BIO: Frank Reed COOKER, Clearfield County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Banja & Sally Copyright 2005. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/clearfield/ NOTE: Use this web address to access other bios: http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/clearfield/1picts/swoope/swoope.htm _____________________________________________________________ From Twentieth Century History of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, and Representative Citizens, by Roland D. Swoope, Jr., Chicago: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, 1911, pages 884 & 885. _____________________________________________________________ FRANK REED COOKER,* a well known agriculturist of Clearfield County, Pa., who is carrying on operations on his excellent farm of seventy acres situated in Huston Township, near the Elk County line, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., March 4, 1846, a son of Samuel and Lydia (Reed) Cooker. Samuel Cooker, whose parents were born in Holland, was born near Philadelphia, and in that city was for a long period the proprietor of a store. In 1850 he went with a party of men from the Quaker City overland to California in search of gold, and eventually lost track of his children, all of whom had been bound out young to his different relatives. His wife died at Pennsburg, Montgomery County, at the age of sixty-five years. The children of Samuel and Lydia (Reed) Cooker were: Lucinda, who married Noah Grove, both no being deceased; William, a member of Company C, 51st Pa. Vol. Inf., who lost his life in the battle of Petersburg; Benjamin, a member of the same company and regiment, who died at Andersonville Prison; Harry, who was also a soldier in a Pennsylvania regiment; Emma, who married William Hutt of Philadelphia; Hannah, who married William Reed of Philadelphia; Frank R.; two who died young; and Samuel, who resides in Huston Township. When he was but a boy, Frank R. Cooker was put on a farm in lower Montgomery County, and he worked thereon until his enlistment, in June, 1862, in Company A, 138th Reg., Pa. Vol. Inf., under Captain Fisher, and he served three years, being mustered out at the end of the war at Harrisburg. He served his country like a brave soldier and in the long marches, skirmishes and battles proved himself a cheerful and reliable comrade. After the war had closed he went back to Montgomery County, and in 1867 located in Clearfield County, which was then still heavily timbered. He worked for a time for old David Horning, and then for quite a period rented farms, but eventually, in 1878, he purchased his present farm from J. B. Hewett. At that time there was only a house located on this property, but Mr. Cooker has made all the necessary improvements, and has his land cleared and well cultivated, making it one of the finest tracts of its size in the township. The B. & S. Railroad runs on the south and east boundaries of Mr. Cooker's farm, this being the Bennett's Branch division of that line. On March 14, 1877, Mr. Cooker was married to Miss Selinda Hewitt, daughter of J. B. Hewitt and granddaughter of Ebenezer Hewitt, one of the pioneers of Clearfield County. Mrs. Cooker died in 1890, having been the mother of two children, namely: Harry, who married Nora Reeda and is living with his father; and Irving, who married Gertrude Hadley, by whom he has had a daughter, Beatrice, and is residing at Latrobe, Pa. Mr. Cooker is a member of the Grange and a popular comrade of the G. A. R. He is a Republican in politics.