My Genealogy Hound

STEPHEN COOK. No more highly respected and esteemed citizen lives in Hagar Township than the one of whom we write, who has done business here for many years, and throughout all that time has so conducted himself as to earn the just admiration and regard of his neighbors. He is not only one of the old settlers of the county, but one of the prominent fruit and berry growers of the same. He needs no introduction to the people of Berrien County, for a long residence here and, above all, a career of usefulness and prominence have given him a very extensive acquaintance.

He is a son of the Empire State, born in Cayuga County in 1823, and is one of twelve children born to Henry and Maria (Mumbrue) Cook, natives also of the Stale of New York. At an early date the parents came to Michigan and settled in Calhoun County, when it was a complete wilderness, and on the edge of what was known as Cook’s Prairie. Henry Cook was a man possessed of more than the ordinary attainments, and was a member of the Legislature when the State was a Territory. He was a soldier in the War of 1812. His son, William, brother of our subject, served two terms in the State Legislature, and the same length of time in the Senate. He was a prominent man of the State, but is now deceased. Our subject has three brothers in Calhoun and one in this county.

The original of this notice passed his boyhood and youth in Calhoun County and in addition to his primary education attended the academy in Homer. He was but small when he came with his parents to Michigan, and as a consequence nearly all his recollections are of this State. He assisted his father in clearing the home place of the heavy timber with which it was covered, and he grew to sturdy manhood amid these wild surroundings. June 15, 1868, he was united in marriage with Miss Mary H. Sheldon, daughter of M. N. Sheldon, and their union was blessed by the birth of four children: Jennie H., wife of Daniel Bailiff, of St. Joseph; Stephen H.; Jessie, and Minnie, who died in infancy.

Mr. Cook left Calhoun County and came to Berrien County in 1858, where he purchased his present farm, one of the finest in the county. He is a pioneer in the fruit-growing industry. For the past thirty years he has raised fruit for the Chicago markets, and as his fruit is always fresh and perfect, he gets the highest market price for his products. He owns two hundred acres of very valuable land, having over one mile of lake front, and although heavily timbered when he first settled on it, he has cleared this all off and erected buildings that beautify and improve it. Industrious and progressive, he has worked hard to bring his farm to its present prosperous condition, and no man is more worthy of success than he. All his life Mr. Cook has affiliated with the Republican party and has held a number of local offices, among them Supervisor, which position he held one year. He and Mrs. Cook are exemplary members of the Congregational Church.