The Cook Family of Bienville Parish

Marguerite Cook Clark and her husband, Albert "Al" Clark

For the last three months, I have been posting items related to Cook family members who lived in or had family who lived in Bienville Parish. Most were saved in Marguerite Cook Clark's collection of genealogical materials. She was lucky to have had Bryan and Cook photos and other documents passed down to her from both sides of her family. Some items date as far back as the mid-1800s. I was very lucky to have had access to them. 

Although I have posted most of the Cook items in her collection, there are many more items related to Bryans, Wimberlys, and other Bienville Parish families to be posted. 

Many of these Cooks were in no way connected to me. A few married Bryans who were descendants of Reddick and Elizabeth Regan Bryan (my great-great-grandparents) so there may be Cooks out there who match a little of my DNA.

Napoleon Bonaparte Cook, Marguerite Cook Clark's paternal grandfather. 

Joseph B. Bryan, Marguerite Cook
Clark's maternal great-grandfather

Marguerite Cook Clark was both a Bryan and Cook descendant. Napoleon Bonaparte Cook was her grandfather on her father's side. On her mother's side, her great-grandfather was Joseph Bryan, the brother to my great-grandfather, Terrell Bryan. 

Marguerite and I would be third cousins. 

This collection of photos and clippings is a bonus for anyone researching the Cook family. I perused a few library collections, Ancestry.com, historical newspapers, and FamilySearch without finding many photos connected to this Cook family. 

If you are a Cook descendant and have old family photos, share them! Post them on a relevant Facebook page or in an online family tree. Make sure other family members know you have them. If no one wants your old photos and family records, donate them to a library that takes genealogical materials. 

For Cook researchers, there must a lot more to find. There are 168 Cooks found at Find-A-Grave in Bienville Parish cemeteries. Cooks lived in surrounding counties, there were many in Mississippi and probably much to find in South Carolina.

AND, if you didn't see all my posts relating to the Cook family, check-out the links below.

Friday's Photo: Margaret Cook

Friday's Photo: Dr. Edward Clifton Cook's Car and Cyril Lesche's Garage

Friday's Photo: Dr. Edward Clifton Cook and Family Plus One Man and a Dog

From the Files of Marguerite Cook Clark: James Bryan Cook And
Ollie Reed Cook of Bienville Parish, Louisiana

From the Files of Marguerite Cook Clark: Bert and Susie Porter Ellis

From the Files of Marguerite Cook Clark: Lloyd Byron Cook 

From the Files of Marguerite Cook Clark: Mrs. L. B. Cook

From the Files of Marguerite Cook Clark: Mrs. L. A. Cook

From the Files of Marguerite Cook Clark: Her Father, Dr. Edward Clifton Cook

From the Files of Marguerite Cook Clark: Anna Cook Moorehead, Daughter of Marshal Cook

From the Files of Marguerite Cook Clark: Could this be Ellen Cook Kelly? 

From the Files of Marguerite Cook Clark: Lorry Alan Cook

From the Files of Marguerite Cook Clark: Uncle Joe (Joseph W. Cook)

From the Files of Marguerite Cook Clark: Miss Samantha Cook

Friday's Photo: P. P Cook's School, Iverson LA

From the Files of Marguerite Cook Clark: Some Descendants of Millard Fillmore Cook

From the Files of Marguerite Cook Clark: Philip Porter and Ella Mae Ratcliff Cook  

From the Files of Marguerite Cook Clark: Mary Samantha Cook Clayton

From the Files of Marguerite Cook Clark: Frank Kelly

From the Files of Marguerite Cook Clark: Huey P. Cook

From the Files of Marguerite Cook Clark: John Jacob "Jake" Cook

Friday's Photo: Ina and Bert Cook

From the Files of Marguerite Cook Clark: Sophronia Pauline Porter Cook

From the Files of Marguerite Cook Clark: Anne Cook Martin

From the Files of Marguerite Cook Clark: 60th Wedding Anniversary - James 
Bryan Martin and Anne Cook Martin

From the Files of Marguerite Cook Clark: Is this Napoleon Bonaparte Cook?

The Family of Napoleon Bonaparte Cook and Sophronia Pauline Porter Cook of Bienville Parish

Friday's Photo: A Bryan - Cook Gathering in Bienville Parish 

From the Files of Marguerite Cook Clark: Joe and Josie Bryan Cook 

Friday's Photo: An Important Celebration in Bienville Parish

Friday's Photo: Marguerite Cook Clark 

Friday's Photo: Thomas "Tom" Corley and Elizabeth "Lizzie" Cook

From the Files of Marguerite Cook Clark: Mary Marguerite "Maggie" Martin Cook

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2017

Sources

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Marguerite Cook Clark. Accessed April 28, 2014, September 14, 2014, and November 9 to 11, 2016. Used with permission.

Friday's Photo: Margaret Cook

Margaret Cook is written on the back of this photo.

This Cook family photograph is from the Frye Family Collection. Margaret Cook wasn't part of the Napoleon Bonaparte Cook family who came from Jasper County to Bienville Parish in the late 1800s. This was in a collection passed down by the family of Joseph Cook and Josie Bryan. Joe is thought to have come to Bienville Parish from South Carolina. The photographer was Morris & Son from Greenwood, South Carolina. 

Dating the photo was easy. I have similar photos of others in the family with the same style of clothing and similar hair styles.  The below photo was taken in 1920 so I needed to look for a Margaret Cook who was born in the very late 1890s or early 1900s.  

My father's sister, Marie Bryan, in the year 1920.
This was her school photo. 

Photo of Josie Bryan and Joe Cook
From the Frye Family Collection

Checking for Margaret Cook in the Public Member Trees at Ancestry.com led me to only one Margaret Cook in Greenwood. She was born between 1896 and 1907 - birth dates varied from tree to tree. 

This Margaret Cook was the daughter of Francis "Frank" Cook and Martha Lyon. Frank just happened to be the brother of Joseph W. Cook, husband of Josie Bryan. 

So, if I am correct, Margaret is the niece of Joseph Cook thus explaining why this photo ended up with the Frye family. 


If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 



Diana

© 2017 

Sources

Ancestry.com. Public Member Trees [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2006. Original data: Family trees submitted by Ancestry members.

Family photographs from the Frye Family collection. Accessed June 6, 2016. Used with permission.

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Diana Bryan Quinn.

From the Files of Marguerite Cook Clark: James Bryan Cook And Ollie Reed Cook of Bienville Parish, Louisiana

James Bryan Cook and Ollie Mae Reed
This photo may have been taken on their wedding day Jan. 26, 1913.

James Bryan Cook

James Bryan Cook

James Bryan Cook plays a key role in my search for Bryan family documents. He was a great-grandson of my great-great-grandfather, Reddick Bryan of Bienville Parish, Louisiana. As seen in a 1938 letter written by his mother, James had possession of old family letters - some which were given to William Trott and later published in the Wimberly Family History. 

In 1950, he was in the possession of Reddick Bryan's family bible published in 1824. A transcript of this bible was found at the DAR library in Washington, D. C. and James Bryan Cook was listed as the owner at the time of the transcription. 

I have been looking for the old letters (said to be in a scrapbook) and Reddick Bryan's bible for years. It would be nice to see the original documents.  Please contact me if you know where I might find them. 

James Bryan Cook was the fifth child of Joseph W. Cook and Joseph "Josie" Sarah Catherine Bryan. He was born on August 4, 1885, in Bienville Parish. I assume he was named after his mother's adoptive father, James Bryan. 

He married Ollie Reed on January 26, 1913. Ollie, the daughter of Charles Eason Reed and Ella Norah Beck, was born on July 12, 1889.

James and Ollie were the parents of four children - James Bryan Jr, Karl Franklin, Nora Kathleen, and Lula Mae. 

I have seen James referred to as Jim and Jimmie and his occupation written as farmer, carpenter, and trucking. 

I have seen Ollie Reed Cook's name written as Orlean on trees at Ancestry.com.  In Joseph Bryan's family bible, her name is written as Ollye Mae Reed. Ollie's father was a Baptist minister and according to the Wimberly History, she remained a Baptist while James Cook remained a Methodist.

Obituaries for James and Ollie are below. They are buried in the Wimberly Cemetery in Bienville Parish. 

Found at Newspapers.com

Notice Mrs. O. R. Cook was "corrected"
to Mrs. J. B. Cook

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2017 

Sources 

Ancestry.com. Public Member Trees [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2006. Original data: Family trees submitted by Ancestry members.

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Marguerite Cook Clark. Accessed April 28, 2014, September 14, 2014, and November 9 to 11, 2016. Used with permission.

Wimberly, Vera. Wimberly Family History: Ancestors, Relatives, and Descendants of William Wimberly, Pioneer from Georgia to Louisiana, 1837. Houston, Tex.: D. Armstrong, 1979. Print. 

From the Files of Marguerite Cook Clark: Uncle Joe (Joseph W. Cook)

Joseph W. Cook
1846 - 1934

Click here to read about Joe and
Josie's 52nd Anniversary Celebration

Joseph "Joe" W. Cook was born April 19, 1846, to Samuel Boggs Cook and Elizabeth Ann Harling in South Carolina. According to Public Member Trees at Ancestry.com, he was a first cousin to both Napoleon Bonaparte Cook and Millard Fillmore Cook who were also residents of Bienville Parish, Louisiana. 

Joseph "Joe" W. Cook and Joseph "Josie" Sarah Catherine Bryan were married on November 20, 1873. They lived in Bienville Parish.  Josie was the biological daughter of Joseph Bryan and Sarah Wimberly and the adopted daughter of James Bryan (brother to Joseph) and Alice Wimberly (sister to Sarah).

Joe and Josie had five children - Lula Laura Cook, Karl Franklin Cook, Alice Belle Cook, Mary Elizabeth Cook, and James Bryan Cook. 

Joe and Josie are buried in Wimberly Cemetery in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.

Remember this post - Friday's Photo: Dr.
Edward Clifton Cook and Family Plus One
Man and a Dog. The man pictured right was
not identified, but I believe this man is
 Joe Cook, Uncle Joe to Maggie Martin Cook.

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2017

Sources

Ancestry.com. Public Member Trees [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2006. Original data: Family trees submitted by Ancestry members.

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Marguerite Cook Clark. Accessed April 28, 2014, September 14, 2014, and November 9 to 11, 2016. Used with permission.