Obit: Cook, Lettie M. (1860 - 1932)

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Surnames: COOK SCHOFIELD

----Sources: OWEN ENTERPRISE (Owen, Clark County, Wis.) 11/24/1932

Cook, Lettie M. (21 FEB 1860 - 6 NOV 1932)

Mrs. A.W. Cook, who resided in this city (Owen, Clark Co., Wis.) for several years when her husband was pastor of the Congregational Church, died at Kalamazoo, Mich., on Nov. 6. The following obituary appeared in last week’s isure of the Hancock News:

"Mrs. Lettie M. Cook, wife of Rev. A.W. Cook, was born in Ogdensburg, St. Lawrence Co., New York, on Feb. 21, 1860. One of a family of nine children whose parents pioneered in the opening of the west, her early life was spent in Wrightstown and Stockbridge, Wis.

On Aug. 31, 1881, she was united in marriage to Arthur W. Cook at Lake Geneva, Wis., and with the spirit of the younger generation they contributed further to the development of the west by homesteading land in North Dakota. Some time was also spent in Nebraska and from this state they returned to Wisconsin using a covered wagon. This trip took three weeks and three days, and with them as passenger was their first born, a girl nine months old.

The years immediately following were happy ones in spite of the difficulties of living in a comparatively new country. Additional children blessed the union and a total of five girls and four boys completed the family group.

In 1899, with the ordination of her husband as a Congregational minister, Mrs. Cook entered upon the duties of a minister’s wife with the same courage and enthusiasm characterizing all of her activities, and it was only when failing health made active work impossible that she relinquished her thoughtful participation in all of the life of the community in which she lived.

As a minister’s wife, frequent pastoral changes made her happy disposition especially noticeable in the new adjustments which had to be made. Pastorates at Steuben, Fifield, Park Falls, Pine River, Nekoosa, Owen and Hancock, all in Wisconsin and one in Mission Hill, S.D., were blessed by her presence.

As active contacts became impossible, her keen interest in all community activities continued unimpaired and wherever possible, her influence was exerted in the interests of the neighbors, and the community as a whole.

Until the last of July 1932, the past 17 years she lived in Hancock. During the last 10 years she has been confined to her home. In July, with the retirement of her husband from the ministry, she moved from Hancock to live with one of her daughter, Miss Flossie Cook, a teacher in the Lincoln Junior High School of the Kalamazoo public schools, Kalamazoo, Mich.

Besides the husband and daughter living near Kalamazoo, she is survived by another daughter, Mrs. Arthur Schofield, of Devils Lake, N.D.; three sons, Arthur F. Cook of Hinsdale, Ill., Kenneth W. Cook of Syracuse, N.Y., and Samuel E. Cook of Villa Park, Ill.; and 12 grandchildren.

Sunday morning, Nov. 6, at the age of 72 years, 8 months, she passed away at the home of her daughter near Kalamazoo. Peacefully her faithful heart was stilled and there remained to mourn their loss a sorrowing family and a host of friends.

Funeral services were conducted at the home of Rev. Delbert Long, of Cooper Congregational Church, Tuesday morning, Nov. 8, and the remains were laid under a weeping willow tree in the West Cooper Cemetery.