One of the oldest and
most revered citizens of Norfolk County is Chauncey T. Cook of Port
Royal, who is now in his 94th year and who continues to take an active
interest in affairs of his community, as well as the outside world. He
has been practically a lifelong resident of South Norfolk and is
well-known to everyone in the district.
Born
among the hills of Chautauqua County, New York State on 21 Nov 1837, he
was one of the younger sons in a large family. When seven years of age
he came with his parents to the then forest covered district which is
now Norfolk County. They settled in South Walsingham near the Hazen
Settlement.
Typical of
life in those early days, Mr. Cook tells of how his father would hunt
out a peculiar shaped small tree for a scythenath and would hollow out a
green stump in which to pound the corn for manufacture into corn meal,
since grist mills were still very scarce at that time.
Chauncey
Cook was 13 when his father died. His mother, a woman of noble,
Christian character, and his older brothers carried on quite an
extensive lumbering business, operating a sawmill and a mercantile
trade.
Describing lumber
operations in those early times, Mr. Cook states that the breaking of a
roll-away was usually accomplished with great danger to life in order to
get the thousands of logs piled on the hillside with a key log at the
bottom in pond or river.
It
was a day when the large pine of South Walsingham was much in demand for
spars to be used on the sailing vessels of the Great Lakes. Often four
yoke of oxen with a horse team to lead would be used and good judgment
was needed in this work especially on the hills.
In
young manhood Mr. Cook engaged some in lumbering contracts. Later he
followed the occupation of a thresher, using the old horsepower of that
era. He was for many years a partner of the late Jeremiah Johnson, then
of St. Williams.
In 1862
Chauncey Cook married Mary Ann, daughter of the late Benjamin Palmerton,
who lived on the old Palmerton homestead, northeast of Forestville
whence more than one of the older generation had gone to his country's
aid in the War of 1812.
He
settled with his bride on a farm near this place. In 1873 the family
moved to the Wheeler Barnum farm on the front road south of Forestville.
There the growing boys of the Cook family had a chance to learn how to
plow clay hills. The old sradle, still in common use, was employed to
cut the grain.
Having
considerable timber on the farm, Mr. Cook had an opportunity at his old
and much-loved occupation during the winter months and he taught the
boys to take their teams and do their own loading of logs.
About
23 years ago, the old Barnum farm found a buyer in an English syndicate
for more than three times the original sale price. Mr. and Mrs. Cook
then took their first holiday, going south to Louisiana to visit a son.
Upon their return, Mr. Cook bought a farm at Pt. Royal near Port Rowan
where he still lives with his son. John.
Death came to sever the long
happily wedded couple when Mrs. Cook passed away on 19 Jul 1917.
Chauncey
Cook has an uncanny memory for the early days and talks freely about
them, including Indian remembrances of the forties. Today, the only
living member of a large and honoured family, he is active physically
and spends much of his time walking about the farm.
He
has been a lifelong devoted member of the Baptist Church. One of his
sons tells of him that no matter how pressing the work, he never missed
a morning when he did not read a passage of Scripture and offer prayer,
whether the family was alone or a dozen harvesters were present.
The
Cooks had seven children of whom five are living: Sheldon
R., of
Kitchener, former Long Point lighthouse keeper, Charles of Maders,
Calif., John of Port Royal, Burton of Fremont, Mich., Mrs. Lee Beaupre
of St. Thomas, Ont. The deceased members are Sherman formerly of
Louisiana, and Elizabeth, who died when a young woman.
Chauncey
Cook takes a keen delight in the family circle and the annual reunions
on the occasion of his birthday are a source of great enjoyment. He has
one great-grandson, now five years old, who is the apple of his
great-grandfather's eye.
