Biography of Ward Cook

WARD COOK. Aside from any consideration that may
attach to him as a member of one of the old and promi-
nent families of the southwestern part of West Virginia,
Ward Cook has established himself in the confidence and re-
gard of the people of Raleigh County by the manner in
which he has discharged the duties of various public posi-
tions, particularly that of county assessor, in which capac-
ity he has served since 1921. For many years Mr. Cook
was engaged in agricultural pursuits, and in every avenue
of activity has shown himself industrious, straightforward
and capable.

Ward Cook was born October 18, 1869, two and one-half
miles west of Beckley, where now is situated Cabell Sta-
tion, on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, and is a son of
George P. and Sarah Jane (Cook) Cook, and a grandson
of Thomas Cook, who was born in Wyoming County, this
state. George P. Cook was born on Rockcastle Creek, in
Wyoming County, near Pinevllle, in 1844, and during the
war between the states served for one year in the Union
Army as a member of Company I, Seventh Regiment, West
Virginia Cavalry. In 1866 he came to Raleigh County
and settled on a farm on White Stick Creek, where he
continued to be engaged in successful agricultural opera-
tions during the remainder of his life. He was a stanch
republican in politics and a deacon in the Baptist Church,
in the faith of which he died in 1903. Mrs. Cook, who was
not related to her husband prior to their marriage, was
born in Summers County, West Virginia, a daughter of
John Cook, and died in 1904, at the age of sixty-three
years. There were four children in the family: Marietta,
the wife of D. S. Cline, engaged in agricultural pursuits at
Mabscott, near Beckley; Nellie, the wife of A. M. Godbey,
of Beckley, who occupies the post of Raleigh County jailer;
Emma, who died at the age of twenty years as the wife of
John C. Riffe, of this county, and Ward.

Ward Cook attended the home schools and at the age of
nineteen years taught one term of school at Pineville, Wy-
oming County. During the next quarter of a century he
applied himself to farming, first spending two years on
the home farm and then purchasing a farm at Mabscott,
Raleigh County, where he spent twenty-three years and made
a success of his operations. In 1909 he was appointed dep-
uty county assessor, a position which he held under J. C.
Milem until 1912. In 1917 he was chosen for the position
of county jailer, which he filled very satisfactorily up to
and including 1920, and in 1921 was elected county asses-
sor, which position he holds at this time. Mr. Cook makes
an excellent executive, courteous, industrious and efficient,
and well merits the confidence in which he is held by his
fellow-citizens. His office is located in the Court House at
Beckley, and visitors thereto find him at all times ready to
inform them regarding the business of his department and
to help them in any way in the straightening out of their
perplexities as to tax matters. In political affairs he is a
stanch republican, and, with his family, is a member of the
Baptist Church. He has several fraternal affiliations.

In 1890 Mr. Cook was united in marriage with Miss
Julia Wills, daughter of Enoch Wills, of Wyoming County,
and to this union there have been born six children: Lake
Erie, the wife of G. R. Hutchison, of Beckley; E. H., who
is his father's assistant in the assessor's office; Ethel, who
is the wife of C. M. Bruce, of Beckley; Wanda, wife of L.
E. Warden, of Stotesbury; and Rebecca and Rose, who
are attending the public schools of Beckley.

Source:  The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., 
Chicago and New York, Volume III pg. 138-139


Submitted by Valerie F. Crook <vfcrook@trellis.net>

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