Martin Cook

NJGenWeb ~ Morris County, New Jersey

Martin Cook

Martin COOK, of Butler, Morris county, New Jersey, is well known in the State of New Jersey, being the oldest hotel keeper in this section of the State, and having a record for military service of which any man might well feel proud. His father was Henry M. COOK, born in the west, and died in Morris county, where he spent all the mature years of his life. He married Matilda SHULSTER, and they had ten children.

Martin COOK was born in West Milford, Passaic county, New Jersey, in 1844, and was there educated in the public schools. He learned all the details of farm work on his father’s homestead, and was active there until he went to war. Upon his return he engaged in the manufacture of paper, was thus occupied one and a half years, then went to Newark, New Jersey, and was engaged in the kindling wood business until 1873. He then went to Butler, New Jersey, where he assisted in building a paper mill, and worked for a period of seven years, and then established himself in the hotel business, with which he has since that time been successfully identified. He is the proprietor of the Riverside Hotel, which is one of the finest of its class in the State, and is conducted along the most up-to-date lines in every particular. Mr. COOK is a Republican, and served two years as a member of the township commission, before there was a borough, and seven years as a member of the board. He was elected three terms and appointed one year. He is one of the leading politicians of the section. He is an honored member of the John E. Beam Post, No. 92, G. A. R. Mr. COOK married Evelina SANFORD, who died in 1895, leaving two children: Jennie, who lives with her father; and Harry, who manages the hotel for his father, and married Minnie DECKER and has children: Martin Sanford and Harry Frederick.

The war record of Mr. COOK is as follows: Enlisted from West Milford, Passaic county, New Jersey, April 1, 1862, at the age of eighteen years, and was mustered in as a private in Company E, Captain Alexander HOLMES, Twenty-fifth Regiment, New Jersey Volunteers, Colonel Andrew DERRON commanding, for nine months’ service. Left the State, October 10, 1862, for Washington, D. C., and was assigned to Brigadier CASEY’s Division, in defense of Washington. November 30 was ordered to the front; attached to the One Hundred and Third Regiment, Third Division, Ninth Corps, Army of the Potomac, and fought at Fredricksburg, Virginia, December 13, 1862. He was taken sick with the measles after this battle, sent to the General Hospital at Fort Wood, New York, and honorably discharged from there, on account of disability, March 18, 1863. He re-enlisted, September 1, 1863, as a veteran volunteer, and was assigned to Company D, Captain CONORTEZ, Thirty-third Regiment, New Jersey Volunteer Infantry, for three years’ service, and during the remainder of the war served in the First Brigade, Second Division, Twentieth Corps, Army of the Cumberland, and was in the following engagements: Chattanooga, Tennessee, November 23-27, 1863; Missionary Ridge, November 25; Resacca, May 14-15, 1864; New Hope Church, May 25 to June 4; Pine Rush, June 14; Muddy Creek, June 18; Culps Farm, June 22; Kenesaw, June 9-30; Peach Tree Creek, July 20; Siege of Atlanta, July 21 to August 26; marched to the sea with Sherman, November 15 to December 10; Savannah, December 10-21; Averysboro, North Carolina, March 16, 1865; Bentonville, March 19-20; was taken ill with typhoid fever at Stevenson, Alabama, and treated at Old Church Hospital, No. 24, at Nashville, Tennessee; was honorably discharged at the close of the war.

Transcribed by John Cresseveur (1949-2003)