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Cook, Francis Marion
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| LAST: Cook
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FIRST: Francis
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MID: Marion
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| GENDER: M
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MAIDEN NAME:
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TITLE:
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| BORN: 8 Mar 1839
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DIED: 29 Jan 1926
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BURIED: 31 Jan 1926
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| OCCUPATION: Farmer; Stock Raiser
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| BIRTH PLACE: Springfield, Greene Co., Missouri
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| DEATH PLACE: Turner, Marion Co., Oregon
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NOTES:
1850 OR CENSUS - Francis Cook, age 10, b. Missouri, is enumerated with Isaac, age 56, occupation farmer, b. Kentucky, and Sarah, age 48, b. North Carolina, along with Thomas, age 25, b. North Carolina, and William, age 31, b. North Carolina.
MARRIAGE – “Marion Francis Cook & Mary Jane Edgar, m 9 Sep 1857; Thomas H. Pearne, M.G. Wit: Hugh Harrison & W.V. Smith #311 pg 90”.
1870 OR CENSUS - F. M. Cook, age 30, occupation farmer, b. Missouri, is enumerated with Mary, age 33, b. Indiana, along with Martha E., age 12, b. Oregon, Isaac N., age 9, b. Oregon, Francis M., age 4,b. Oregon, and Nellie D., age 3 months, b. Oregon.
1900 OR CENSUS - Frank Cook, age 61, occupation farmer, b. Mar 1839 in Missouri, is enumerated with his wife of 42 years, Marie [Mary] J., age 63, mother of 6, b. Oct 1836 in Indiana, along with Charles Edgar, identified as a boarder, age 9, b. Jun 1890 in Oregon.
BIOGRAPHICAL (Portrait and Biographical Record of the Willamette Valley, pg 438):
FRANCIS MARION COOK. Of the sixty-four years of Mr. Cook’s life all but six have been spent in Oregon, to which state his father immigrated in the earliest pioneer days. He was born near Springfield, Mo., March 8, 1839, a son of Isaac and Sarah (Robertson) Cook. In 1845, his parents, having decided to found anew home in the then comparatively unknown Oregon country, started from their Missouri home with two wagons, forty-four oxen and ninety-seven head of cattle. After a journey of six months they arrived at their destination without the loss of any of their stock, an experience very rare in those days as many of the immigrant trains suffered heavy losses through the depreciations of the Indians. Locating in Marion county Isaac Cook took up a donation land claim of six hundred and forty acres three miles south of the present site of Turner, upon which he immediately erected a small log cabin containing but one room. Upon this claim, the development of which was begun as soon as the family had become established in their new home, he resided until 1872. In that year they moved to eastern Oregon, locating at Camp Watson [part of Wheeler Co., originally Grant Co.], where the father died in 1876 at the age of eighty-four years. His wife’s death had occurred some time before. The children born to this couple were as follows: George, William and Thomas, all deceased; Delilah, wife of William Frazier, of San Jose, Cal.; Francis Marion, of this review; and one who died in infancy.
Isaac Cook’s life was a useful and most honorable one. He was a man who was always ready to assist in all movements for the betterment of the community’s interest. He assisted materially in the construction of the early roads of Marion county, and was specially active in the promotion of the educational interests of the community, helping to build the first schoolhouse in his district. He was an earnest member of the Baptist Church, became one of the organizers of the first church of this denomination in the neighborhood, and devoted considerable of his time and means toward the construction of the house of worship. He was a large-hearted, public-spirited, liberal man, whose integrity was never brought into question. His name deserves a conspicuous place among the pioneers of the Willamette valley.
Francis Marion Cook was six years of age when the long journey from Missouri to the Pacific coast was made. Upon his father’s farm in Marion county he spent all the years of his youth and young manhood, assuming the management of the farm a short time prior to 1872. In that year he accompanied his father to Camp Watson, where he engaged extensively in the business of raising cattle, sheep and horses. The period of his residence at that place covered seven years. Soon after the death of his father he returned to the homestead and engaged in stock-raising and general farming. He is now the owner of the original donation land claim of six hundred and forty acres of which is fine bottom land, which he has brought to the high state of cultivation, and which is exceedingly productive. This farm is on e of the best in Marion county.
On September 26, 1857, Mr. Cook was united in marriage with Mary J. Edgar, a native of Boone county, Ind., and a daughter of Moses and Susan (Markey) Edgar. She died March 26, 1903, leaving six children: Martha E., wife of Motier Howe, of Roseburg, Ore.; Isaac N., residing near Marion; Francis M., of Grant’s Pass, Ore.; Nellie D., wife of A. J. Miller, of Turner; Susan, wife of F. J. Neal, who resides with Mr. Cook; and Thomas M., who is located at Sherman county, Ore.
Though Mr. Cook has never sought political office he has followed closely in the steps of his father in his interest in good roads and good schools. He has served as road supervisor, and at various times has filled offices connected with educational work in his district. He takes an active interest in all those projects which appear to him to have been inspired by a desire to improve the moral, educational, or commercial interests of his section, and never hesitates to take the initiative when he becomes convinced that his ideas, put into effect, will result in the betterment of the condition of affairs generally. He is recognized as a man dominated by high public spirit, of liberal and progressive views and a generous heart. On many occasions during the long years of his residence in Oregon he has had opportunities to demonstrate the better qualities of heart and mind which have given him the high place he occupies in the esteem of his fellow men who have learned to respect and honor him as a useful man. His integrity is unquestioned, and his unselfish devotion to the best interests of the community at large entitle him to a permanent place in the historical literature of the Willamette valley.
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OBITUARY:
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INSCRIPTION:
Marion Cook
Born
Mar. 8, 1839
Died
Jan. 28, 1926
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SOURCES:
J. Hunsaker
Bates Survey
Saucy Survey & Photographs
OSBH DC (Marion County 1926) #71
1850 OR CENSUS (Marion Co., FA #293)
Marion Co.,Oregon Marriage Records, 1849-1871, Vol. I, pg 18
1870 OR CENSUS (Marion Co., Lincoln, FA #1735)
1900 OR CENSUS (Marion Co., Turner, ED 141, sheet 7B)
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