************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/mi/mifiles.htm ************************************************ Submitted by Cheryl VanWormer RUFUS R. AND CORDELIA W. (COWLES) COOK. Rufus R. Cook, the founder of the village of "Cook's Corners," was born Sept. 11, 1811, at Hartford, Conn. When he was three years of age his parents moved to Rome, N. Y., and from there to Bergen, in the same State, where he lived until he was eighteen, when he moved with his parents to the then Territory of Michigan, and settled in Avon, Oakland Co. In 1837, in company with his brother-in-law, John L. Morse, and Amos and William Russell, he started on a prospecting-tour. They left their teams at a point on the Looking-Glass River, about three miles west of Laingsburg, Shiawassee Co., where they built a boat out of material they had brought with them. In this way they were four days reaching the mouth of Flat River. From there they traveled on foot to the burr-oak plains in Otisco, where they made a location, Mr. Cook taking the land where a village commemorates his name. Here he and Mr. Morse erected a shelter, but after winter had set in they went home on foot. In February they returned with their wives, taking also a span of horses, nineteen head of cattle, and eighteen swine, and, as they supposed, money enough to carry them through to harvest-time. Nine days of travel in extremely cold weather brought them to Lyons, where they found themselves unable to pay their tavern bill, as they had no money which the landlord would take,--the first intimation they had of the "wild-cat" collapse. They were therefore obliged to run in debt, but paid their bill the next fall, when the sale of some cattle gave them some money that had a value. In 1839, Messrs. Cook, Morse, Lincoln, and Baldwin built the first saw-mill in Montcalm County. It had a capacity to cut three or four thousand feet per day, which at that time was considered large. Until 1846, Mr. Cook had lived in a log house which had become quite popular among the traveling public, and that year he built the hotel which soon became popular and celebrated for its anniversary balls. Mr. Cook kept the hotel a short time, when he rented it and built a residence and went into the mercantile business. Mr. Cook was a good business man and had more than ordinary influence over men; was highly esteemed by the community; held the office of postmaster for thirty-five years; was also justice of the peace for the greater part of the time; was supervisor for several years, and held other positions; through all his life was the recipient of most responsible and delicate trusts, which were never abused; and, although he held so many positions, he never sought office for himself. When he worked for others, however, he had a great power. Mr. Cook was a representative man among the early settlers of the Grand River valley. He was public spirited, and contributed in many ways to the growth and prosperity of the country, and was well known throughout Ionia, Montcalm, and Kent Counties. He died Jan. 6, 1875, in his sixty-fourth year. Mr. Cook was married Jan. 2, 1834, to Cordelia W. Cowles, of Madison Co., N. Y., where she was born Oct. 2, 1811. Her father died when she was a child, leaving two children, Mrs. John L. Morse being her younger sister. Her mother subsequently married Joseph Davis, who came to Michigan in 1826 and settled in Oakland County. Mrs. Cook is well and favorably known in the community where she lives for her uniform kindness and Christian virtues, and is a member of the Baptist Church in their village. Both she and Mr. Cook found their peculiar enjoyment in the unobtrusive pleasures of the domestic circle. Having no children of their own, they have brought up several; a girl and a boy they adopted now carry on the large farm in connection with Mrs. Cook. This biography is taken from "HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN" by John S. Schenck. Philadelphia: D. W. Ensign & Co., 1881. Page 289. Otisco.