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DR. GEORGE B. COCK.
Born Nov. 12, 1838, in Jefferson County, Ohio; fifth son and
eighth in the family of John S. and Elizabeth Cock.
Enlisted in the ranks of County F, 4th Regiment O. V. I., in
1861, the first volunteer company enlisted in Stark County
for the defense of the Union. Served with the regiment
in its West Virginia campaign, under General McClellan, at
the battle of Rich Mountain, etc., and in the operations of
General Lander on the Upper Potomac; then with
General Shields, in the valley of the Shenandoah, and
again with the Army of the Potomac on the Peninsula in its
disastrous operations against Richmond in 1862. In
February, 1863, he was discharged from service by reason of
disability from disease. In September of the same year
he was appointed Captain in the 5th Regiment U. S. colored
troops, then in camp of rendezvous at Delaware, Ohio.
Served in the Department of Virginia, under Genera. B. F.
Butler, in the arduous campaigns against Richmond and
Petersburg during 1864. Was wounded in battle in
charging the enemy's works, in the memorable conflict of New
Market Heights and Chapin's Farm, September 29, 1864.
Received honorable mention for gallantry and efficiency as
an officer. Served on staff duty with General
Weitzel during the winter of 1864.
In the following spring rejoined his command at
Goldsboro', North Caroline. Marched with Major
General Terry's forces to Raleigh, and after the
surrender was with his regiment at Goldsboro', Newbern, and
Carolina City. Traversed several counties of North
Carolina in the work of reconstruction, acting under orders
from General Schofield then commanding the
department. In this work he made many warm friends
among the citizens. Was promoted to Major.
Returned to Ohio with the regiment, and was mustered out at
Camp Chase in October, 1865.
Afterwards wrote a history of his regiment, which was
incorporated in Whitelaw Reid's "Ohio in the War."
Then studied medicine with Dr. W. Bowen, of Akron,
Ohio, and is now practicing in Canton, Stark County.
- Pg. 26HENRY COCK,
eldest son and third child of John S. and Elizabeth Cock,
was born in Jefferson County, Ohio, Dec. 27, 1825.
When a young man he learned the tanning business of his
father, and followed it for quite a number of years.
Came to Stark County in 1844, and engaged in farming and
school teaching till 1854.
In the autumn of this year he was elected County
Auditor, re-elected in 1858, and in 1864 was again chosen to
the same office, making the only case in the last thirty
years in which any one has been elected three time to that
office. For eight years, beginning December, 1854, he
was a member of the County Board of School Examiners.
He also served as Deputy County Treasurer for four yeas.
For some time past he has given his attention to surveying
and civil engineering, having been City Civil Engineer of
Canton for the past four years, which position he still
occupies. His early education advantages wore very
meagre, being confined to those furnished by the log cabin
school-house. He is wholly a self-taught man, but in
some respects is reckoned among the bet-educated men of the
County.
- Pg. 26
JOHN M. COCK,
youngest child of John S. and Elizabeth Cock, was
born in Jefferson County, Ohio, Dec. 24, 1842. Came to
Stark County with the family in 1844. Resided on a
farm until the fall of 1870, and then entered the freight
office of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad at
Canton, where he remained four years, since which time he
has been engaged in the office of the Adams Express Company,
the duties of which position he has discharged to the
general to the general satisfaction of the public.
On July 1, 1868, he was married to Mary E. Rauch.
Mr. Cock is a genial gentleman, of commanding
personel appearance and popular social qualities.
- Pg. 26
JOHN
SANDERSON COOK. The subject of this biography
was born in Brownsville, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, Mar.
25, 1801. When a young men he learned the tonning
business, which he followed for upwards of twenty years.
On December 25, 1822, he married Elizabeth McCadden,
who was born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, July 18, 1800.
Her father was John McCadden, who was born in Chester
County, Pennsylvania, Jan. 27, 1757. He was a tanner
by trade, and with him Mr. Cook learned this
business. He served his country in the Revolutionary
War, and was connected with the expedition sent from
Kentucky Ohio, under command of General George Rogers
Clark, and assisted in the erection of a block-house on
the site of the city of Cincinnati, in 1780. After the
war he settled in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, where he worked
at his trade until 1828, when he removed to Newark, Ohio,
where he passed the remainder of his life. His wife
was Elizabeth Silverthorn, born in Sussex County, New
Jersey, May 29, 1771. His family consisted of thirteen
children, of whom eight survive, and their average age is
seventy-five years, the oldest being eighty-three and the
youngest sixty-five. Mr. McCeddeo, died June 8,
1845; his wife, June 6, 1843.
Mr. Cock emigrated to Ohio in the spring of 1823,
and after a residence of some twenty-one years in Jefferson
County, removed to Stark County, where he passed the
remainder of his life as a farmer. In Jefferson
County, Mr. Cock was Associate Judge of the Common
Pleas Court for a period of nine years, commencing in 1885.
It was while Mr. Cock was on the bench in
Steubenville that Hon. Edwin M. Stanton was admitted
to the bar at that place. In 1840, Mr. Cock was
a member of the State Board of Equalization. In 1848
he was elected to the Ohio Legislature, and re-elected in
1847. A very warm friendship existed between Mr.
Cock and Mr. Stanton, and without any
solicitation or even knowledge on the part of the former, he
received from the latter the appointment of Paymaster in the
army in the late war. While in the service he met with
an accident, by which he was disabled for the rest of his
life. He died very suddenly, of apoplexy, on June 20,
1869. He possessed social qualities of a high order,
and was noted for his nobility of soul and his scrupulous
honesty. His widow still survives at the age of
seventy-five, and is as smart and active as many ladies at
fifty. The family comprised eleven children, of whom
two died in infancy, and one, Thaddeus K., gave up
his life for his country in the late war, being murdered by
the guerillas near Vicksburg, after they had taken him
prisoner.
The father of Mr. Cock was William Cock,
born in England, May 31, 1776. He emigrated to America
at a very early day. His wife was Elizabeth More,
of Mount Holly, New Jersey. He had a family of ten
children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the second
child and the oldest son. Mr. Cock was a
natural mechanic, and made the castings for the first
steamer that ever made a round trip from Pittsburg to New
Orleans. He died March 15, 1856, in the eightieth year
of his age.
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