Baldwin County GaArchives History .....History of Baldwin County - Cook Biography 1925
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p. 302-305

SAMUEL AUSTIN COOK

    Samuel Austin Cook, son of Hamlin Jarrett Cook and Dorothy Ann Irwin Cook,
was born at Palmyra, near Albany, Georgia, December the tenth, 1846. Later his
parents moved to Albany where he attended the school of Mr. and Mrs. Ingram,
noted educators. He was preparing to go to the University of Virginia, when the
war came on. Though only sixteen, he entered the service and was stationed at
Andersonville Commissary department. At the close of the war, he engaged in
banking and warehouse business.

    In 1869, he married Anna M. Green, daughter of Dr. Thomas F. Green. He had
always loved nature and horticulture, and in 1872 moved to Midway and bought the
old colonial home of Mrs. Tucker, where he had a beautiful and profitable
experimental farm, importing plants and trees from Japan. In Milledgeville
today, stands a variety orange tree he gave to Mrs. John Clark.

    In 1880, he was urged by the Trustees of the Lunatic Asylum to take charge
of their garden and fields. He did this for eight years. The constant riding
impaired his health and in the fall of 1888, he became Editor of the
Agricultural Department of "The Southern Farm," established by Henry Grady. For
fifteen years he edited the Agricultural columns of the Savannah News.

    In the notice of his death the Union Recorder wrote the following: "Mr. Cook
has been a resident of this county for a number of years, coming here from
Albany. He was a Christian gentleman and was dearly loved by all who knew him.
He has done a great deal of writing for various Agricultural Journals and
acquired great knowledge by close reading and study. He will be missed by a
large number of friends throughout the State."

    Mr. Cook was a member of the Methodist church, received during the pastorate
of Rev. A. J. Jarrell, with whom he had a close friendship. Being at home most
of his time, and for years an uncomplaining invalid, he became identified with
every detail of family life. His daughter-in-law, who lived for fourteen years
in the house, said of him that he was the best man she had ever known. He loved
all of womankind. By him they were exalted, and the neighbors among them
ministered continually by music and recitation to his happiness and
entertainment. He especially loved music, being a fine musician himself.

    During his years of labor, he contributed much to the intensive farming of
Baldwin county. An article on Andersonville Prison by surgeon, Dr. Kerr, who was
in correspondence with Mr. Cook, and published in the Chicago papers, is
published with this sketch.

Andersonville Surgeon Says It Was Pellagra

    Dr. Kerr declares that a very large proportion of the deaths at Prison were
from this disease and Hookworm. Says most of the bread was made from musty meal.

    Dr. W. J. W. Kerr, of Corsicana, Texas, who was surgeon in charge at
Andersonville prison, and since the war, president of the Association of Army
and Navy Surgeons, C. S. A., writes to the Confederate Veteran as follows:

    "In December (1909) Veteran, there is a quotation from a short address that
I delivered in New Orleans before the Southern Medical Association concerning
the deaths in Andersonville Prison in 1864. I said that now, with the history of
pellagra, I was perfectly satisfied that a very large proportion of deaths there
were from Pellagra. We had no yellow fever there at all. The symptoms of
Pellagra, as known now, are identically those of a large number of cases that
occured at Andersonville. Our bread there was of corn altogether, and a large
proportion of the meal was musty, probably three fourths being damaged; but it
was the best that we could get. Taking that into consideration, and that we had
36,000 prisoners in the prison which was intended for only 5,000 men, the death
rate is easily accounted for. Since my attention has been called to it, by Dr.
C. W. Stiles, of the United States Marine Hospital service, I am also satisfied
there were many cases of hook-worm there. Neither hook-worm nor Pellagra was
known in this country at that time. Prof. Joseph Jones, deceased, of New
Orleans, and I performed 128 post-mortem examinations there, and made about 360
drawings of brain, lungs, liver, and intestinal canal, which were sent to
Richmond, Virginia, and I am informed were captured by the Federals and sent to
Washington, together with notes that I made of a great many cases. If those
drawings and notes have been preserved, they will doubtless prove that pellagra
and hook-worm both were in abundance there.

    "The time will come when the name and character of Maj. Wirz will be
vindicated, and the vile charges made against him at his trial will be proved
false. I knew him as no one living now, except his daughter, Mrs. Cora Perrin,
of Natchez, Miss. Capt. J. M. Page, of Montana, says in his 'True History of
Andersonville Prison,' there was no kinder or more humane officer than Capt.
Wirz. If Edwin M. Stanton, United States Secretary of War, had consented to an
exchange of prisoners when the twenty-six men were sent from Andersonville, and
paroled unconditionally to report the status of the prisoners there and the
surroundings that could be helped, before the United States government, there
would never have been the number of deaths there that occured; neither would
Major Wirz have been hanged.

    "I am the only living Surgeon, so far as I can learn, of sixty-three, who
were on duty there in 1864; but my opinion is both backed and accepted, I
believe, by all of the best informed physicians in the country. I join the
number of comrades who are telling what they are thankful for, and state that I
am thankful to God for sparing me until this time, that I may contribute my mite
to establishing the truth. I was in the same bill of endictment with Jefferson
Davis, his Cabinet, Maj. Wirz, and others, and I feel it my duty to do what I
can to record the truth."

    Dr. J .C. Johnson, of Rogers Avenue, Vineville, Macon, belonged to the
medical staff, at Andersonville prison, during the period of which Dr. Kerr writes.



Additional Comments:
From: 

Part V

HISTORY of BALDWIN COUNTY GEORGIA

BY MRS. ANNA MARIA GREEN COOK

ILLUSTRATED

ANDERSON. S. C.
Keys-Hearn Printing Co.
-1925—


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