Tulare County Biographies

WILLIAM R. COOKE

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
This native of California and well known citizen of Tulare county was born in 
Placerville, January 22, 1857, a son of W. S. and Lucy (Rutledge) Cooke. His 
father was born in Leeds, England, in 1827, and his mother was born in England 
that same year. The former came to South Carolina when he was sixteen years old 
and was for some time engaged in shipping. Eventually he located in Boston, 
where he completed his education and whence he moved after four years to 
Davenport, Iowa, where for a time he sold fanning mills and John Deere plows. 
There he married Miss Rutledge, who had come from her native land when quite 
young. She is living in San Francisco at the advanced age of eighty-five years. 
In 1851 they came overland with a large train from Iowa, halting a short time in 
Salt Lake City. From time to time they had dangerous encounters with Indians and 
when they reached Hangtown, now Placerville, they witnessed the hanging of a man 
named Van Lugan. Later they were attacked by Indians who drove off their cattle, 
killing several. They witnessed the sinking of the Humboldt mine in Gold Canyon 
on the site of Gold Hill. At Hangtown, where Mrs. Cooke arrived wearing a green 
silk dress, she was one of but two women in the settlement. A dance was given on 
the evening following their arrival. It was at Ford's Bar on the American river 
that Mr. Cooke had his first experience as a miner. He long remembered the 
arrival of the first circus that visited at that diggings. At one time he walked 
from Hangtown to Sacramento, bare�footed, and brought back with other purchases 
a pair of copper-toed boots for his son, the subject of this review. From 
Hangtown the family moved to Mountain Springs and from there they moved about 
eighteen months later to Ford's Bar, where in 1857 more than five hundred votes 
were cast. Their next place of residence, where they remained until 1859, was at 
Iowa Hill. Mr. Cooke owned several mines one after another and made and lost 
considerable money. He became prominent in affairs in Placer county and for 
eight years filled the office of sheriff. Later at Virginia City he was elected 
police judge and tax collector. He died there in 1898 and his widow removed to 
San Francisco.
The children of W. S. and Lucy (Rutledge) Cooke were named as follows: Sarah A., 
Mary E., William R., F. W., Jennie V., Henry S., deceased, Joseph E., Lucy, and 
Edwin, deceased. Sarah A. married Andrew Lane and has three children. Mary E. 
married W. G. Thompson of Storey county, Nevada, and has borne him two children. 
William R. married Iantha A. Kelso and their home is near Orosi; they have twin 
sons, Bruce E. and Roy A., born in 1886, who were educated at Selma and 
Stockton, graduating from the Western School of Commerce at the age of twenty 
years, Roy being now bookkeeper for the Kirby Winery at Selma. Bruce and Roy 
prepared for entrance at the National Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md., received 
the appointment, but did not go. Jennie V. is editor of the Pacific Coast Nurses 
Journal, and resides in San Francisco.
From several of the leading families of America Miss Kelso, who became Mrs. 
Cooke, is descended, one of her ancestors having been Henry Clay. Her father, 
John Russell Kelso, a native of Ohio, was a colonel in the Federal service in 
the Civil War and was a member of congress. Mrs. Cooke's mother was born in 
Missouri and educated at Springfield. Mrs. Cooke was a normal school graduate of 
the year 1878, became a teacher and rose to the position of vice-principal from 
which she was promoted to that of principal. She taught thirteen years in Fresno 
county, six years in Selma, where she was for four years vice-principal. Later 
she was for one year principal of Bishop school in Inyo. Her recollections of 
California would make an interesting volume. She distinctly remembers seeing the 
notorious Sontag and Evans pursued by the men who later brought them to justice.
By trade Mr. Cooke is a machinist and millwright, in which capacities he worked 
thirty-eight years. In 1901-2 he mined in Alaska with indifferent success, was 
caught in the ice and sojourned for a time on Siberian Island. He was at one 
time interested in the purchase of five hundred and one acres of land and now 
owns one hundred and sixty acres of orange land, vines and figs. He has about 
six thousand budded trees for transplanting. He makes a specialty of white 
Leghorn poultry, owning about three hundred chickens. He is a Mason and an Odd 
Fellow, and is a popular citizen who does much for the public good. He and his 
family are Socialists.
 
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - 
Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913, Pp 805-806