Here's what Herbert Standing (Standcedargrove@aol.com) knows about Darius Bowles Cook: Darius Bowles Cook, b. 11-3-1856, d. 5-11-1936, was a son of William H. Cook and Keziah Bowles. Keziah Bowles was a daughter of David Bowles and Bathsheba Bailey. David Bowles was a son of David Bowles and Keziah Overman. You'll have to write to him directly if you want more information. Linne ===================================================================== Match: Bowles Source: SC-BUSHRIVERQUAKERS@rootsweb.com From: Standcedargrove@aol.com Subject: [SC-BUSHRIVERQUAKERS] Evidence that John Cook of Bush River Ran a The mailing from Bob Cooke dated 8/8/2009 seems to require some comment. John Cook, son of Joseph Cook and Mary Herbert of Bush River, would have been about 64 years old in the winter of 1859/60. He was probably considered elderly, one of the three elderly men chosen to sit on the facing bench in the first gatherings of Bear Creek Meeting. He may have been in poor health, since he died in 1864, just four years later. He was evidently at least somewhat in favor of the Underground Railroad, but I am quite certain he would not have been considered a "conductor". Although John Cook was the eighth of twelve children of Joseph and Mary (Herbert) Cook, only six of these children lived to full maturity: Ann, John, Joseph, Uriah, Mary, and Peter. Of these, the families of John and Peter found their way to the Bear Creek Friends settlement in Union Township, Dallas County, Iowa. The families arrived in the new settlement in 1853/1854. John and Anna Sumner (George) Cook probably sojourned in the vicinity of Ackworth, near Indianola, Iowa from about 1851 to 1854. The Peter Cook family stayed in the vicinity of West Newton, Indiana until after the older married sons became some of the first Quaker settlers in the Bear Creek community in the autumn of 1853. Anna Sumner had first married Isaac George in Indiana and had four children by her first marriage: Abigail George Barnett, Sydna George Barnett, Evan George, and Adin Geoge. Only two of the children of the marriage of John Cook and Anna Sumner survived childhood: Martin Cook and Uriah Cook. Robert Cook (1818-1852), son of John and Mary (Furnas) Cook, married Dianah Cox, had four surviving children, all sons. Hamon Cook was the oldest. After the early death of Robert Cook in Indiana, Dianah married Joshua Newlin and this family came out to Iowa about 1857 to Bear Creek. The account of Harmon Cook's experiences on the Undergroung Railroad with which I am acquainted is the account which Harmon submitted to his second cousin, Darius Bowles Cook for inclusion in D.B. Cook's _History of Quaker Divide_ (cover title: _Memoirs of Quaker Divide_), (Dexter, Iowa: Dexter Sentinel, 1914.). The wording may be somewhat different from that included in the W. H. Siebert Collection. The Underground Railroad route laid out by John Brown ran generally northwest from Tabor, Fremont County, Iowa and skirted Adair County, Iowa, touching the small Spring Valley Friends settlement at the beginning of Middle River near the present town of Casey. Then it ran across southern Guthrie County to the mill operated by John Pearson, five miles or more north of the present town of Stuart, where the Summit Grove Quaker settlement was located. Then the route went east, sometimes skirting Des Moines on the south, heading for Grinnell and to Iowa City, where a real railroad had been built into Chicago and up to Wisconsin and Canada. In southwest Iowa, coming out of northeastern Kansas and southeastern Nebraska, the Underground Railroad was largely directed by dedicated Congregationalist clergy. Reaching Guthrie County, it was more under the direction of Quakers. There was a young blacksmith named Wells McCool who wrote of the Underground Railroad in years following the Civil War. He considered himself a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad. He was probably a descendant of Gamaliel McCool of the Bush River Quaker community. Wells McCool may also have been a nephew of the miller, John Pearson, son of John P. Pearson and Ruth Hollingsworth. I am fairly sure that John Pearson , the miller, was a descendant of Bush River Quakers. As for Peter Cook, my great-great grandfather and brother of the older John Cook, I have suspicions that he was involvedd in the Underground Railroad, although his descendants made no mention of it. He settled about three miles northeast of Dexter, Iowa, seven or eight miles from the Summit Grove Friends settlement near Stuart. Wells McCool lists his name along with a number of Stuart Quakers active on the Underground Railroad. Isaac Cook, one of Peter Cook's sons, married Hannah Chantry in 1861, daughter of Thomas Chantry whose family was so supportive of the Underground Railroad at Spring Valley near Casey. I doubt that Isaac and Hannah got acquainted by just attending Monthly Meeting every two months or so. ------- Herbert Standing, Earlham, Iowa. =====================================================================