Morand Cooke
Kittitas Co., WA

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Contributed by:  Shelli Steedman 4/20/2007

MODE COOKE, 88, VALLEY PIONEER, TAKEN BY DEATH.  WIDELY KNOWN FAIRVIEW FARMER
RESIDED HERE 75 YEARS.  Death yesterday took Morand D. (Mode) Cooke, 88, in the
Kittitas valley's oldest pioneer in point of years and the last remaining
member of one of the Northwest's pioneer families.  He died at his home in the
Fairview district, where he had lived for 74 years, yesterday afternoon [died
September 2, 1945].

A son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Charles P. Cooke, Oregon and Washington
pioneers, he came to the Kittitas valley with his parents in 1871.  At his
death he made his home on the Fairview ranch which lies on the creek which took
its name from his family and which surrounds the original Cooke homestead.

He was born in Polk county, Oregon, November 27, 1855, and witnessed the growth
of the Kittitas and valleys from Indian county to one of the richest
agricultural district of the Northwest.  The Cooke family lived at
Independence, Ore., until 1867, when they moved to Moxee in Yakima county.  In
the winter of 1870-71 they moved to the Kittitas valley and homesteaded in
Fairview, the third family to settle in this valley.

Mr. Cooke was the second oldest living valley resident in point of residence.
Only Clarence Houser, who was brought to the valley in 1870 as an infant by his
parents had lived here longer.

The Cooke family came here when Indians still roamed the area and Mode Cooke
and his parents and brothers and sisters knew old Chief Joseph of the Umatillas
and many of the other famous Indian chiefs of that time.  Although in 1874 he
and his brother-in-law, Charles Coleman, became the first assessors of the
Wenatchee valley, throughout his adult life he engaged in the livestock and
farming industry and his operations were of considerable size.

He was married in 1888 to Miss Belle Fulton.  She died in 1903.  Surviving are
four sons, Lester Cooke and Charles Cooke, Ellensburg, Frank Cooke of Seattle
and Earl Cooke of Menlo; two daughters, Mrs. Edna Dawes and Mrs. Ruth Teske of
Ellensburg; six grandchildren, and four great grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held Thursday afternoon at 1:30 o'clock at the
Honeycutt chapel with Rev. W. M. Martin officiating.  Burial will be in the
IOOF cemetery.