Thurnham Hall

Near Lancaster , England

August 26, 1954

 

Dr. John A. Cook

Dallas , Texas

 

Dear Dr. Cook:

 

     Please pardon my intrusion , but I am writing to ask if you are a relative of Joseph Thomas Cook, formerly of Crockett , later of Navasota, Texas. He was my grandfather. As a boy hi  home was at Cook's Fort , in Cherokee County.

 

     My sister has a sketch of his life that he wrote when he was 90 years of age and which i  most interesting . His reminiscences begin in Tennessee wit h his patents. They traveled by river to Nachitoches through Texas to Rusk via Nacogdoches and Douglas. Later on, his part in the wars against the Indians and Mexicans and in the Civil War. After this to Brazil by way of Cuba (and a shipwreck), where he and his family were graciously met by Dom Pedro II , then Emperor of Brazil, at Rio. At the end of about seven years they all returned to their beloved Texas, where my grand-father ended his days in Navasota, aged 101 and is buried there. His mother lived to be 101 and is interred at Rusk. 

 

     Jefferson Davis was a close relation, a cousin, I think, of my grandfather. I mention these details in case they mean anything to you.

 

     I was well acquainted with my grandparents, but I would like to know more of our families if you can help me. Hoping to hear from you,

 

I am Yours sincerely ,

Miss Lola Dalton

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Thurnham Hall

Near Lancaster , England

September 4, I960

 

 

Dr. John A. Cook

Dallas, Texas

 

Dear Dr. Cook:

 

At last I am sending you the promised story written by my grandfather , Joseph Thomas Cook, Jr . when he was ninety years old . I do not think you will find much in  it that you do not: already know, but being hi  personal experiences in those early days, they may be of interest to you as they are to us.

 

I regret having kept you waiting such a long time. On June 9th we lost our dear older sister , Lola . Her death upset us all greatly and it has been rather difficult to settle down again to a normal routine .

 

I trust that Grandpa's story will be a little help to you and as I come across other notes on the Cook family I will let you have them.

 

Naturally one cannot be too sure of the dates as Grandpa was very old when he wrote these notes and may not have remembered exactly .

 

With all best wishes for the success of your undertaking and trusting you and your family keep well , I am

 

Yours very sincerely ,

Eda F. Dalton

 

Eda Dalton was a daughter of Mary Emma Cook and William Henry Dalton and a.granddaughter of Joseph Thomas Cook Jr . Her mother met and married Lord Dalton in Brazil . She accompanied her husband and her parents back to Texas and lived for a while i n Navasota before going to England. Eda Dalton and her sisters Lol  and Alzira lived in Thurnham Hall , the ancestral home of the Daltons.

 

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R.B. Blake :     Sketches of Nacogdoches and Citizens Thereof

 

     Joseph Thomas Cook emigrated from Shelby County, Tennessee in the earl y 1830s. He with his wife  and eleven children , reached Nacogdoches March 7, 1834. On the 20th of January, 1835, Cook made application for his headright league, which was located south of where Rusk, in Cherokee County, was afterwards located . This was in the midst of the Cherokee Indian settlements , being only a few miles north of Chief Boles's ranch.

 

      When Costley organized his company of rangers in September, 1836, the father and son, Joseph T. Cook. Sr., and J . Thomas Cook, Jr., enlisted for a service of three months.

 

     In 1838 during the intensive Indian troubles Mr. Cook had a military company under the com-mand of Captain Black to build what was known as Cook's Fort , near the residence of Joseph T. Cook, three miles southeast of Rusk.  Joseph T. Cook, Jr , and Ann Moseley, daughter of one of the locating committee of the town of Rusk, were the first Cherokee County bride and groom. William Daugherty, probate Judge, performed the ceremony August 19, 1846. 

 

Biographica l Souvenir of Texas, Chicage.

F.A. Batter y & Co., 1889

 

     Joseph T. Cook was born in Alabama in the year 1817, and is the son of Joseph T. Cook Sr. , long since deceased, who was of Scotch extraction . H is early education was obtained at the district school near his home in Alabama. At a very early age he came to Texas with his parents and located near Rusk, where he lived for many years. He then moved to Hill County. About 1838 he fought against the Cherokee Indians , then served in a Texas regiment in the Mexican War. He also served as captain of a company in the Confederate Army during the late Civil War. At the close of the rebellion in 1865 he journeyed to South America where he remained until 1872, when he again came to Texas and for a time made his home in Navasota. Next he moved to Corpus Christi , but returned after a short :time to Navasota, in which city he now resides . His wife , whose maiden name was T. Ann Moseley, was born in Georgia in 1826, and is still living at Navasota. Nine children were born to these happy parents

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ACCOUNT WRITTEN BY JOSEPH THOMAS COOK

 

GOODBYE TO THE LONE STAR STATE

 

     It was in 1733, or thereabouts, that  Joseph Thomas Cook, the founder of our line of the Cook family  in  Texas landed in America - A fair little lad of seven years - he had sailed all the way from Scotland with his parents and others of his family and the journey had taken many weeks. Where they landed is so far uncertain : members of the family settled in Cook County in North East Texas bounded on the north by the Red River and it is known that Cook County was named after them.

 

.     Years passed and after the successful conclusion of the American Revolutionary war, we find my father , Joseph Thomas Cook settled in North Carolina and like his friend , Daniel Boone, wandered through what is now known as West Virginia to where the city of Charleston is now established and later into Kentucky. After lingering m Kentucky a while he went on to Tennessee and settled in Shelby County. He married Mary Moore, daughter of Irish settlers.

 

     In Tennessee he built up a plantation . My father prospered. Cotton provided the state with riches and he saw that the fleecy treasure lined his own pockets as well . He soon became a man of sub-stance Even among other men of property he was counted a lucky man He was a happy man, but the urge to pioneer, to go out into the wilderness  and conquer it, had never been extinguished. Ten-nessee had become too settled , too civilized for him. When in about 1830 a new wave of pioneering sprang up, his enthusiasm leaped once more into glowing life. He was consumed with a growing restlessness and yearned to give up the ease and comfort of his present existence for the uncertain future of the frontier.

 

     To penetrate the primeval forests , to build a home out of such materials as nature provided, to withstand the evils and dangers of wild beasts and savage men, of nature rampant, these needed many excellent qualities keenly developed.

 

     On the other hand, although accepting the outlook of my father , my mother was quite content with her lot. A small serious woman of boundless energy, imbued with a Celtic love of home, she was perfectly satisfied with Tennessee, where she was already living in ease and comfort. Tennessee was a mighty good place to live in . There was always hunting and fishing - fruit , flowers and vegetables galore all we-:could use and more, but we kepi hearing such wonderful accounts of Texas - her natural resources and climate , and her extensive land grants , etc., without deadening timber and grubbing stumps - Father became so enthusiastic that he decided Texas was the land for him.  In its vast territory , we hardly knew where we wanted to locate but in those early days people were not disposed to go too far away from parts already being settled , for Indians were numerous and very Warlike.

 

     In 1833 Father finally  decided to venture. He went to Memphis and bought a boat for our journey down the Mississippi . He sold the cattle and other live stock, except the oxen that were needed to draw our wagons to Memphis. The plantation s were disposed of.  Also all household effects except the rosewood parlour suite , some rare old silver , mother's Seth Thomas clock , some hand-bound leather backed books, printed as earl  as 1752, and a number of colourful  handmade quilts , etc .

 

     Mother started  to pack and prepare for the trek . Under her capable direction Sylvie , who had been my coloured nurse and was now our cook, roasted as many plump fowls , and boiled enough tender hams to have fed a regiment. Then there were side  of smoked bacon, sacks of coffee , sugar, flour , barrels of molasses and other provisions .

 

     Our party consisted of Father and Mother, their family  of six girls - Elizabeth , married to Jesse Gibson,and Amelia, wife of Absolom Gibson, sons of a neighboring planter . Elizabeyh and Amelia were twins. My other four sisters were Mary, Mahala, Cecilia and Rhoda. Also six boys - William, James, David - I came next, named Joseph Thomas (after my father), Elihu and Samuel. The other members of our family included another son-in-law, several grandchildren, Father's great friend Mr. Elias Nelson and the slaves from the plantations.

 

     We were leaving a life that was very pleasant . All Southern families blessed with our advantages invariably lived  on a. lavish scale , at a gracious pace, paying great attention to dignity and a com-plete elegance of person. We frequently visited our cheerful friends i n our turn .

 

     The glorious summer would fade into autumn with its dazzling array of colour . The flowers nodding in  gay abandon as if rejoicing in the prolonged term of their beautiful lives . But at last a crisp sudden chill would sweep over the plains , and winter would make its claim . Then our family would gather gleeful  around the newly made fire , the first  blaze of the season. The huge fireplace , ample in space for a generous back log of Hickory , with half a dozen smaller logs would last all day.. There is no charm in a great black expressionless stove. There is nothing about i t that can match the visible glow and warmth of an open grate with blazing logs. Yet all this we would be forsaking for the unknown wilds of Texas.

 

     Mother felt that life  could not be sweeter or richer than it was in dear Tennessee, but she belon-ged to the old school of women who believed that home was where their husbands were, or wher-ever they wished to go. So when Father pulled up stakes , she was ready to follow whither he led.

 

     I am sure its all on account of that talkative Sam Houston, with his fine stories  of Texas", she said, "The whole parcel of you have been bewitched by him, I do declare . Still, I don't altogether blame you for I believe - he could talk a bird of f a bush"

 

     Texas at that time was under the domination of Mexico, arid Father had obtained from that gov-ernment a grant of a league of land in the district of East Texas, now known as Cherokee,County. Owning many slaves, he planned to clear this land and once more build up a large and profit-able  plantation.

 

     Leaving Shelby County was not easy when the time arrived . Even Father, who had been so eager, seemed a little depressed, and it was easy to see that  Mother grieved at parting from her beloved home.

 

     After a long and tedious trek, our wagon train eventually reached Memphis, a port on the Miss-issippi, but when we beheld the mighty river we were disheartened at the thought of ever crossing it. 

 

     Young folks , now-a-days don't know what real travel is,  Resting easily in a Pullman sleeper takes much less nerve and enterprise than stopping wherever night overtakes you and sleeping on the ground with a blanket for cover and your saddle for a pillow . It used to be a great undertaking to go one hundred miles, and a trip int o another state was an event of moment. Longer trips took real endurance and sure enough grit. 

 

     The Mississippi , The Father of Waters, as the Indians called it , over which no one had then dreamed of building a bridge, was the great barrier between the old states and the new promised land of plenty. Arkansas and Texas seemed as far removed as South America does now.

 

     The boat Father bought, the Arabella,  was a quaint looking craft . The windows and doors were very low. After selling our oxen in Memphis, Father gave orders for the wagons and all our belong-ings to be put on board.

 

     The Arabella, when loaded with all the baggage, provisions, farming implements, ploughs, wagons, etc., as well as our numerous party, seemed to offer a scant and perilous protection from the deep and muddy water of the vast river . The Arabella was an old fashioned boat with swishing, wheezy paddles on either side,  a belching black funnel which, all too often covered the whole with smoke  and a loud shrieking siren. Naturally, she settled deep on the water, but when so heavily laden, the swelling tide seemed only inches from the oozing tarry deck.

 

     Mother, her hand on Father's arm, walked up the gangway. Her Negro woman followed with a handbox. Mother looked a little pale , but her lips were set.

 

     "Are you afraid , honey", said Father gently as he led her along. "There i s no use in being afraid" , she answered firmly, "and I am not going to balk at anything. " We had fine women in those days. Life was more simple, but more strenuous. I t developed a different outlook, and like my heroic mother many of those pioneer women who gave up comfortable homes, old friends and early assoc-iations and went through perils by sea and on land - those quiet home women, they seemed different from those of the present day. I always feel when I speak of those tiny women as I do when I speak of my religion, or my Bible .

 

     Finally we were ready to leave Memphis. The Arabella swung slowly out into the current as the stokers got up steam. The engine puffed , shaking the boat from stem to stern . Every board rattled and quivered as if an explosion were imminent. When one of the negroes let loose the brazen voiced siren , those on board gave themselves up for lost . Just as we got well into the murky river , there came a large boat crowded-with fashionable passengers. The Captain , in an Imposing nautical  uniform, stood on the deck. Ladies i n the latest bonnets- nodded and smiled while the young men cheered and waved their panamas at us. The Arabella rocked and tossed in the swell of the larger vessel , and the merry passengers made mirthful calls as to our future . "Goodbye", they hollowed. "Give our regards to Davy Jones. Goodbye, Goodbye".

 

     Meanwhile the water was running into our low windows and doors. Women and children were shrieking wit h terror . Our pilot left his post and with other members of the crew prayed to be once more on dry land ; but as the voices of the merry passengers died away in the distance'all on the Arabella strove to get her to an even.keel. Father,determined to abandon the boat at the earliest possible opportunity . Instead of continuing down the Mississippi we crossed it . I do not remember how long it took to cross the river , but the whole party eventually landed safely at Helena on the Arkansas shore after which Father paid off the Captain and the crew.

 

     Father ordered all our possessions to be unloaded and said "Tie the Arabella up hard and fast , never more to be used by any of us", for he had determined to proceed on some larger and more reliable vessel . Fortunately , there was a steamer, the Washington, plying between Helena and Nachitoches on the Red River with cargoes of turpentine . It was leaving Nachitoches that very day. Father negotiated with the captain to take his party and belongings on board and, despite the complicated nature of the undertaking i n such a limited time, our goods were expeditiously transferred and by the time the boat was due to sail we were all ready.

 

     As we moved off I shouted in mock commiseration "Goodbye, Arabella " and the young people crowded to the rails and joined me in a hilarious and prolonged farewell . Slowly the shore faded from view, the Arabella with it , and all those associations with the abandoned boat were now only memories which could never be realities again. On either side the Mississippi rippled smooth and shore-less . It was easy to see how the first explorers mistook the Father of Waters for the arm of some great sea. The same quiet broods over it , the same torrential storms sweep across it , and the lap-ping  waters rise and fall as with an ocean tide .

 

     Our journey was long and tedious , going as we did , down the Mississippi to the mouth of the Red River and then up to Nachitoches. We had quite a fright just before reaching Nachitoches which made us feel that even on a large steamer one may be just as easily subject to accidents.

 

     There were several casks of turpentine on deck. The children who had been confined and who were, as the old nursery hymn says "Satan finds mischief still for idle hands to do", the cause of quite a commotion. Unknown to their elders the children lighted little pieces of wood and held them to places on the casks where the turpentine had oozed out i n little drops or streams. To their great delight the bright blazes would flash up. These they would blow out and repeat the performance, but by some mischance the flames on one cask got the advantage of them and soon it became a wild sheet of fire . Then their screams brought mothers and fathers . Women panicked, men shouted, bells rang, everyone was frantic with the fear of explosions and a scene of dire confusion followed . I t was with great difficulty that some of the women were prevented from jumping overboard. With prompt action the fire was extinguished without any very serious damage. After this fright we were truly glad when we were again on shore.

 

     On landing there were rumours of marauding Indians.' Father asked Mother if she felt nervous, "Afraid of the Indians"!   Mother answered. "Wild Indians will be mild compared with a demon child with a tinder and a cask of :turpentine:""

 

     We secured a house in which to stay while plans were made for our further progress . Father bought a horse and twelve yoke of oxen. We loaded our wagons and continued our trek toward the new land of Texas, (boundaries between Arkansas and Texas were not then defined ) to hunt a good locality for farming, for with winter coming on, it might be many months, even years , before we  reached the tract of land assigned to us by the Mexican government.

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     Heavily laden wagons drawn by oxen, is a slower mode of travel than the now-a-day Katy Flier. However, no one had any better way of progress then and we were well content with the miles covered daily . Dissatisfaction  in life is largely a matter of comparison, and then we had no thought of the electric car or automobile, let alone the flying machine.

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     Even the hint of such inventions would have been denounced as idle speculation  of a crazy brain .

 

     I walked much of the way, running at times ahead and stretching out flat upon some grassy slope - I would be there in the glow of the sunshine till the teams came up. Every hour I was filling my lungs with the pure air of the Texas prairie , and the sweet fresh breath of green woods and pine forests we were approaching. I built up health  and strength even for these my later years, I was preparing a storehouse on which I can now draw. The slaves we had brought with us had never in their live s been off our plantations in Tennessee where they were raised and their numerous remarks and comments on what they saw made lots of fun.

 

     Whenever we came to a hill any size Father would stop and double the teams by taking  the oxen of one wagon and joining them to :the loaded wagon ahead, thus pulling them one at a time over the steep parts . While this was being done Mother and all of us children would walk on ahead and fill our hands with wild flowers, for as far as we could see a ll the prairies were ablaze with lavish co-lour . Wild verbena, primroses , black eyed Susans, India  pink  and buffalo clover , or blue bonnets as they were called , grew with many other flowers in rich profusion . .Untended, unguarded by hedge or fence, they grew to such rare beauty as only nature can attain.

 

     The glory of the flowers reduced the round-eyed coloured children to open-mouthed awe. At first they picked them furtively , a cardinal flower here, a gentian there; then as no one said them nay, they gathered courage and rejoiced in an orgy of plucking . For several delicious  nights every little piccaninny went to bed with a posy of bedraggled flowers clutched under a small, flat nose. In time their enthusiasm for gathering flower  wore off , their wonder, not quite.

 

.     "Sho now, Miz Cooke Ma'am" ejaculated one wondering little black girl . "Did de Injuns plant al l dese yere flowers? " "God planted them," Mother answered in the orthodox manner. "He sho has a big gyrden," the child remarked, shaking her head. Mother sang good old hymns as we slowl  moved along. Father had a fine bass voice , and one moment he was calling out "Haw, gee, buck" to the oxen, the next singing lustily : "Oh happy day that fixed  my choice. "

 

CHAPTER I I

 

      At last in 1834 Father stopped at Gaines Ferry on the Sabine River, a place about four miles inland. Here amongst other habitations was a cluster of log houses four or five in number, all built  under one roof , easy of access to each other like a medieval fort or a walled town. This method was used to insure greater safety from the Indians in that lonely, isolated country. The outhouses, cattle sheds and chicken houses were built on the same plan and not too far from the main building. The entrances to the sheds were covered from the house and any intruder would come into the direct line of the householder's fire . A Mr. Glascock occupied part of this peculiar cluster of log residences and Father leased the remainder for his family . The slaves erected under the patriarch' s direction another cluster of huts for their own use and protection.

 

     Food was the next problem. The men went hunting in the forest for fresh meat. Noah, one of our house slaves , helped Father bring in two buffalo which had strayed from their herd. These as well as fish brought in from the river by some of the bravest negroes were salted down in the smoke-house used by the little community. Most of the slaves went in terror of the Indians , and not with-out reason. On every hand tales of their ferocity and treachery were rife.

 

      Now you would call this way of living apartments or flats . Well, we didn' t call it anything , but we made ourselves quite comfortable and I want to say this, that all the men, women and children lived in  this close proximity for over two years without a quarrel or hard word. Father and I always be-lieved that much of the harmony and good feeling was due to the fact that Mother was one of the purest , kindest and best of women. One good woman can make a heaven on earth anywhere.

 

      Father was a man who did not let the grass grow under his feet . He knew what was needed in our community. In slave days every planter had his own blacksmith  shop and owned one or two negoes who could do all the work necessary for the plantation . Father had brought a set of blacksmith's tools with him from Tennessee. These were set up in an old out-house and the negroes were soon ready to do any kind of necessary work from shoeing a horse to mending a wagon. Also we had a crop under way. Father bought a tract of land , twelve miles from Nachitoches, and i n order to have some solid protection for his family , started to build a regular bloc k house. But this prosperity  was not to last long . In 1835 the Mexican war broke out and Father and my eldest brothers, also the

Gibson brothers shouldered their guns and joined Houston's army.

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     Some shadows fell on our little community, sometimes from sickness , often from hardship and privations . Young as I was, I knew that Mother was troubled and that her thoughts were far back in the forests and mountains of old Tennessee. I would see the sad lines that strain and anxiety were tracing on her face. Once as I watched her sitting on the cool gallery with a far-away look in her eyes, I said "Mother, are you homesick for old Tennessee?" She rose suddenly, as if. startled by the enquiry , then laying her hand on my boyish head, she said slowly and  tremulously "Son, I love every foot of ground in that dear land. I knew when with the exception of Daniel Boone and his party , few white people had ever lived in savage Tennessee, but I don't mind giving it all up and living here if it is the best for Father and you boys". Oh! those frontier mothers! How much Texas owes to their fidelity to home and duty!

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      We were still settled in this  quaint , round house when Houston advised all  settler s to stick to their homes. However, many of them fled . Mother refused to budge despite the many warnings from panic - stricken refugees

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      My mother's constant anxiety and suffering were intense . When she heard of the Grass Fight , she felt certain that Father and her sons were in it'and she suffered as only mothers can until she heard from them. My sisters were as tense as she. Then came the Battle of the Alamo and again many of the settlers were panic-stricken.

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      A dispatch rider, galloping through Gaines Ferry on his way to the Red River brought news of the awful fate of the Alamo on March 6th, 1836. What could have become of her dear ones! Times were growing worse. More and more refugees pressed through Gaines Ferry. They urged Mother to flee with them. But she was made of sterner stuff . She armed her grown up daughters and the most reliable of the slaves .

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      "Now l t those Mexicans come," shè said, as she filled a powder horn. "Here we stay . They're no better than thieving  Indians. "

 

       A horseman riding through Gaines Ferry , scattering the little bands of fleeing refugees , dashed furiously ahead and disappeared in a cloud of dust , the echo of his shout floating back. "The Mexicans are coming!"

 

       In the rush to leave the danger zone, one man left his oxen standing in the road. They couldn't move swiftly enough for him, and he ran off as fast as hs legs would carry him.

 

       Another man lost his shoe in a mud hole and would not stop to retrieve it . Gradually the excite-ment subsided. Unexpectedly Father appeared home, but only to satisfy himself that his family wss safe and to return again without delay. There were many questions about the boys. Were they safe , etc..?  He had heard no bad news of them. A short rest and just as he was about to start off again, the Gibson boys appeared, closely followed by the rest of the boys. Leave had been granted for the time being.

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       It seemed that no sooner were we settled down, returning to our normal duties , when a second call came from General Houston for further action . We shouldered our guns, bade our family Goodbye, and away we went in high spirits , determined this time to subdue the Mexicans if human-ly possible. 

 

       This was about the middle of March, so all agricultural pursuits had to be terminated in so far as we men were concerned. Training was the. order of the day. Then on April 21st , 1836, the miracle battle of San Jacinto took place . The Mexicans were routed and General Santa Ana was' taken prisoner . The fight lasted twenty minutes and is recorded as one of the ten outstanding battles in history .

 

Texas had won her freedom!

 

       Father returned once more and one after another we all straggled in , a weary and ragged band. We thanked God that all had returned safe and sound, and could scarcely believe the tales each one had to relate of the unexpected and speedy conquest of the Mexicans.

 

       No music of the spheres could have been sweeter in the ears of the Texans than the news tha t General Houston had beaten the Mexican army and taken General Santa Anna prisoner. Texas had won her freedom! Texas had avenged the Alamo! Who did not remember the Alamo, where, at the instigation of the ruthless Santa Anna, with  the exception of one woman, her baby girl and her coloured maid, every living soul was-slaughtered„?  Afterwards the bodies of the slain were subjec-ted to horrible abuse, and when their murderers had appeased their savage instincts , they were heaped together in the court yard of the captured fort and burned to ashes, without benefit of a single prayer. The fort then shared the fate of its dead defenders.

 

In the interim the Republic of Texas had been formed with Sam Houston as its president .

 

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