This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------F40041875B105FCCE8F1035D Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit -- Yesterday is History, Tomorrow is a Mystery, Today is a Gift; That's why we call it The Present. --------------F40041875B105FCCE8F1035D Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-ID: <375C54BD.4A7FDE27@wt.net> Date: Mon, 07 Jun 1999 18:24:46 -0500 From: "Jesse W. Cook" <jcook172@wt.net> X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.03 [en]C-DIAL (Win95; U) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: COOK-L-LIST <COOK-L@rootsweb.com>, MAMADAWG1@aol.com Subject: Genealogy, History, Migratory Clues Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="------------5E4F4385E7A4F669E6851A99" This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------5E4F4385E7A4F669E6851A99 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I have recently noticed mention of Cook Forest in Armstrong County, PA. I have no knowledge of Cook Forest but I know that my Cooks were among the very first whites to settle there while it was still Indian territory. It also occurs to me that it might be useful for some Cook researcher to know the migratory route taken by this particular family. Perhaps the following attachment will spark a recognition in someone. -- Yesterday is History, Tomorrow is a Mystery, Today is a Gift; That's why we call it The Present. --------------5E4F4385E7A4F669E6851A99 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1; name="Who are the Cooks of the Cook Forest.txt" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline; filename="Who are the Cooks of the Cook Forest.txt" Who Were the Cooks of the Cook Forest, Pennsylvania? I am 75 years old this month. This means that I knew members of my Cook = family who were born in the 1860's and 1870's. These people, in turn, had= known or knew of Cooks who were born in the early 1800's and before. Man= y bits and pieces of information were carried down by these folk. Seldom = was it complete. I have canvassed other Cook cousins, some of them older = than I. When you have collected enough of these fragmental clues plus a k= nowledge of national and local histories some logical conclusions can be = reached. I hope that some Cook somewhere might find a clue in the followi= ng that will fit with a clue that they already possess. 1. The patriarch of my Cook family is Hans (Koch) Cook. He arrived at Phi= ladelphia on May 30, 1741 on the Francis and Ann. Listed with him is his = apparently oldest son, George Adam Koch. I'm sure that there were more ch= ildren but anyone less than 16 years of age or female was ignored. I beli= eve that they stayed in Philadelphia several years working as indentured = labor to pay for their ship passage. They were illiterate, signing with t= he mark of the cross. - Pennsylvania Archives and works by I. Daniel Rupp= and Ralph Beaver Strassburger, LL.D. 2. George Adam Cook (spelling of surname was changed very early) settled = in what is now Franklin County, PA. This is one of the counties important= to the Cooks. This branch became very large, very prosperous, many busin= esses including LUMBER, much property. - "History of Franklin County, PA"= , Warner, Beers & Co., 1887. Hans Cook is not mentioned. He and the rest = of his family had crossed the Maryland panhandle and moved on down into V= irginia Colony in the Shenandoe where there was a large group of other Ge= rmans, prospering. In his youthful days as a surveyor, George Washington = discovered these Germans. Some would probably follow him and later follow= General Braddock to the area that would become Pittsburgh, PA. These wer= e unsuccessful military efforts by the Virginians and the English crown. = The Indians armed by the French were much too effective. = 3. In the early 1760's,leaving some of his family in the Shenandoah Valle= y, Hans Cook (full name Johann Georg Koch) along with several other Virgi= nia white families made their own personal arrangements with the Indians = and settled in what is now Fayette County, PA. Quaker Pennsylvania threat= ened these Virginians with death without benefit of clergy. Hans Cook is = on the list. Virginia Colony had established three counties in what is no= w southwestern Pennsylvania - Nelson's "Historical Reference Book of Faye= tte County, PA". These whites were outnumbered by the Indians by about 1= 00 to 1 but lived with them successfuly. I don't really know what happene= d to Hans. 4. One of Han's sons, Jeremiah Cook, Sr., my 4th great grandfather, moved= up on Crooked Creek in Armstrong County, PA in 1769. - "Armstrong County= , PA, Her People, Past and Present" by J. H. Beers and Co. = One of Jeremiah's sons, George Cook, is my 3rd great grandfather. Having= grown up among the Shawnees, George knew them well and spoke their langu= age as well as his own German. George Cook became an Indian trader since = trading was the primary occupation in the area. There was no way to get f= arm produce to any market. = 5. George Cook's trading trips would repeatedly take him back the Braddoc= k Road toward Franklin County, PA, down the Great Buffalo Trail through t= he Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, through the Cumberland Gap, up the Warr= ior Trail across Kentucky which was still Virginia Colony at that time an= d then north, across the Ohio River where the Shawnees allowed no ordinar= y white man to survive. In 1773, George Cook acquired Olithi, a Shawnee g= irl who became my 3rd great grandmother. She came from a Maukajay summer = camp on Lower Twin Creek, in what is now Adams County, Ohio. On September= 17, 1774, Conrad Cook, my great-great grandfather was born in the Fort P= itt area (Pittsburgh, PA). George Cook and Olithi would have been a conne= cting influence for the scattered Cooks. Family tradition says that Georg= e traveled among the Indians, anywhere he wanted, any time he wanted. He = was trusted. He had a Shawnee family. 6. During the Revolutionary War, George Cook served as a scout and soldie= r. The Americans feared the Indians who had twice delivered great defeats= on Virginia troops and the military of the English crown. George underst= ood the Indians well. - Armstrong County, PA, Her People, Past and Presen= t" page 132. There are several George Cooks in the war records. I have ne= ver been able to identify my George Cook. = 7. I believe that there were Cooks from Franklin County, PA who went up t= o Armstrong County, PA. It is likely that these would include the LUMBER = business descendants of George Adam Cook. I know that one of George Adam= Cook's daughters, Anna Maria Margaret Cook George died in Armstrong Cou= nty in 1842. 8. The Cooks are of German origin. Do not be fooled by the English spelli= ng of the name. George Cook finished out his days in Adams County, Ohio. = There were Cooks from Armstrong County, PA and Shenandoah County, Virgini= a, who followed George to Adams County, Ohio. At the time of the first ce= nsus in 1790, I believe that George and Olithi were living in Franklin Co= unty, PA. 9. I only recently heard of Cook Forest. My George Cook was apparently go= ne before this became a big thing. However, I believe that it is likely t= hat the Cooks of Cook Forest might well be found to have come from the Fr= anklin County, PA branch of the family. = Jesse W. Cook June 6, 1999 --------------5E4F4385E7A4F669E6851A99-- --------------F40041875B105FCCE8F1035D--