots served in the war of

the Revolution, two in the war of 1812 and one was wounded at the storming of

Chapultepec in the war with Mexico.  William M. Cook and his two brothers, the

only male members of the family old enough for service, fought for the Union

through the great Civil war.  True pioneers, they have ever been found in the

vanguard of American civilization and be it said to their credit they have ever

stood for the cause of freedom and right.  George W. Cook, the grandfather of

the subject of this sketch, was obliged to build a stout block house on his

Kansas claim on account of the pro-slaveryites who were determined to drive out

the freesoilers and make Kansas a slave state, he and his sons taking an active

part in the Kansas war which raged round them until the adherents of slavery

were driven from the new territory.  The parents of the subject settled in

Kansas before the Civil war, and lived together until death ended the labors of

the father on September 25, 1903, near Hobart, Oklahoma, where he had drawn a

claim at the Kiowa and Comanche opening.  The mother is now living at Topeka

that state.  In 1859 the father came to Colorado and prospected and mined here

until 1875 at various times and places, except for nearly four years during the

Civil war, in which he served as a Union soldier in Company B, Eleventh Kansas

Cavalry, being mustered out of the service at Leavenworth on August 20, 1865. 

His occupation in Kansas was farming and raising stock, and in this he was

measurably successful and prosperous.   He was a stanch Republican in political

faith. Seven of his children survive him John W., Ulysses E., Mrs. O.D. Henley,

Mrs. A.C. Slykhous, Mrs. May George, Mrs. H.F. Browning and Mrs. Walter O.

Hammond.  The first born of these, John Willis Cook, received a good education

in the common schools and at an early age began to earn his own way in the

service of his parents.   Later he took a course of instruction at the Strickler

Business College at Topeka.  Leaving home in 1887, he taught school, clerked in

stores and spent several years at newspaper work on daily and weekly papers in

eastern Kansas, and in Colorado.  In 1896 he returned to Denver and while there

wrote and published for his uncle, Gen. D.J. Cook, a noted Colorado pioneer, a

volume entitled “Hands Up,” it being the story of his forty years’ life in the

West.  The General filled a number of important offices in troublous and trying

times.  He was United States detective city marshal, chief of police and chief

of detectives, successively, and as major-general of the C.N.G., effected peace

between warring factions and put down disturbing elements at Leadville in the

great strike of 1880.  He also served as sheriff of the county eight years.  His

life was stirring and strenuous to the last degree, and the story of it which

his nephew wrote is full of interest as a true and graphic account of the times

in which he was so important a personage and acted so prominent a part.  It has

been read by thousands with great interest, and is one of the best known and

most appreciated narratives of early Colorado life.  After completing the

publication of this work, Mr. Cook moved to Crestone, in the mountain region of

Saguache county, in 1898, and turned his attention to prospecting and mining,

but without much success.  In 1901 he was elected county clerk and recorder of

Saguache county, and in March, 1903, bought the Saguache Crescent, a leading

Republican newspaper of southern Colorado, of which he has ever since been the

owner and editor.  He has added to the capacity and equipment of the office in

order to be able to meet all requirements for job work of the best kind, and has

conducted the paper with intelligence, enterprise and sagacity, according to

such lofty ideals of duty to the public and devotion to its interests as to have

raised it greatly in the estimation of the community and made it a power in

leading and directing public opinion in the territory of its circulation besides

largely increasing its subscription list and other forms of patronage.  On

September 29, 1896, Mr. Cook united in marriage with Miss Anna L. Martin, a

native of Jefferson county, Kansas.  They have one child, their son Francis E. 

Mr. Cook belongs to the Masons, Odd Fellows, Elks, Modern Woodmen of America,

Woodmen of the World and Sons of Veterans.  In addition to his newspaper work,

Mr. Cook finds time to engage in mining, stock raising and politics, in all of

which he has been measurably successful in recent years.  He is a firm believer

in the Rooseveltian doctrine of a square deal all around and has made his

influence felt in that direction in a section of the state where political

jobbery has long been dominant.  

Additional Comments:
From Progressive Men of Western Colorado.  Chicago:  A.W. Bowen & Co., 1905



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