Name George Cook | Role U.S. representative | |
Died December 18, 1916, Pueblo, Colorado, United States | ||
George Washington Cook (November 10, 1851 – December 18, 1916) was a U.S. Representative from Colorado.
Biography
Born in Bedford, Indiana, at the age of eleven Cook ran away from home and enlisted in the Fifteenth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, in the Union Army and served as a drummer boy. He was transferred to the One Hundred and Forty-fifth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and served as chief regimental clerk. At the close of the Civil War, he attended the public schools, Bedford Academy, and Indiana University. He moved to Chicago in 1880 and entered the employ of the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railway. Cook moved to Leadville, Colorado, in 1880 and became division superintendent of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad and served as mayor of Leadville from 1885 to 1887. He moved to Denver in 1888 and became general sales agent for the Colorado Fuel &. Iron Co. and became department commander of the Grand Army of the Republic for Colorado and Wyoming in 1891 and 1892. He became an independent mining operator in 1893 and became Senior vice commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic in 1905 and 1906. He also Organized and commanded the Cook Drum Corps, of Denver.
Cook was elected as a Republican to the Sixtieth Congress (March 4, 1907 – March 3, 1909) but was not a candidate for renomination in 1908. He returned to Colorado and resumed mining operations, dying in Pueblo, Colorado, December 18, 1916. He was interred in Fairmount Cemetery in Denver.