U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Cooke, John R. (1788-1854) ------------------------------------------------------------------- Aler's History of Martinsburg and Berkeley County, West Virginia by F. Vernon Aler, 1888 Printed for the Author by The Mail Publishing Company, Hagerstown, MD. CHAPTER VIII. Historical Pen Sketches of the Early Residents of Berkeley County by the late Hon. Chas. James Faulkner. Pages 101-104, JOHN R. COOKE Was born in 1788, in Bermuda, the son of Dr. Stephen Cooke and Catharine Esten. He came, with his parents, to Alexandria, thence to the vicinity of Leesburg, where his father had a place called the "Forest." He never went to college, as his eyes suddenly failed him whilst preparing for it. He settled in Martinsburg about 1810, where he commenced the practice of law. In 1814 he was elected to the House of Delegates from the county. He married in Martinsburg a daughter of Col. Philip Pendleton, and continued his residence there for a period of nearly twenty years. He subsequently removed from this county to Winchester, thence to Baltimore and thence to Richmond. Enjoying a high degree of popularity, political position might with him have been a matter of easy attainment, but, earnestly devoted to his profession, he resisted the appeals of that character which were frequently made to him. He was, with great unanimity, elected a member of the Constitutional Convention of Virginia of 1830, and there exhibited the nerve and ability to grapple with such intellectual giants as Leigh, Upshur, Randolph and Tazewell in the discussion of the great question of extended suffrage and equal representation before that body. His professional abilities were of the highest order and universally recognized. In the celebrated Randolph will case, argued in 1836, his great and peculiar powers of argumentation were strikingly exhibited. E. V. Sparhawk, the reporter of that trial, a very competent judge, and who heard all the arguments in the case, thus speaks of Mr. Cooke's effort: "It was a masterly production. He classifies and expounds his facts with great strength and clearness, and arranges his authorities and arguments in the most forcible manner. His method of arguing is superior to any man at the bar. Instead of dividing his strength upon the separate points, his whole speech was but one point, for the support of which all the other various facts and considerations of the case were brought together in pyramidal strength and harmony." Mr. Cooke was a bold, trenchant and vigorous writer. His able and elaborate pamphlets published in 1825 entitled "The Constitution of 1776," followed by "The Convention Question," in 1827, and then again by "An Earnest Appeal to the Friends of Reform" in 1828, attracted the attention of the whole State to him and largely contributed to the passage of the law organizing the Constitutional Convention of 1829 and 1830, of which he himself was an active and conspicuous member. Mr. Cooke opened the "great debate" in that body by an unsparing attack upon the then existing constitution of Virginia, and asserted for himself, beyond all question, the position of leader of the friends of reform in a body composed of the ablest men from Western Virginia. In 1835 he yielded to the importunity of his friends and very reluctantly accepted the Whig nomination for Congress in this District. Once accepted, however, he entered into the canvass with his usual and characteristic energy and pluck. His address to the people in the several Court Houses of the district were models of lucid statement, pungent, invective and eloquent demonstration. The writer of this heard his address in Martinsburg. The court-room was crowded to excess. Not a man stirred or left the hall during the two hours that he was speaking. It was one of the most logical, perspicuous and powerful arguments that he ever hurled from the hustings. No one was better qualified to judge of his intellectual merits than the late James Marshall, of Winchester. In 1866 he thus spoke of Mr. Cooke to a friend: "The finest faculty of his mind was his power of reasoning — his clearness of judgment. His narrative in a case was the best I ever knew. It might be said of him as Webster said of Hoffman, that his case "once stated, was already argued." He was very rash in his charities, unbounded I may say in liberality. His power of labor was very uncommon. I never saw such great labor. He had the clearest mind I ever saw. If a witness or any one in a case was acting dishonestly, he attacked him without mercy. He was remarkable in philippie. He had a very keen appreciation of equity, morals and manners, and if they were wanting on such occasions he conceived a great contempt for the individual and denounced him bitterly and powerfully. He had a great practice." David Holmes Conrad, in a letter, refers to him as "the model of lofty courtesy, chivalry and generosity." Another said that when he died "he did not leave an enemy on the bosom of the spacious earth." This apparent hyperbole is undoubtedly near the truth. He was a man of extraordinary suavity and amenity — of unvarying sweetness of temper. In social life he rarely exhibited any feelings of anger, and was characterized by a remarkable patience and benevolence. His generosity knew no bounds. He seemed to place no value upon money. He gave it away to everybody and to every object. He died in the city of Richmond in December, 1854, in the 67th year of his age. ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access other biographies for Berkeley County, WV by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/wv/berkeley/bios.html -------------------------------------------------------------------