My Genealogy Hound

REV. JOSEPH H. COOK. Prominent among the citizens whom Seneca County delights to honor stands Rev. Mr. Cook, the beloved pastor of the First Wesleyan Methodist Church of Varick, which has a handsome place of worship. Our subject was born in Salem, Washtenaw County, Mich., June 29, 1837, and is the only child of Edward William Cook, M. D., of Vermont, and Philena Fellows, a native of Connecticut.

In 1834 the parents went to Michigan to aid in carving out the western empire, and there Dr. Cook healed the sick and cultivated a farm until he died. Shortly after that sad event, in 1855, Mrs. Cook moved to New York, accompanied by her son, who had hitherto learned more from nature’s books than printed volumes, educational facilities being very limited in Michigan at that time. The ensuing four years he spent in acquiring an education, two years at Canandaigua Academy and two years in Greene County. Having satisfied the demands of his brain, he yielded to the dictates of his heart, and in February, 1860, married Abigail Lincoln, of Ontario County. In. that county he resided for fourteen years, cultivating the soil in the summer time and teaching school during the winter, in the mean time fitting himself for the ministry, which he felt it his duty to enter.

After years of studious and prayerful preparation, during the last six of which he often conducted services in the absence of an ordained minister, our subject was ordained, in 1874, at the Rochester Conference of the Wesleyan Methodist Church held at Farmington, N. Y. He was first assigned to South Bristol, where he remained until 1877, and the next four years he spent at Haskinville, Steuben County. There he had a very large district to cover, and did it greatly to the satisfaction of the conference. His next field was Farmington, whence after a year of successful work he came to Varick, in 1882. For six years thereafter he preached the Word to the people here, and in 1888 purchased a farm of twenty-seven acres, to which he retired in that year.

In 1894 Rev. Mr. Cook was again called to minister to the spiritual wants of the people of Varick, and is their esteemed pastor to-day. In church circles he is greatly honored, being Secretary of the Rochester Conference, a post which he has held for twenty years, the longest incumbency on record. On two occasions he has represented the Rochester Conference at the general conference, once at Pittsford, Mich., and again at La Otto, Ind. He is also Secretary of the Missionary Board of the Rochester Conference.

In politics Rev. Mr. Cook is a Prohibitionist, Chairman of the organization of that party in this town. Two children have blessed the union of Rev. and Mrs. Cook, a son and daughter, Edward L. and Edith B.