Notes |
- HISTORY AND GENEALOGY OF THE MILK-MILKS FAMILY, by Grace Croft, 1952.
Ezra Cook and wife, Permelia Milk, had 7 children:
1) Nathaniel Cook, b. 26 Mar. 1836, West Fulton, NY, d. 14
Dec 1901, Winters, CA; m. (1) 21 Oct. 1860, Mariah Grant,
b. 2 Dec 1845; m. (2) Minerva Stern.
Children of 1st m. -2:
1) William Ezra, b. 20 Aug 1861
2) Reuben Nathaniel Cook, b. 18 Aug
1863, Wheaton,IL.
Children of 2nd m. - 4:
3) George Albert Eastmond Cook, b. Kelseyville, CA.
4) Beulah Sophina Minerva Cook, b. 22 Oct. 1880,
Kelseyville, CA (twin)
5) Rose Elizabeth Permelia Cook, b. 22 Oct. 1880,
Kelseyville, CA (twin)
6) Frank Eugene Blanchard Cook, b. 15 July 1883, Christine,
CA
2) Louise Desire Cook, b. 3 Feb. 1839, Coxsackie, NY; m. 15 Sep. 1864, Edwin
H. Hemenway, b. 27 Mar. 1837. Children b. Wayne Cen(ter?), DuPage Co.,IL
1) Ezra Edward Hemenway, b. 14 Oct. 1873, d. 1 Feb. 1878.
2) Esther Louise Hemenway, b. 9 Dec. 1976; m. 4 Sep. 1900
in Sacramento, CA, Frank E. Russell.
3) EZRA ASHER COOK, b. 5 Nov. 1841, Windsor, CT, d. 1911; m. 5 Aug. 1869 at
Wheaton, IL, Maria Elizabeth Blanchard, b. 30 Oct. 1846, Galesburg, IL.,
d. 5 Mar. 1916, Wheaton, IL, daughter of Jonathan & Mary (Bent) Blanchard.
Children - 12:
1) Lillian Cook, b. 1870, Chicago, IL, d.y.
2) Mary Amelia Cook, b. Sep. 1871, Chicago; m. Geroge
Chafee.
3) Julia Elizabeth Cook, b. 5 Nov. 1872, Chicago; m. C. Will
Aveling, b. in Holland, d. 1947. Resided in Wheaton, IL.
4) Blanchard Cook, b. 1874, d.y.
5) EZRA ALBERT COOK, b. 14 July 1875, Wheaton, IL; m.
(1) Ida Brode, d. 1939; m. (2) Maude Bell, resided in New
Boston, IL.
6) Hannah Ida Williston "Jean" Cook, b. 5 Oct. 1877,
Chicago, d. 1934; m. Harvey K. Boyer. Resided at
4536 Latoma, Seattle, WA.
7) Grace Eloise Cook, b. 30 Oct. 1879, Chicago; m. Karl E.
Zahn of Warsaw, WI. Resided in Sacramento, CA
8) Dr. Jonathan Blanchard Cook, b. 11 Sep. 1881, Chicago;
m. Adah Miller, who d. 10 June 1920, dau. of John and
Eliza (Strasburger) Miller. Resided at 1207 Jarvis Ave.,
Chicago. Son:
a) Jonathan Miller Cook, b. 8 June 1930, Chicago.
9) David Maurice Cook, b. 9 Oct. 1883, d. 1929; m. Edna
Cooper.
10) Dr. Lyman Joseph Cook, M.D., b. 13 Sep. 1885; m.
Edith Marks. Resided in Omaha, NE.
11) Ethel Marguerite Cook, b. 14 Aug. 1887, Chicago, IL,
d. 1924; m. Walter J. Hartman, Attorney. Resided in
Elgin, IL.
12) Helen Geraldine Cook, b. 16 Apr. 1889, d. 1929; m.
Edward D. Willing. Helen was Supt. Art in Public Schools,
Santa Anna, CA. Resided in Bellflower, CA.
4) Mary Amelia Cook, b. 11 Mar. 1844, Great Barrington, MA; m. 4 July 1864,
at Naperville, IL, Dwight L. Hemenway. Children - 5:
1) Henry Lewellyn Hemenway, b. 4 Jan. 1866, Wheaton, IL.
2) David Hemenway, b. 25 Mar. 1869, Wayne, IL; m.
Ernestine Lager, Winters, CA.
3) Lizzie Hemenway, b. 25 Aug. 1871, Chicago, IL.
4) Chester Edwin Hemenway, b. 27 May 1875, Chicago; m.
Eva Cooper of San Francisco.
5) Maybell C. Hemenway, b. 3 Jan. 1882, Lakewiew, IL; m.
George Molar of Berkley, CA.
5) Ruth Helena Cook, b. 10 July 1846, Windham Center, Greene Co, NY, d.
25 May 1847.
6) David Caleb Cook, b. 28 Aug. 1850; m. Marguerite Murat.
7) Emma R. Cook, b. 11 Jan. 1851, East Worcester, NY, d. 15 Sep. 1858,
Proviso, IL.
Notes from Web Site (updated 6/26/1998) by Jonathan Cook:
"Nathaniel's son, the Rev. Ezra Sprague Cook became a Methodist minister, though continuing to do some farming. Although it is not clear that he had much formal education, he may have been more learned than many Methodist clergy at that time, for his family remembered him as reading the scriptures in the original Greek and Hebrew. Roscoe's "History of Scoharie County" has a list of ministers for the nearby Jefferson (NY) Methodist Church which in 1848 gives 'William Lull and Ezra S. Cook.' This makes sense, since he married Permelia Milk(s) (see MILK line) of Jeffereson on Jan. 16 (or 26), 1834, in West Fulton; she was the daughter of Benjamin Milk (1780-1856) and a descendent of early settlers like John Milk (died 1689). In the Worcester (NY) Historical Museum, a list of Methodist ministers for East Worcester gives 'E.S. Cook' for 1850, with the next name occurring in 1861; the list is incomplete, however, and Rev. Cook had presumably left for Illinois earlier, since his youngest child died there in 1858."
and..." According to the anonymous Memoirs of David C. Cook, (published by the Cook Co, in 1929), Rev. Cook had to leave the ministry because of a bad case of 'preacher's sore throat.' He then 'purchased an interest in a woolen mill in East Worchester (p. 19), but it failed and the family moved to Northern Illinois, to farms near Wheaton, IL, According to a manuscript left by his son Ezra Asher:
The loose morals of the whole community was simply horrible at that time. The people were literally without God and without
hope in the world. At the next election after our settlement in Proviso, father was elected a director of the public school in our
district and was soon known as THE director, being the only American of the three and the only one who understood the duties
of a director. Then father usually preached to his family and to twenty others, some of whom came as far as ten miles to the
little schoolhouse.
Father often told us of his own boyhood and of the deplorable drinking habits. So universal was the use of liquor that a
drunken preacher was not even blamed, especially if he had been working hard and because fo fatigue took too much toddy.
Not to offer liquor to the pastor when he called at one's home was considered an act of great rudeness. ["Cook reports loose
morals as 'horrible'," Wheaton Sunday Journal, July 2, 1978, p. 31]
According to the Memoirs, Ezra Cook eventually sold the Wheaton property and moved the family to Chicago, opening a 'small printing office in a building on La Salle Street, between Washington and Randolph...specializing in bank supplies" (p. 36).
US Federal Census 1860: Milton, Dupage, IL, post office Wheaton.
Ezra is 49, Permilia is 50, Nathaniel 24, Louisa 18, Ezra 16, Mary 21 and David 11.
US Federal Census 1870; Chicago Ward 15, Cook County, IL
Lists just Ezra - 59 and Permilia - 60. Exra's occupation is stationier.
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