| Notes |
- The following is from a letter written by Julie Aveling for a Cook Family Round-robin letter sometime in the 1976. Julie was the daughter of Julia Cook Aveling. Julia was the sister of Ezra Albert Cook, father of Gerhard, father of Alan, father of Andrew, father of Matthew and Mason.
"My mother, Julia Cook Aveling, if she were alive, would be 104 years old in the Centennial Year. She had devotedly loved her grandmother, Pamela Milke Cook, born in 1810 in New York State. Apparently Pamela Cook was an unusual woman who lived a hard life with a great sense of independence, spiced by a lively sense of humor at the same time, maintaining great interest in people and things around her and in the future of the country. My mother's account of Pamela Cook and her stories adds insight to the way of life in the early years of our country. Then life was hard and childhood short. As an older child she tended babies when she was practically a baby herself. When she was 8 years old, she was sent to the far meadow to watch the cattle wallowing in the sharp tall swamp grasses and wandering thru the deep woods. Since this was not considered a demanding task, a tiny brother who had been seriously injured in an accident became her charge. She often sat in the cold raw weather for hours holding him until one day he died in her arms. At 10 she was considered a woman and did a woman's chores. At 12(1822) her parents considered her old enough to become a wage earner and they sent her to the home of a wealthy uncle in upper New York state where she joined a large staff of helpers, some related and some not. Here for the first time she found plenty to eat, plenty of help and a life full of joy and interest without the eternal grinding struggle just to live. A girl married early in these days. If unwed at 16 she was considered an old maid so at 15 grandmother began to feel the weight of her years.
"A young itinerant minister, Ezra Sprague Cook, had come to her church to preach for a 'spell.' He supported himself partly by farming and partly by donations. He was extremely learned and read the Bible straight from the Hebrew. Pamela's tiny form, snappy black eyes and lively ways warmed even his rather chilly blood and he persuaded her to become his wife. As usual with marriage at that time, life immediately became difficult and strenuous. Children came quickly. His salary was $250 a year with an increase of $5 a year as each child was born. One by one, five children came along to fill the tiny house. Even at that time it was hard to provide for 7 people on $275 a year so the church held 'donation' parties which brought them produce and other goods. The only trouble was that usually donations consisted of produce in season, corn in corn harvest time, etc. and carrots and cabbage in plenty while the more desirable produce did not appear among the gifts.
"In addition to being a woman with all the housekeeping chores of that age, bearing and tending five children, tiny little Pamela had a large vegetable garden. With the desire of a young girl for beauty, she edged the garden with flowers. One of the sorrows of her life was that her husband claiming that they could not afford cleared land for flowers, pulled them up, replaced them with onions.
"A friend in the church conceived the idea of helping the pastor's income by making an album quilt. Each lady parishoner embroidered her name on one quilt block and paid a dime to have it included in the quilt. The quilt was given to the pastor together with the proceeds which eased financial pressure briefly. The quilt was one of grandmother's life's treasures since it represented a period of concern for her by others and a brief cessation from grinding poverty.
"By the outbreak of the Civil War, several of her sons were called to the service of their country-- - my father, Ezra Cook, a very young soldier, fought in McClellan's army and was seriously wounded. Pamela went through the eternal travail of women who wait until 1865.
"In middle life, grandmother became a skilled 'Herb Woman' familiar with many kinds of illness and the remedies for them. Several doctors consulted her regularly and the formula for one of her cough medicines was widely used for many years.
"When she was still a young woman her husband died. As was customary in those days as a widow, she came to live with our family, consisting of her son (my father), my mother, and a lively family of ten children. With us she lived out the remainder of her life.
"We truly loved our dear little grandmother who was bright and lively as a cricket. Her fascinating stories spanned the better part of a century from the days of witchcraft and barely missing the invention of the airplane which she had been anticipating momentarily for many years.
"When she first lived with her wealthy uncle (1822), two old women lived in a cottage nearby. One summer his(the uncle's) cattle became sick and died one by one and he therefore consulted a witch doctor. The witch doctor said that this was undoubtedly the work of the two witches who had entered into the cows making them sick. If the witch remained in the cow after sunrise the cow must die and the only remedy was for her uncle to stand over the cow beating it thoroughly til sunrise thus driving the witch out. For the time being the results were satisfactory and the witches were defeated by presently trouble arose again disguised as wild turkeys- - -the two old women often blew over his fields filled with evil intent and planning destruction. The witch doctor said undoubtedly the two old women had taken the form of turkeys and were devastating the farm. With great ceremony the witch doctor needed two silver bullets with which to kill the turkeys. When Pamela's uncle fired the first bullet it struck one of the turkeys in the leg and one of the old ladies was lame ever thereafter in that leg. However the witches found other ways of troubling their good neighbors so the witch doctor came back to attend to things personally. The entire household, family members, and hired help were sent to the big barn where they were told to stand close together within a big circle marked out by the witch doctor. In the middle, he had a big boiling cauldron of weird contents which he treated with spells. At the proper moment, he placed the contents of the cauldron in a large jar which was carefully closed, carried out and placed in a high soft place and all were warned to leave it alone. All was well in the household for some years until a curious man took it down and spilled it causing a loud explosion followed by renewed misfortunes. But grandma was not old fashioned even though she believed in witches till her life's end.
"In her later life she had read Buliver Syston's 'Coming Race' and believed every word of it and every day expected the advent of the airplane- - - indeed she told us and truly believed that one night when she had heard a knocking on the window she went to it and opened it and in flew an old neighbor in his neat little airplane. He had come from California, she said, to persuade her to return to the land of eternal sunshine; he said he would take care of her and she would never put her hands in cold water (the height of luxury in that age), she would always ride in a hack and never walk. She was seriously tempted by the promise of luxury and even more by the ride in the airplane but decided that it was not practical since she was then well over 90 years of age. A short time later she heard a flapping sound beside her bed. She was frightened and disturbed until one of those making the sounds told her they were angels coming to take her home because she had led them toward Heaven many years before. They gave her their names and she recognized them as friends. She then told us about them and said that she had promised to go with them on the morrow which she did quite happily, leaving a great void for those who loved her.
"We missed our little grandmother greatly- - - I can still see her chuckling until the lavender ribbons on her black lace cap bobbed and wiggled. Everyone loved her from her own children down to the great grandchildren who were always cause of confusion with her. Hers was a life full of change and color, including an enormous amount of hard grinding work- - -
even in her greatly advanced age her projects never ceased. She kept her descendants knitted up with stockings and mittens and when they gave out as further prospects, she skipped out of the house in great secrecy to a small nearby dry goods store. On checking, much to our chagrin, we found she was knitting golf stockings for this store so that she would be independent of any help for her small needs. Grandmother was proud of her family- - - one son, Nathaniel Cook, became a minister. My father, Ezra Cook, owned a large stationery store and print business in Chicago. Two daughters, Louisa and Mary, married the Hemingway brothers of Oak park, and her youngest son, David Caleb Cook, became the founder and owner of the well known religious publishing house, David C. Cook of Elgin, Illinois.
"Yes, my grandmother made the history of our country from its early years to the advent of the airplane come alive for us. We loved her stories of the early days of their way of life and of the witches she believed in. As I look back though, she was the nicest, most human, cutest little witch of all, bewitching everyone who knew her."
US Federal Census 1900 - Permelia Cook is living with her son, Ezra Asher Cook and his family.
She is 90 years of age.
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The H600 Project Genealogy DB
1810 - 1901 (91 years)