Hello List I received a small booklet on the history of Cooks Forrest in Pa and those researching Daniel Cook in North Carolina will find this interesting and maybe helpful: There is also a picture of Andrew Cook: email my privately if you would like a copy : Cooks of Cooksburg Family history recored is drawn from memory of events related by husbands parents- Andrew and Rebecca Maze Cook by Mrs Thomas B Cook John Cook a pioneer of Jefferson County until Forest County was created was the son of Daniel Cook, who came to the United States from Germany before the Revolutionary war and first settled in North Carolina. Later he moved with his wife Christina to Center County where John was born in 1788. About 1810 the family moved to Beaver Township Clarion County, Here John Cook cleared a farm and married Susannah Helpman. Ten children were born to this union. In 1826 the State of Pennsylvania surveyed the Clarion River looking for a canal to be part of a great east to west highway . Then enterprise caused John Cook to explore the Clarion River carefully above and below the present site of Cooksburg. The trail he blazed through the wilderness with axe and ox team was visible about 1931. After his through study he selected a suitable place for a home, and purchased 765 acres from John Bredin, part of the orginal estate of William Bingham of Philadelphia. After clearing a tract and building a one story cabin on the east side of the run he moved his family into this wilderness home in 1828. Susannah Helpman Cook died in 1830, aged 38 and was buried as she had asked in the weatfield on the hill now the Cooksburg Cementary. Two years later John Cook married Katherine Ritter, legand reports that on their wedding he strolled into the parlor dressed in typical woodsmen fashion- plaid flannel shirt homespun trousers and boots. This so angered the bride that she imediately changed from her silken wedding gown to a gingham dress and bonnet. Near his home John Cook built a sawmill for 300 $ spending $200 for labor and $100 for iron. Oxen dragged the logs to the mill and the lumber floated on rafts and boats down the Clarion and Allegheny Rivers to the markets in Pittsburg. In the late 1830's John Cook began to build flatboats made from chosen pines some 100 feet long. A boat scaffold was built where the present river bridge stands, the boats were built upside down and calked then turned over into the river. It has been said to turn one boat over required ten men and a gallon of whiskey. Onto the boats were loaded lumber which has been piled on the bank near the present Cook Homestead and Cook Forest Inn. A small dam a short distance down the river raised the water about six feet and loaded boats in readiness for the floods which came regularly about 3 times a year. A days work the floated boats and rafts to the mouth of the Clarion. Here four were lased together and transported to Pittsburg as a fleet- a jo! urney of the two more days. A shanty built on one of the boats accommodated the men with splendid meals and good sleeping quarters until the boats and rafts were disposed of in Pittsburg being sold for coal barges. There were no roads then. All groceries and supplies had to be poled up the rivers in canoes a distance of over 100 miles. Theses were built wide enough for barrels to fit in sideways as every cargo included barrels of certian staples. John Cook was 5'6" tall very heavy set and great muscular strenght. He prided himself on his physique which he inherted from his father Daniel Cook a man of wonderous strenght. Many storied are told of them to display their vigor. On one of his trips to Pittsburg Daniel was to seize a full barrel of whiskey by the staves projecting beyond the head raise it to his mouth and drink from the bunghole. On another occasion as John was driving a wagonload of goods up Watterson Hill the team stalled. Still directing his team he shouldered a barrel of salt and carried it up the hill. John Cooks children were also large and capable of great endurance. Betsey and one of her sisters walked forty miles to the nearest post office. Postage for a letter was then 25 cents, payable by the addressee. The Pennslyvania Northwest was a paradise for hunters and John Cook was a mighty hunter. In and about Cooksburg were over 50 kinds of wild animals. How many in his lifetime he killedm is not known but is recorded that one day in 1830 he killed seven deer one panther one wolf and fifty wild turkeys. He is said to have kept so many hunting dogs that when vistors called it was necessary to put the dogs out of the house to accomodated the guests. Lake Erie and the waters of Pennslyvania then held 325 species of fish. John Cook caught many a choice bass and club trout by hook and line in the Clarion River. Using a pitchpine knot as a light on the boat at night he would spear pike weighing 35 to 40 pounds. John Cook died in Cooksburg in 1858 and is buried in the cemetery on the hill. Outstanding amoung John Cook's sons was Andrew Cook born in Beaver Township Jan 14 1824 also grew to be of giant strenght 6'5" weighing about 250 270 pounds. His formal education was meager the nearest school being at Scotch Hill four miles from his home. He studied at night after a hard days labor by the light of pitchpine knot. He read advidlyall the papers magazines and books avaiable and kept himself well informed on business and politics. In 1849 Andrew Cook married Rebecca Ann Maze who bore him eight children, two dided in infancy, Andrew and Rebecca eager to learn became pupils of his newphew Captain Phipps who taught a small class inthe house Andrew built in 1849. Never were husband ans wife more devoted to each other, their forty two years of married life were lived in perfect harmony. They endured many hardships and privations. The hand was called upon the rather than the brain: the axe was busier than the pen. There was little time to think of the mind while yet the bear and the wolf prowled nightly about the door. From early boyhood Andrew Cook took great interest in his fathers lumber business and assited him. When he was 20 years old Andrew and his two brothers Phillip and Jerry R established a separte business. Andrew later bought his brothers interests continued the work alone. Decendants of Jerry R Cook, the Macbeths and EB Cook families have their homes and operate tourist business on a section of land once owned by their grandfather. Two half brothers of Andrew Squire and Sebastian Cook also reside at Cooksburg. Soon after Andrew started in the lumer business for himself he began accumlating property. He purchased 36 3/10 acres from his father and on August 5 1864 after his fathers death bought the balance of 765 acres of the orginally purchased by his father. On thias property known as The Cooksburg property were erected three saw mills one flouring mill one planing mill boat scaffold several dwellings and a store. A boarding house was built for the employees. Since the ! state has aquired Cook Forest this building which is state owned has been remolded and is opeated under the name of Cook Forest Inn. In later years Andrew Cook built a store with living quarters on the second and third floors. About 1870 he built a home in what is now called Cook Homestead owned and operated by one of his grandaughters. The house consisted of six large rooms downstairs elen bedrooms on the second floor and two large rooms on the third floor to accomodate some of his employees. Andrew Cook died at Old Point Comfort Virginia on November 18 1891 enroute to Georgia. He and his wife Rebecca Maze Cook who died in March 1916 are buried in Cook Mausoleum over looking Cooksburg. This structure containg 20 Vaults was built by his family. The A Cook Sons Company After the death of Hon Andrew Cook his heirs formed the A Cook Sons Company to develop the timber remaining on their lands . the heirs were Anthony Wayne Cook president Harriet Cook Ross vice president Ida Cook Calvin John Wesley Cook Jacob Hill Cook Thomas B Cook the latter serving as manager sectratary and treasurer. Cindi Welker Maloney surnames: Welker Cook Stephenson St Amand Ritzman