REV. G. W. COOK was born near Shelbyville, Tenn., November 14, 1833, son of William and Nancy (Lentz) COOK, who were born in 1802 and 1810, in North Carolina and Tennessee, respectively. The father died of cholera in Jun, 1854.
Our subject is the third of eight children. At the age of twenty years he became overseer for Thomas SHEARREN and then began farming for himself. He joined the Methodist Episcopal Church when a boy, and when about twenty-six years old was licensed to preach. In 1870 he was ordained deacon at Pulaski, Tenn., and in 1874 he was ordained elder. He has had regular work since 1870, and has conscientiously fulfilled the duties of his calling.
He was married December 20, 1855 to Mary E. PICKLE, daughter of Major and Catherine PICKLE. Rev. and Mrs. COOK became the parents of eleven children , four of whom are dead: William T. S., a minister of the gospel; Mary E. (Mrs. C. M. SPRUCE), Emily M. (Mrs. William DARNELL), Rosanna (Mrs. E. STALLING), Henry C., Eliza and Nora A. Our subject acquired the most of his education by dint of hard study after acquiring his growth. He is a Democrat, but up to the date of the late war was an old-line Whig.
Transcribed by Kathryn Hopkins
Goodspeed Publishing Co. History of Tennessee from the Earliest Time to the Present: Together with an Historical and a Biographical Sketch of Maury, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Bedford & Marshall Counties, Besides a Valuable Fund of Notes, Reminescences [Sic], Observations, Etc., Etc. Easley, S.C.: Southern Historical Press, 1988.