Urban H. Cooke Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1235-1236 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. IV (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				URBAN H. COOKE. 

	Urban H. Cooke is one of the extensive landowners of Spink 
county, his holdings embracing ten hundred and forty acres in Frankfort 
township, where he has resided since 1890. South Dakota has claimed him 
as a citizen since 1883, at which time he came from Kankakee county, 
Illinois, to this state. His birth occurred in Manteno, Illinois, 
August 22, 1860, his parents being Chester W. and Mary (Merwin) Cooke. 
The father is of English lineage, his ancestors having come to this 
country on the Mayflower, while some of the maternal ancestors of Urban 
H. Cooke were soldiers of the Revolutionary war. Chester W. Cooke is a 
farmer by occupation. He became a resident of Illinois in 1858 and is 
now residing in Frankfort, South Dakota, at the ripe old age of eighty-
five years. His wife passed away in Manteno, Illinois, in December, 
1912, when seventy-seven years of age. 

	Urban H. Cooke acquired his education in the public schools, in 
which he continued his studies to the age of fifteen years. He 
afterward worked for his father until he reached the age of twenty-two 
and gained practical experience in all lines of farm work. He was 
afterward employed at various occupations until he came to South 
Dakota, at which time he accepted a clerkship in a general store at 
Frankfort, spending two years in that employ. He then returned to 
Manteno, Illinois, where he engaged in clerking until he once more came 
to South Dakota in 1891. At Frankfort he entered into partnership with 
J. B. Blain and in 1896 he purchased the interest of his partner and 
conducted the store alone until 1908. He was then joined by F. M. Kuhns 
and together they successfully conducted the business until 1911, when 
they sold out to M. E. Cooke, a brother of Urban H. Cooke. Since that 
time the latter has lived retired from commercial pursuits, giving his 
attention now to the supervision of his property holdings, which are 
extensive and valuable. He has made judicious investments in property 
and is the owner of ten hundred and forty acres of valuable land in 
Frankfort township, a half section near Orient, a tract in the western 
part of the state and also a ranch ill Canada, his entire possessions 
aggregating over two thousand acres. He is likewise vice president of 
the Farmers State Bank of Frankfort. He erected his residence in the 
town, has also built other dwellings and a business block and has 
greatly improved his farm properties, thus adding to the material 
development and improvement of this section of the state. 
On the 12th of March, 1900, in Frankfort, Mr. Cooke was united in 
marriage to Mrs. Mary (Cutter) Hagerman, of that place, who is a native 
of Portland, Maine, and they are well known in Frankfort, having an 
extensive circle of warm friends. They have an adopted son, Walter 
Peterson, who is now attending school at Valparaiso, Indiana. 

	Mr. Cooke is president of the board of education and school 
interests find in him a stalwart champion. In fact, he is at all times 
a public-spirited and progressive citizen and works earnestly and 
persistently for the development and upbuilding of the county along 
many lines of advancement and improvement. His has indeed been a busy 
and useful life, fraught with good results both for himself and the 
community in which he lives, for while promoting individual success he 
has also greatly advanced public prosperity.