Ezra Cook
Ezra Cook, farmer, P.O. Farmersville; born in this county and township (Jackson) September 7, 1840; is a son of Frederick and Catharine Cook, natives of Pennsylvania. The grandfather, Christian Cook, was a native of Pennsylvania, but the great-grandfather was a native of Germany, who emigrated to America in an early day. Christian Cook emigrated from Pennsylvania to Ohio, locating in this township upon the farm where Isaac Musselman now lives, in 1806, when the country for miles around was almost an unbroken wilderness, the Indians and wild beasts roaming the forests at will; here he opened out right in the woods to make a home and a farm, and here he labored and endured the many trials and hardships of those pioneer days, until, in 1814, he was called away by death from works to rewards at the early age of forty-four years, and there, upon the same farm where he lived and labored, was buried, and there his remains rest to the present day; his wife died in 1863, aged eighty-nine years. They were parents of eleven children; five now survive--Margaret, Frederick, Christina, Sarah and Michael. Frederick was seven years of age when his father died, but his mother managed to keep her family together and raise them by her own hard labor. Mr. Cook arrived at manhood; was married in 1829 to Catharine, daughter of Henry and Eve Apple, natives of Pennsylvania; issue, seven children; six now survive--Rebecca, Henry, Catharine, Ezra, Aaron, and Mary Ann. Mr. Cook, after his marriage, located upon the farm where he now lives, and has ever since resided, a period of fifty-one years; he has cleared up the greater portion of the farm now in cultivation; erected all the buildings on the place, and did a great amount of hard labor, and is now seventy-four years of age. Our subject lived with his father till after his majority. Was married February 26, 1863, to Sarah, daughter of Henry and Sophia Staver; by this union, they have eight children--Izora Jane, Tilitha Florence, Cordie Alice, Ida Effie, Daisie B., Robert A., Christian A., and Daniel W. Mr. Cook, after his marriage, located upon the place where he now lives, and has resided for seventeen years.
From History of Montgomery County, Ohio, W. H. Beers & Co., Chicago, 1882