Shawnee County KS Archives Biographies.....Cook, Perry Ellis 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com September 29, 2006, 5:29 pm

Author: James L. King (1905)

PERRY ELLIS COOK.

    PERRY ELLIS COOK, contractor, is a citizen of Topeka, who has watched his
city develop from almost a village into a beautiful and well-regulated capital
city. He was born in Indiana and is a son of Oscar and Charity (Wiley) Cook,
residents of Brownsburg, Indiana.

    The ancestors of Mr. Cook date back to the early settlers around Seneca, New
York, from which section his grandfather migrated to Boone County, Indiana, when
that locality was one vast forest. He was accompanied by his son Oscar, who was
born at Seneca, in March, 1823, and now resides with a daughter within six miles
of where his father settled in his boyhood. For generations back the family have
followed agricultural pursuits. Mr. Cook's mother came from an old and
distinguished Kentucky family, all of whom were land-owners. Of the immediate
family, four brothers and one sister still survive. They are scattered, living
in Indianapolis, Central Iowa, Chicago, Jefferson County, Iowa, and Brownsburg,
Indiana.

    Perry Ellis Cook was reared on his father's farm and attended the public
schools of his native county. At the age of 17 years he left home and went to
Iowa, having previously learned the carpenter's trade, which he has followed
more or less ever since. After his marriage, which took place in Iowa, he
returned home for a visit and remained a year, but in 1884 he decided to locate
permanently in the West, and accompanied by his wife, came to Topeka. Here he
found a fine opening in his trade and he continued to follow it until 1900, when
he entered contracting and now has a well-established business in that line. He
has not only witnessed the erection of all of the important buildings here, but
he has put up many of them himself, notably the Commercial Hotel and the annex
to the Keith-Rhodes Hospital and Sanitarium. The greater bulk of his work has
been, however, the erection of fine residences, his own being a good example,—a
very attractive home situated in East Hill Addition.

    Mr. Cook married, when a resident of Iowa, a young lady named Randa Conger,
who was born in Illinois, but whose home had been in Marshall County, Iowa,
since she was a year and a half old. A family of four children have been added
to the happy family circle, namely: Wilbur, aged 19 years; Blanche, aged 16;
Perry Ellis, Jr., aged 13; and Herbert, aged 11.

    Mr. Cook is a man of social nature and enjoys membership in several
fraternal organizations, among which are the Odd Fellows, the Eagles and the
Modern Woodmen of America. He is a self-made man and has met with the greater
part of his business success since coming to Kansas. He reached Topeka, which
was then unpaved and even wanted sewerage, with a capital of $25. This has been
turned over many times and that he is now in the enjoyment of ample means is but
the natural result of his industry and enterprise.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORY OF SHAWNEE COUNTY, KANSAS
AND
REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

EDITED AND COMPILED BY
JAMES L. KING
TOPEKA, KANSAS 

"History is Philosophy Teaching by Examples"

PUBLISHED BY
RICHMOND & ARNOLD,
GEORGE RICHMOND; C. R. ARNOLD.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS,
1905.

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