Asa Barrett Cook

(28 January 1806 –1848/9)

 

 

The Weaver Bible gives his birth date as 28 January 1806, which appears to fit the facts.[1]  He was named executor in his father’s will dated 21 May 1828, by which time he must surely have been 21.[2]  He qualified as executor in September 1828 and sold his inherited land to his brother-in-law Travis Weaver in November 1829.[3]  On both occasions he would have to have been aged 21 or more.

 

He was probably educated at in Milledgeville at the Clinton Academy, which his father and a partner had established in 1816.[4]  In January 1826, Asa Cook “of Jones County” appears on a list of sophomores at Franklin College (later called  the University of Georgia).[5]  I assume he graduated, for his son later characterized him as a practicing lawyer.

 

His son Andrew B. Cook provided the following statement in the late 1880s for a biographical publication.[6]  His grandfather and father are confused in this statement, which appears to be a typesetting error, but it provides some interesting clues:

 

Andrew B. Cook, merchant, farmer, and founder of Cookville, Texas, was born in Macon, Georgia, April 3, 1836.  His father, Samuel A. Cook (sic), was for many years a leading attorney of Macon, but later sought the retirement of the farm, settling in Jones County; still later he became a Primitive Baptist minister, was a pillar in that church, and continued to preach its doctrine until his death.  He married Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Ivey, a native of South Carolina, eight children being the result of this union – Jesse M., John B., George E., Andrew B., Robert I., Samuel A., Doc A., and Lou M.

 

Andrew Cook’s own son Rueben Cook wrote the following for the 1965 History of Titus County.[7]

 

Andrew Barney Cook was born April 3, 1836, being the fourth child of Asa Barrett Cook and his wife, Elizabeth Ivey, in Macon, Georgia.  He had six brothers and one sister, Louisa Maria, the youngest, who married Dr. James Young Bradfield, of Daingerfield, on September 20, 1865.  His oldest brother, Jesse Mercer Cook, settled in Denison, Texas and was once Mayor of the city.  His father came to Texas in 1848 and purchased some land in the Northern portion of the county, then Red River County, and on his way home for Christmas and to bring the family to Texas he was drowned while crossing the Red River on horseback.  But his wife came on, with the large family, in 1851.  Asa Barrett Cook was a lawyer in Macon, but later retired to the farm and became a Primitive Baptist preacher…

 

A somewhat different account of his death was related in the early 1960’s by the children of Andrew Barney Cook, who related that their mother told them that Asa froze to death in the winter of 1849-50 in or near Sulphur Bottom.

 

Asa Cook was indeed married in Baldwin County, Georgia on 2 April 1829 to Elizabeth Ivey, the eighteen-year old daughter of Robert and Elizabeth Ivey.[8]   After marrying, and selling his inherited land, Asa appears to have moved to Houston County.  As “Asa B. Cook of Jones County”, he bought 143 acres in Houston County from Samuel Williams on 24 September 1829, paying $60, with Robert Ivey and Kennedy Dennard as witnesses. [9]  Just six months later, as “Asa B. Cook of Houston County”, he purchased three more parcels totaling 410 acres from Kennedy Dennard on 16 March 1830, paying a total of $1,400.[10]   Asa appeared in the 1830 census of Houston County, listed with his wife, a male under 5, and one other male 20-30, who was, I suspect, his brother William W. Cook for whom Asa seemed to be acting as guardian.

 

While in Houston County, Asa was a trustee for the Flint River Academy, a school for young men and women.  He also filed accountings of his father’s estate in the Houston County court.  Asa apparently still owned his inherited shares in the Darien Bank of Macon as well.  I have not checked all the records, but he remained on the list of shareholders through at least 1839. 

 

He sold his land in Houston County to Reuben H. Slappy on 2 December 1833 for $2,000. [11]  In 1835 he and Benjamin White entered into a joint venture to pool their land, stock, and slaves to raise cotton in Houston County and to build and operate a gin.  As part of the agreement, Asa Cook agreed to pay White to employ his crippled brother William W. Cook.  The partnership fell apart a few years later, resulting in a lengthy court case to sort out the assets and income from the venture.[12]  Records of the court case indicate that Asa Cook was living in Macon, Bibb County, in 1837.  This was perhaps the period of his legal practice referred to in the statements above.

 

At some point, Asa had evidently acquired land in Thomaston in Upson County, where his sisters Caroline Weaver and Martha Beall were already located.  I didn’t find a record of his buying land, but he sold land there to Samuel Grantland on 20 December 1836.[13]  He was then described as “of Henry County” when he bought 405 acres in Upson County on 23 March 1839.[14]  He was in Upson County for the 1840 census, and a court record a few years later showed that he owned a both a house in Macon and land in both Henry and Upson counties. 

 

The 1840 census record suggests that he and his wife were living separately.  He is listed as “A. B. Cook” with a household of one male 30-40 (himself), one male 10-15 (probably his eldest son Jesse), one female 15-20, and one female 40-50.  Clearly neither female could be his wife Elizabeth, and none of the small children are in the household.  Elizabeth and the children were living elsewhere, but their whereabouts are unclear.  The separation must not have lasted, for their seventh son was born the following year.

 

Elizabeth evidently separated from her husband more than once.  On 26 July 1842, as a resident of Monroe County, Asa Cook transferred the 450 acres of Henry County land to his brother-in-law Robert Dorsey Ivey “as trustee for the use of Elizabeth W. Cook, wife of Asa B. Cook”.[15]  Although they had apparently separated a second time, their eighth child was born in 1845.  

 

About the time the eighth child was born, Elizabeth Cook filed for divorce, indicating that she had left him and then returned “for the sake of the children”, and had separated for the final time in April 1845.  She accused him of abusive behavior, including such  “shocking” behavior in front of females that her lady friends would not come to visit her, and of adultery with a female slave.  Testimony from several of her female friends supported her case, as did an affidavit from the couple’s eldest son Jesse M. Cook.  Asa Cook denied the charges, but did not persuade the jury.  Georgia did not permit the courts to dissolve marriages at this time, so the court granted her a “divorce from bed and board.”  That is, they remained married but were permitted to live apart with their joint property divided between them.  [A complete, and particularly juicy, summary of the divorce action is on a separate page.]

 

The divorce case took over a year to resolve, in the midst of which, in February 1846, Asa Cook placed a notice in the Macon Messenger which confirms Andrew Cook’s list of the children:  Whereas my wife, E. W. Cook, and seven sons, Jesse M., and John B. L., and George E., and Andrew B., and Samuel A., and Ivey, and Alphenzo (sic) Cook, having left me without my consent, and against my wishes - this is to notify all persons from trading with any of them on my account.  (Signed) Asa B. Cook, Upson County.[16] 

 

Asa Cook apparently decided to leave the state following the divorce, for he was in Texas the following year.  In Red River County, Texas there is a deed and assignment dated 21 November 1848 in which the heirs of Fielding Askey sold land on the border of Red River and Titus counties to Gideon Mims, who then immediately assigned it to Asa B. Cook.[17]  Jesse Mercer Cook, his eldest son, accompanied him to Texas, as he appears as a witness on a bond to Isaiah W. Wells, merchant, in Red River County on 1 June 1849, and is in Isaiah Wells’ household in the 1850 census of Red River County, listed as a clerk.  His father, evidently already dead, is nowhere to be found.  Thus, Rueben Cook’s account of Asa B. Cook’s death may be accurate. 

 

Meanwhile, Elizabeth Cook and the seven younger children were enumerated in the 1850 census of Baldwin County, Georgia.  In late 1850, Robert Dorsey Ivey sold the Henry County property, which had been held in trust for her, in several transactions as trustee for his sister, a resident of Baldwin County.[18]  She and her children apparently did travel to Titus County, Texas in 1851 as Reuben Cook stated, although why she left the comfort of her relatives in Georgia is unclear to me.  It is probably significant that Mary Ivey Currey, Elizabeth’s sister, and her husband William Currey also moved to Titus County about this time.

 

Asa Cook apparently also bought land in adjoining Titus County, though the deed records are lost.  Although I found no record of his death, Jesse M. Cook was executor of his father’s estate and evidently sold the Red River land back to Mims.  Unfortunately, this almost certainly happened in adjoining Titus County, whose court records no longer exist.  But on 18 December 1851, Jesse M. Cook, with his mother E. W. Cook and R. T. Holbrook as securities, filed a bond “seeking to protect Gideon Mims, purchaser of a tract of land from Cook, executor of the estate of Asa B Cook, dec’d, against possible claims of some of his minor children at a later date.”[19]  This bond was actually executed and acknowledged in Titus County, but recorded in Red River County where Mims lived.  It may be that “executor” was used incorrectly to mean “administrator” in the bond; its meaning is clearly that Jesse M. Cook had sold Asa Cook’s land and was protecting Mims from a future claim by the other heirs who had an untransferred interest in it. By 1852, Jesse M. Cook appears on the tax list of Titus County, Texas.  The 1853 tax list identifies him as the executor of Asa B. Cook and “agent” for E. W. Cook, his mother.[20]

 

By 1859, the widow Elizabeth Cook had remarried to a widower named John W. Chambers, for Jesse M. Cook is listed on the 1850 tax list as agent for his mother E. W. Chambers.   The 1860 census shows John W. Chambers, his wife Elizabeth, and her daughter Louisa Cook living in Daingerfield, Titus County, Texas.[21]   John W. Chambers had been an early settler of Titus County, one of the original county commissioners in 1846, a doctor, merchant, and the first postmaster at Daingerfield.  He was also elected a State senator for the county in 1860 and voted in favor of secession in 1861.   Elizabeth’s sons Jesse, Andrew, and Samuel Cook were listed as heads of their own households in Daingerfield in the 1860 census.   Her son George Cook was, I believe, deceased by then.  Robert Ivey Cook and Alphonzo Cook were not found, but were probably somewhere in the area.  Elizabeth Ivey Cook Chambers died in 1874 according to the History of Titus County.[22]

 

Unfortunately, the Titus County courthouse burned in 1895, destroying essentially all records.  There are no surviving county records for any of the Cooks beyond land tax records filed with the state.  There are, however, a few other state records.  Four of the Cook sons and one of John W. Chambers’ sons, all served in the same unit in the Civil War.  Jesse Mercer Cook was Captain of the Daingerfield Grays, organized in July 1861 with 65 men.   A year later, he was Captain of Whitfield’s Texas Legion, organized 31 August 1862 with 73 men.  George Chambers, son of John W. Chambers, was a lieutenant in the same company, and Robert, Samuel, and Andrew Cook also served in the same unit.

 

The children, from the above articles and census records, were:

 

1.      Jesse Mercer Cook  (1830 – 25 July 1897)  See above for his records before 1852.  By 31 March 1852 he was in Titus County, when he was appointed postmaster at Oak Grove.  He also appeared on the tax list that year. He is in the 1860 Titus County census with a wife F. P. and one child, listed with eleven slaves and nearly $40,000 in property.  As mentioned above, he was Captain of the Daingerfield Grays, organized in July 1861 with 65 men, and a year later was Captain of Whitfield’s Texas Legion, organized 31 August 1862 with 73 men.  In 1870 he was in the Limestone County census, with his wife Fanny P. and four children, but moved to Denison, Texas according to Reuben Cook.  Indeed he was taxed on land in Titus County from 1852 through 1881, but in the last few years was listed as a non-resident, living in Grayson County.   He is listed in the 1876 Denison city directory as a real estate dealer, living near his brother Samuel.  The 1880 census shows him living in Denison, Grayson County, his occupation again a real estate dealer, with his wife Fanny P. Cook and six children.  A gravestone in the Fairview Cemetery in Denison gives his year of birth and death date.  His widow is in the 1900 census, listed as married 43 years earlier and as the mother of eleven children, six living.  The children who appeared in censuses were William Ivey Cook (1856-1923), Mattie B. Cook (c1865), Robert H. Cook (1867), George E. Cook (1870), Winifred Cook (c1872), Frances Cook (c1876), and Jesse M. Cook (1880).  The son William Ivey Cook and his wife Missouri Matilda Nail owned a huge ranch near Albany on which oil was discovered in the early 1900s.  His widow founded the W. I. Cook Memorial Hospital in Ft. Worth in 1929.

 

2.      John Bunyan Lamar Cook   (c1831 – c1858?)  He was in his mother’s 1850 household, age 19, as John B. Cook.  It is apparently him who appears in the Titus County tax lists as John Cook (1852, 1853), B. L. Cook (1854), and John B. Cook (1855).  In 1857 his brother Samuel A. Cook appears in the tax list as guardian of John B. Cook, and in 1858 Jesse M. Cook paid tax as agent for J. B. Cook.  Whether some tragedy incapacitated him or whether the younger John B. Cook was his orphan is unclear.  No one of this name appears in later tax lists, and he does not appear under any name in the 1860 or 1870 Titus County censuses.  His full name comes from records of Andrew Barney Cook’s children, though they knew nothing of him beyond the name

 

3.      George Enoch Cook  (c1833 – 1858/9)  He was in his mother’s 1850 household, age 17, as George E. Cook.  He married Aletha Jane Chambers, the daughter of his stepfather John G. Chambers, and died after appearing in the tax list of 1858.  In 1859, Jesse Cook paid tax as agent of Jane Cook, evidently George Cook’s widow.  Thereafter she appears in tax lists variously as A. J. Cook, Aletha J. Cook and A. Jane Cook.  She was listed next door to her father in 1860 and 1870 with two daughters:  Louella Cook (c1855) and Nella W. Cook (c1857).   The 1860 census lists her with eight slaves. In 1880, she is listed in her father’s household as a widowed daughter, both of her daughters out of the household by then.  The 1884 will of John G. Chambers calls her his daughter Aletha Jane Cook.[23]

 

4.      Andrew Barney Cook  (3 April 1836 – 19 November 1902) See next page.

 

5.      Samuel Asa Cook.  (c1838 - ?)  He is age 12 in his mother’s 1850 household, and first appears in the tax lists of Titus County in 1857.  In 1860, he is listed as a 22-year old merchant with more than $4000 in assets.  He served in the CSA in a Titus County company with three of his brothers.  He was said by a nephew to have given his home in Daingerfield to his sister Louisa when she married.   I did not find him in the 1870 census, but by 1876 he had joined his brother Jesse in Grayson County.   As Samuel A. Cook he was listed in the 1876 Denison City Directory (Grayson County) as a "capitalist", living on the same street as Jesse M. Cook.  He is listed in the 1880 census of Grayson County as a lawyer in Denison, but does not appear in the city directories on 1893 or 1899 or in the 1900 census.  In 1880 he is age 41 with a wife named Sally (age 22) and her parents, brothers and sisters (all with the surname Thomas) in the household.   He is said to have moved to Galveston where he died.  He is not in the Denison city directories of 1893 or 1899, and I found no sign of him or his widow in 1900.

 

6.      Robert Ivey Cook  (March 1840 – aft 1900)  He is in his mother’s household in 1850, and living with his elder brother Jesse M. Cook in 1860, apparently working for him as a clerk.  He served in the CSA in a Titus County company with his three brothers.  He is in the Titus County 1870 census, age 30, with a wife [Sara? Lou?] and two children.  The 1880 census shows him (age 40) in neighboring Cass County, now with a wife named Isabella and four children.  He is in the 1900 census of Wood County as a widowed farmer with several children, but does not appear in the 1910 census.  The children, from censuses, were Hulet Cook (c1866), Samuel E. Cook (c1868), Allen B. Cook (1875), Mattie L. Cook (c1878), Alvah Cook (1879),  Bertie Cook (1882), Alice Cook (1883), Maude Cook (1884), Myrtle Cook (1888), P[atsy?] Cook (1892), and Lera Cook (1894).

 

7.      Doctor Alphonso Cook  (June 1842 – 19 May 1913)  A doctor, he appears in censuses as D. A. and as D. Alphonso, and his first name coincidently appears to be “Doctor”.   [Note that his brother Andrew named one of his sons Doctor Alphonso.]   He is apparently the “Doc A.” referred to in the biographical statement of his brother Andrew.    According to interviews with Andrew Barney Cook’s children in the 1960s, he was a doctor who lived in Mexia (Limestone County), Texas, married a woman named Elizabeth, and had a daughter named Mary who married a King.   Indeed, he is listed in the 1880 and 1900 censuses of Limestone County as a physician with wife Lizzie and a daughter Mary born c1875.   In 1900 they were in the household of Lizzie’s father John Karnes, and the census indicates they had married in 1874.  By 1910 they were enumerated in Houston, Harris County, where he died a few years later.  He is perhaps the Alphonso Cook who served in the Confederate Texas 11th Cavalry.

 

8.      Louisa Maria Cook.  (December 1845 - aft 1910)  She was still living with her mother in 1860, and married James Young Bradfield in Titus County on 20 September 1865.  Bradfield was a doctor who practiced in Daingerfield according to the History of Titus County, and he is listed there as a physician in the 1870 and 1880 censuses.  She appears in both the 1900 and 1910 censuses, which list her as the mother of ten children.  Louisa was said to have been one of the first female bank presidents, of the National Bank of Daingerfield.  The children, from censuses, were:  William D. Bradfield, Margaret L. Bradfield, Anna Bell Bradfield, Elizabeth Bradfield, Joseph Bradfield, Myrtle May Bradfield, Flora Bradfield, Mary Bradfield, Woodie Ward Bradfield, and James Y. Bradfield.  The 1900 Morris County census shows her birth date as above.

 

 

Excursus:  The Cook brothers in the Civil War

 

A brief description of the Cook brothers’ experiences in the Civil War appears on the Andrew Barney Cook page.  A lengthier description was written by a participant I 1901.[24]

 

On September 19, 1862, [Whitfield’s Texas] Legion participated in the Battle of  Iuka.  It occupied the position on the right of the brigade.  When the skirmishers were driven back, Colonel Whitfield ordered a charge.  The Third Texas, which had been thrown forward as skirmishers seeing us advance, fell into ranks with us, and thus formed - as one regiment - we captured the Ninth Ohio battery, driving the enemy before us.  The Forty-second Iowa attempted to make a right-wheel, so as to enfilade the line, but three companies, and about seventy men of the Third Texas, charged, and drove it in confusion from the field.  In this engagement, the three Cook brothers, of the Legion, greatly distinguished themselves for cool intrepidity and loyal devotion to the flag of the Confederacy.  Ensign Ivey Cook was shot down, severely wounded, when his brother, Samuel, seized the regimental colors, and waved them with a cheer of triumph.  But he advanced but a few steps, when he, too, was shot down;  when a third brother, young Andrew Cook, grasped the staff from his relaxing hold, exclaiming:  'The flag shall wave, though the entire Cook family is exterminated in the attempt!'  Colonel Whitfield was severely wounded.  The loss of the regiment was 107 killed and wounded...