William Harvey Waterson Cook was born in Bedford County, Tennessee on November 19, 1841, the first born of Joseph Cook and Mary Woods.  His siblings were James Leonidas Pope Cook, (born October 12, 1842); Sarah Cook (born ca1845); Mary Cook (born ca1848).  Florence Lenore Tucker was born September 15, 1848 in Graves County, Kentucky, the daughter of A.J. "Jackson" Tucker and Amelia Wortham.

William H. Cook has served during the American Civil War in Tennessee with Nathan Bedford Forrest. He entered the Confederate Army in Brownsville, Tennessee.  When he returned home after the war, he found his county had been the site of many battles and the land was now in poor shape.  Soon, his family joined others and headed for Texas.


William had married Florence Lenore Tucker on October 12, 1865.  Two daughters were born in Haywood County, Tennessee: Mary "Molly" Amelia Cook (born September 22, 1866) and Nancy Margan "Nanny" Cook (born October 12, 1868.  Eight more children were born to this union in Texas: William H. "Bud" Cook Jr. (born March 17, 1871); Dadie Cook (born October 22, 1873); James Jackson Cook (born April 15, 1876); Cora Belle Cook (born March 18, 1879); twins, Joe Ray Cook and Jesse Lee Cook (born September 16, 1884); twins, George Luther Cook and Arthur Jefferson Cook (born December 23, 1887).


William H. Cook was a farmer and, it is said, at one time owned a cotton gin.  The family lived in several communities in Bosque County, Texas.  Walnut Springs was the last place they lived here.  He moved his family north to Grayson County, Texas and settled near Pottsboro.

Their oldest child, Molly, told the story of crossing the Mississippi on her uncle's shoulders as he held the horses tails and swam across.  This uncle was James "Jim" Leonidas Cook who came to Texas and married Maria Ward Carroll from Kentucky in Freestone County, Texas