Oliver Cook, Princeton, was born July 16, 1842, near Racine, Wis. He is a son of John Cook, who was born April 30, 1812; he died here in 1872. Oliver Cook’s grandfather was Larkin Cook, he was a native of Maryland and died in Vermillion County, Ill., to which he came about 1825. The Cook family is of Irish extraction. The mother of Oliver Cook was Eveline (Graves) Cook. She was born in 1816, in Fayette County, Ky., and died in 1856 in Vermillion County, Ill. She was the daughter of James and Margaret (Blackburn) Graves, who were also natives of Kentucky. She was the mother of ten children. Of these only three are now living, viz.: Dr. F. Cook, now a resident of Sterling, Neb., Mrs. Amanda A. Holbrooks, and Oliver, our subject, who is the oldest of the three living.
He was educated principally in and near Danville, Ill. He came to this county in 1861; here he farmed one year and then, in 1862, he enlisted in the Ninety-third Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry, Company C. He served about eleven months, when he was honorably discharged on account of disability. From the fall of 1864 till the close of the war he served in the Forty-second Regiment Illinois Regiment Volunteer Infantry, Company K, participating in the battles of Springfield, Franklin and Nashville.
After the war Mr. Cook taught school for one term in this county, and then engaged in the insurance business, making his headquarters in Wyanet, Ill. In September 1881, he came to Princeton and at present is engaged in the real estate business, dealing wholly in Western lands in Nebraska, and is agent for the Burlington & Missouri Railroad lands.
Mr. Cook was married February 10, 1876, to Miss. Mary E. Conkling. Who was born February 5, 1851, in this county. She is the daughter of Carl and Ellen (Coulter) Conkling. Four children were the result of their marriage, viz.: Charles W., Laura E., Florence N. and an infant boy. Mr. and Mrs. Cook are religiously connected with the Presbyterian Church.
Source: History of Bureau County, Illinois, H. C. Bradsby, Editor. World Publishing Company Chicago 1885