My Genealogy Hound

Below is a family biography included in The History of Barton County, Missouri published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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John H. Cook, one of the oldest residents of Newport, has been a resident of Barton County, Mo., since 1857, coming here at that date with his parents, John H., Sr., and Margaret Cook, who were native Germans, where our subject was also born, his birth occurring in 1844. They came to the United States in 1852, and settled first in Tennessee, and five years later came to Barton County, Mo., where the father died in 1860, at the age of forty-seven years, and the mother in 1869, aged fifty-five years. They were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. John H. Cook, our subject, was the second of five children, and, after the death of his father, he commenced to fight his own way in the world, and began learning the blacksmith’s trade, and followed this occupation till 1863, when he enlisted in the Union army, and served three months, after which he was in the employ of the Government until the close of the war. From that time he worked at his trade in Newport until 1869, then went to Randolph County, Ark., where he rented land and farmed seven years. From that time until the present he has resided in Newport, where he has been fairly prosperous in his calling, and is now the owner of eighty acres of land, and some town property. In 1870 he was married to Miss Susie Gaddy, a native of Clay County, Mo., by whom he has three children: John Lester, Clarence G. and Lena. He and wife are members of the United Brethren Church, in which he is an active worker, and in his political views he is a Prohibitionist.

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This family biography is one of 166 biographies included in The History of Barton County, Missouri published in 1889.  For the complete description, click here: Barton County, Missouri History, Genealogy, and Maps

To view additional Barton County, Missouri family biographies, click here

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