Sylvester R. Cook

SYLVESTER R. COOK, a prosperous farmer in section No. 28, Cascade township, Kent county, Mich., and an ex-soldier of the Civil war, was born in Hornellsville, Steuben county, N. Y., May 28, 1830, and is a son of Jesse and Rachel (Fisher) Cook, the former of whom was a shoemaker by trade and came to Wayne county, Mich., when the subject of this sketch was but four years old. At the age of eighteen years, Sylvester R. Cook went to Livingston county and ran a threshing machine and separator, and in 1853 operated an eight-horse separator-more than likely the first ever used in Kent county-and it was known to be the first ever set up at Grand Rapids. In I857 he bought land in Cascade township, the tract then comprising eighty acres, all heavily timbered, and to this he added another equally wild tract of eighty acres. He had but few neighbors within miles, and no roads, so that he found it difficult to define the boundaries of his possessions. He succeeded in hewing out a profitable farm from the beech and maple forest, and it is hardly necessary to say that this was accomplished only by the hardest kind of work. Nor is this all; he continued to purchase additional land, until he eventually owned 300 acres, of which he still owns I60, having divided the remainder among his sons, who are located near by and all of whom are prospering. At the age of twenty-six years, Mr. Cook married Miss Melissa Bailey, sister of Sluman S. Bailey, and for thirty years they were helpmates, he managing the farm and she the household affairs. Two years after his wife's death, Mr. Cook married Miss Laney Diefenbecker, of Alaska, Kent county. To the first marriage were born five children, viz: William L., a farmer in Brown county, S. Dak.; Charles W.; Joseph S. and Sluman B., farmers, and Mary Melissa, wife of Ralph Darling, of Paris township. To the second marriage one child has been born-Ray G., still at home. In politics, Mr. Cook is a republican, and has filled various township offices, but he is more interested in placing suitable men in local official positions than he is in the election of party nominees. Mr. Cook has a good war record: In 1862 he. enlisted in company H, Sixth Michigan cavalry, and was assigned to the army of the Potomac. He had charge of a squad detailed to patrol the city of Washington, D. C., after having been for some time on picket duty in the city. He attended Ford's theater the night President Lincoln was assassinated, but had left the place before the dastardly tragedy occurred. He was also at Fort Stevens when Gen. Early threatened to attack the city. He was honorably discharged at the close of the war, with the rank of orderly-sergeant, to return home and become one of Cascade's most useful, substantial and honored citizens.