Sylvanus H. Cook Biography


	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
 	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & 
	Co., Chicago, 1899. Pages 1067-1068

	Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger,mkrueger@iw.net, 1998. 

	This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit 
	organizations for their private use. 

	Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval 
	system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other 
	means requires the written approval of the file's author.

	This file is part of the SDGENWEB Archives. If you arrived here inside
	a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at

	http://usgwarchives.org/sd/sdfiles.htm


SYLVANUS H. COOK is one of the representative farmers of Brown county, 
and has been a conspicuous figure in the development and extension of 
the great agricultural interests of that section of Dakota. He is a 
pioneer settler of Bath township and has a modern country home on 
section 13, township 123, range 63. 

Mr. Cook was born in Livingston county, New York, December 29, 1845, 
and was the son of Aaron and Jane (Clark) Cook, both of whom were 
natives of New York. The father was a farmer and lumberman and 
conducted an extensive business. He erected the first steam saw mill in 
western New York and made a success of his business, but unfortunately 
signed notes of security for friends, and at his death the bulk of his 
estate was exhausted. Our subject, at the time of his father's demise, 
was eight years of age, and his mother raised the family, which 
consisted of six children. Sylvanus H. stayed with his mother and 
attended school until reaching his seventeenth year, when the call for 
troops in 1863 aroused his patriotism and he enlisted in Company I, 
First New York Dragoons, more generally known as the Nineteenth New 
York Cavalry. He was immediately ordered to the front, and proceeded 
with his regiment to West Virginia and subsequently participated in no 
less than thirty two engagements, the more prominent battles being: 
Wilderness, Cold Harbor, second Winchester and Cedar Creek, and his 
regiment marched from Harper's Ferry to the siege of Richmond, and 
finally he was at Appomattox when General Lee surrendered to Grant. 
During his military career, although having many narrow escapes, he was 
neither wounded nor captured by the enemy. He participated in the grand 
review at Washington, was mustered out at Alexandria, Virginia, and 
received an honorable discharge at Rochester, New York. 

Late in the fall of 1865 our subject went to sane county, Wisconsin, 
and commenced farming, renting land on shares, and thus continued until 
going to Dakota in 1880. He homesteaded the northwest quarter of 
section 13, township 123, range 63, in Bath township, and filed a tree 
claim to one hundred and sixty acres on the southwest quarter of the 
same section. After making preparations to secure his two quarter 
sections, he built a small frame house, 12 x 16 feet and sodden the 
exterior. This building is now used for a granary, but he and his 
family made it their abode for nine years, and experienced many of the 
hardships incidental to pioneer life. The first winter of their arrival 
in their new prairie home, 1880-81, was severe all over the states, and 
near his home the snow lay three feet deep on a level. It was 
impossible to travel far for provisions, and the coffee mill was 
brought into requisition to grind wheat upon which the family subsisted 
for six long, dreary weeks. The winter did not terminate until the 28th 
of April. He replaced his original shanty with a commodious frame 
dwelling, 46 x 28 feet, two stories in height. It is a modern 
structure, with convenient porches and all the home comforts to be 
found in a good farm dwelling, and is built in the form of a cross, at 
a cost of two thousand five hundred dollars. He had erected two years 
previous a 48 x 44-foot barn, for the shelter of his stock and hay. The 
building cost twelve hundred dollars, including a grinder and windmill 
attachment, which has been most useful in furnishing an abundance of 
good water for his family use and stock, as well as grinding the feed 
for his cattle. He purchased the east half of section 23, in Bath 
township, in 1894, and now owns an entire section of land, about one 
half of which is sown to grain, principally wheat, and the balance is 
under fence, and is good hay and pasture land. On both farms he has 
good improvements and ample granaries, and he has twenty-five head of 
cattle and eight horses on his farm. For eight successive years, from 
1882 to 1890, his crops were good, wheat averaging eighteen bushels to 
the acre, and one year thirty-five bushels per acre, and oats one 
hundred and ten bushels per acre. He has a well kept farm, and every 
detail of the work is carefully conducted. 

Mr. Cook was married in 1870 to Helen Rees, daughter of Nathaniel and 
Helen (Lape) Rees, all natives of New York state. Mrs. Cook's parents 
removed to Ohio when she was but five years of age, and the father 
farmed in the Buckeye state for ten years, then removed to Dane county, 
Wisconsin. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Cook, as 
follows: Frederick D., now practicing dentistry at Chippewa Falls, 
Wisconsin; Pearl H., who is attending the Chicago Art Institute; Dayton 
E., practicing law at Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, a graduate of the high 
school at Aberdeen, and also graduated from the law department of the 
State University of Wisconsin in 1896; Effie, an accomplished young 
lady, who is attending the high school at Aberdeen. Mr. Cook is a 
gentleman who is specially interested in educational affairs and has 
given each of his children the best of opportunities for receiving 
excellent schooling. The family is well known in that locality and 
their home is one of social refinement and comfort. Mr. Cook is a 
member of the Union Veterans' Union of Aberdeen. Politically he is a 
Republican and firmly advocates the principles of his party.