John M. Cook
Hon. John M. Cook, circuit judge of Jefferson County and president of the Union Deposit Bank of Steubenville, for a number of years has been prominently identified with both the public affairs and the business interests of this section of eastern Ohio.
Judge Cook was born March 6, 1843, in Burlington County, New Jersey, and is a son of David and Margaret Cook. He is of English ancestry, both parents having been born within England's borders. They were married in 1835, at Philadelphia, Pa., and immediately afterward settled in Burlington County, New Jersey. David Cook was a well educated man, and he was also equipped with a good trade, that of shoemaker. He conducted a boot and shoe business at Burlington and later at Allegheny City, Pa., to which place he moved with his motherless children in 1856, two years after the death of his wife. He survived until 1859.
The boyhood of Judge Cook was spent in Allegheny City and his public school training was secured in the Third Ward School of that city, and this was later supplemented, through his own efforts, by three years of academic instruction in the same city. Having chosen law as a profession, in the fall of 1866 he entered the Ohio State and Union Law College at Cleveland, O., where he was creditably graduated on June 30, 1868. Immediately following his admission to the bar, January 7, 1869, he entered upon the practice of law at East Liverpool, O., where he continued to reside until October 1, 1872, when he came to Steubenville, as offering a wider field for his special talents. Being an acute lawyer and a good orator, his advance to a leading position at the Jefferson County bar was rapid and resulted in his being chosen prosecuting attorney in 1879, to which office he was re-elected in 1881, and through the whole period of five years which he served the arduous duties of this responsible office were faithfully and courageously performed. In 1901 he was called to the Circuit Bench, his election taking place in November, 1900, his associates being Judges P. A. Laubie, of Columbiana County, and J. B. Burrows, of Lake County, and was re-elected in 1906. For this position he was eminently qualified, and his judicial administration has but further added to his professional laurels. As a broad-minded citizen and lover of his country and her institutions, he has taken an active interest in political matters ever since casting his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln, in 1864. He has more or less directed the policy of his party in the county at various times, having served for a number of years as chairman of the Republican County Central Committee of Jefferson County.
On December 23, 1874, Judge Cook was married to Miss Elizabeth A. Little, who was born July 25, 1846, at Steubenville. Her parents, James and Mary S. (Reynolds) Little, were former residents of Pennsylvania and Maryland. Judge and Mrs. Cook have three children. Homer C, Mary G. and Ida M., all of whom are married. Judge Cook and family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church; they are active in benevolent work and are representatives of the best in the city's quiet social life. Fraternally, Judge Cook is a thirty-second degree Mason, a member of the Knights of Pythias and of the Benevolent Order of Elks.
Since this article was written Hon. John M. Cook died, on July 10, 1910.
20th Century History of Steubenville and Jefferson County, Ohio, by Joseph B. Doyle. Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., Chicago, 1910