Husband Col. Edward Cook 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Born: 1738 or 1741 - Conococheague Valley, Franklin Co, PA 3 4 6
Christened:
Died: 28 Nov 1808 2 6 8
Buried: - Rehoboth Presbyterian Cemetery, Fayette Co, PA
Father: James Cook ( -1741) 5
Mother: Elizabeth [Unk] ( -Aft 1741) 5
Marriage: - Franklin Co, PA
• Biographical Sketch: Fenwick Y. Hedley, Old and New Westmoreland, Vols. III & IV (New York, NY: The American Historical Society, Inc., 1918).
To read a brief biographical sketch of his life and career, click here.
Wife Martha Crawford 1 2 6 7 9
Born: 25 Dec 1743 2 10
Christened:
Died: 20 Apr 1837 2 8 10
Buried: - Rehoboth Presbyterian Cemetery, Fayette Co, PA
Father: Edward Crawford ( -1792) 6 9 11 12 13
Mother: Elizabeth Sterrett ( - ) 9 11 13
Children
1 M James Crawford Cook 1 2 3 7 14
Born: 13 Aug 1772 - Washington Twp, Fayette Co, PA 1 7 15
Christened:
Died: 1848 14
Buried:
Spouse: Mary Bell ( - ) 1 3 7 15
Marr: 6 May 1806 1 15
General Notes: Husband - Col. Edward Cook
He was born in the Conococheague Valley, Pennsylvania, and removed to the "Forks of the Yough," now Fayette County, in 1772. He was a member of the Pennsylvania Convention in 1776, from Westmoreland county; was lieutenant of the county, and commanded a battalion of rangers for frontier defense in 1781. He became an Associate Judge of Fayette County in 1791. His sympathies were with those who complained of excise grievances in 1794, and he presided over the Mingo Creek meeting, but counseled moderation and was active in preventing outrages during the Whiskey Insurrection.
To his character the legends of the times say that the inscription upon his tombstone (composed by the Rev. William Wylie, pastor of the Rehoboth Church of Rostraver township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, from 1803 to 1815), is a fitting tribute. It is, "In memory of Col. Edward Cook. He died on the 27th of November, 1808, in the seventy year of his age. Few men have deserved and possessed more eminently than Col. Cook the consideration and esteem of the people in the Western country. In public spirit, disinterestedness, and zeal for the general welfare he was excelled by none. In private life, his unsullied integrity, his liberality, and the amiable benevolence of his temper endeared him to his friends, and marked him as a sanctuary to which the poor might confidently resort for relief. Through a long life of piety and active exertion to promote the interests of the Christian religion he had learned to set his heart upon a nobler inheritance than that of this world. He therefore received the approach of his dissolution with resignation and composure, under a lively hope that the end of life here would be to him but the beginning of infinite happiness."
He was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, was a member of the Continental congress, and one of the first settlers and foremost citizens of western Pennsylvania. He drafted the first Declaration of Independence (See Journal of Congress, Vol. 2, page 230). In 1770 he settled in Washington township, Fayette County, where he was one of the largest land holders in the county. He began the "Mansion" in 1771, and completed it in 1776. He was commander of the Continental forces for western Pennsylvania, and an intimate friend of General George Washington, who was a frequent visitor at his home. The steps in front of the "Mansion" remained into the twentieth century on which General Washington delivered an address to a large assembly of people, and were made famous by the event. Colonel Cook was also an intimate friend of Albert Gallatin.
He purchased three thousand acres of land fronting on the Monongahela river, and extending back of Fayette City, which place he founded as Cookstown, and built on an eminence on the beautiful tract, in 1772, the stone house, yet standing and occupied into the twentieth century, which was the family homestead, and from which nearly all his land could be seen. Rehobeth Presbyterian church was built on his land, of which he was an original elder, and in the beautiful cemetery of the church, he and his wife were laid to rest.