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| Pottawatomie County, Kansas |
In Platte County, Missouri, no record of political
activity on Uriah Cook’s part has been uncovered, to date, but as a Quaker,
he would probably have been a peaceful man and would probably not have been the
type to be involved with street fights. His
obituary noted that he served as a sheriff in Missouri, but which county he
served remains unclear. Perhaps he found Platte County too rough a spot for his
family, for by late 1855 he had re-located to Pottawatomie County, Kansas.[i] When the first school opened in Westmoreland,
Kansas, Uriah’s children were among the first to enroll.[ii]
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| This log cabin from Pottawatomie County, Kansas, occupied from 1840 to 1850, is now located in Wamego, Kansas. |
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| Site of Uriah Cook's homestead in Pottawatomie County, Kansas |
Uriah’s log cabin became a hub of
the Pottawatomie County community. When
he served as justice of the peace, “Scores of cattle thieves and other outlaws
were tried in his home which also served as a trading post.”[iii] In addition, the Reverend Abraham Millice, a
Methodist circuit-rider, conducted services there when he was in the area. William Darnell, son of another Pottawatomie
County settler, explains, “This cabin was a one-room log structure about 14 by
14 feet in size, and housed Mr. Cook s family of five, besides the necessary
furniture. Here the neighbors for several miles around met when there was
preaching, everybody bringing something to eat and joining together in a
regular old-fashioned picnic gathering. When preaching began, Rev. Millice took
his place in one corner of the little cabin and the congregation crowded in to
hear him. My father says the cabin was never full, as there was always room for
one more! However, he says on many occasions during mild weather some of the
men folks elected to remain outside near the door when they were able to get
the benefit of the sermon. There was always plenty of singing at these
gatherings, and father's strong tenor voice could always be heard as he did his
share of singing. Going out to these services was an all-day affair as the
journeys had to be made behind a yoke of oxen, and they always took their time.”[iv]
Before going into Uriah Cook’s role in the early
politics of the state of Kansas, it might be helpful to lay out the political
landscape of the time period. Without
question, the anti-slavery movement was primarily a Republican movement. Democrat Senator Stephen A. Douglas was the
architect of the Kansas-Nebraska Act by which he hoped that slavery could be
expanded in new territories despite the Missouri Compromise.
His future opponent for the office of
presidency of the United States was Republican Abraham Lincoln, who ran on the
party’s anti-slavery platform. Telling
also are the voting records of the two parties after the Civil War when various
amendments were made to the Constitution:
·
100% of the Republicans in Congress
voted for the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery. Only 23% of the Democrats in Congress voted
for it.
·
Not a single Democrat in either the
House or the Senate voted for the 14th amendment, which gave former
slaves full citizenship—as well as the rights of citizenship—in the state where
they resided
·
Of the 56 Democrats in Congress, not one
voted for the 15th Amendment, which granted explicit voting rights
to black Americans.[v]
That said, I must hasten to add that not all
Democrats were pro-slavery. Members of the anti-slavery wing of the party were
called Whigs, Independent Democrats, and/or Free Democrats. It was apparently with this wing of the party
that Uriah Cook identified, as his obituary does state that he was, in fact, a
Democrat. That he was staunchly
anti-slavery will be substantiated below, but there was an incident on the Cook
farm in 1862 that shows his affiliation with the Democrat party made him the
target of anti-slavery rabble rousers (yes, there were troublemakers on both
sides in Bleeding Kansas). William Darnell,
son of another of the early settlers of Westmoreland and a person who knew
Uriah Cook personally recorded the incident this way:
“One day
in July or August, 1862, word was passed down the Rock creek [sic] valley that on a certain night a
vigilance committee was going to make a visit to the homes of all Democrats
with the object of hanging all whom they visited. This committee had
headquarters in the vicinity of Manhattan. About this time a band of horse
thieves was organized for the purpose of running horses out of the country, and
it was suspected that this vigilance committee was made up to a more or less
degree of members of this horse-thieving clique, who found the expedient of
intimidating settlers considerably of a help in procuring horses without the
formality of paying cash for them. In order to make their work easier they
carried an American flag with them, which they conspicuously displayed while
engaged in their underhanded work.
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| The image depicts "Jayhawkers" and "Bushwhackers" skirmishing in the Missouri-Kansas Border area. |
“One Rock
creek [sic] settler, Uriah Cook,
familiarly known as ‘Old Man Cook,’ was in due season visited by this gang. One
of the gang shook the flag at Mr. Cook while delivering a harangue. This
aroused the ire of the old gentleman. In a burst of indignation he grabbed the
flag and took it away from the individual who was shaking it, and roared at him:
‘Don't you shake that flag at me. I've lived under it a good many years longer
than you have.’ He kept the flag, too.”[vi]
By the way, Uriah was apparently up to
the task of holding off hotheads of both persuasions because, according to
his obituary, “During the civil war,
when Missouri border ruffians [the “pro-slavery thugs” mentioned above] were
preying on Kansas settlers, Mr. Cook took a large part in law enforcement. His
section of the county was never raided.”[vii]
From
Darnell’s description, the hoodlums may have been horse thieves more than
political activists, but the threat would have been just as real. But, despite the fact that Uriah was a
Democrat in the 1850s when Kansas was seeking admission to the Union as a “free
state” (i.e., a state where slavery was prohibited by law), his actions show
that he was 100% opposed to slavery. In
addition to being devoted to the manumission of slaves, Uriah’s commitment to
his Quaker philosophy of brotherly love is attested in another way. To be
specific, those who knew him stated, “Because
of his religious faith, he became a friend to the Indians and although many
massacres took place in his neighborhood, his family was never molested.”[viii]
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| Depiction of William Penn, founder of the Quakers, beginning a peaceful tradition between the Quakers and the Native Americans. |
Uriah was
almost immediately recognized in his community as a man who could be
trusted. In February, 1857, he was
elected justice of the peace (some refer to his position as “judge”) for
Pottawatomie County, as noted above. In
December of that year, he was appointed county election commissioner by acting
governor of the Kansas Territory, Frederick P. Stanton. He apparently performed his duties conscientiously
because when it came time to establish a convention for the writing of a
constitution for the Territory, Uriah Cook was elected as a delegate from
Pottawatomie County. There were actually
four Kansas Constitutions drawn up, but the one attended by Uriah Cook was held
at Leavenworth and is known in history as the Leavenworth Constitution. Holding an anti-slavery convention in
Leavenworth, Kansas, was a bold move in 1858 when Leavenworth was still a
pro-slavery town.
According
to the KHS, “The Leavenworth Constitution was the most radical of
the four constitutions drafted for Kansas Territory. The Bill of Rights refers
to ‘all men’ and prohibited slavery from the state. The word ‘white’ did not
appear in the proposed document and therefore would not have excluded free
blacks from the state.” (The document
provided protection for the rights of women as well.)[x] The constitution was passed on April 3, 1858,
and bears Uriah Cook’s name as a signatory.[xi]
By way of contrast politically, the preceding
convention at Lecompton had been a pro-slavery convention, and the Lecompton
Constitution, therefore, supported the institution of slavery in the Kansas
Territory. In Pottawatomie County, it
received only two votes while 207 voted against it. That was in January. By April, J. D. Adams and Uriah Cook had been
voted in as delegates to the anti-slavery convention at Leavenworth.[xii] This goes some way toward showing the
solidarity of the residents of Pottawatomie County behind the “free state”
philosophy.
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| New York Times' publication of the the Leavenworth Constitution and its signatories. |
Kansas voters approved the
Leavenworth Constitution, so why did it fail to become the state's Constitution? The Kansas Historical Society (KHS) explains it this way: “Freestaters were in control of
the legislature and passed a radical antislavery constitution granting voting
rights to African Americans. . . . Proslavery leaders controlled the Congress,
where they ensured its failure at the national level.” To show the Constitution’s character, the
KHS describes one of the delegates to the convention, abolitionist John
Ritchie, a friend of John Brown’s, who had been active in helping fugitive
slaves make their escape to freedom. On
July 17, 1859, the Leavenworth Times went
so far as to say, “The Radical of Radicals is John Ritchey [who] is an ultra
Abolitionist, woman’s rights man, teetotaler, and general advocate for reform.”[xiii] It’s likely the same could have been said of
Uriah Cook.
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| Uriah Cook's Headstone Old Westmoreland Cemetery |
Uriah Cook still had one last public duty to
perform. On July 1, 1861, he was
appointed treasurer of Pottawatomie County.[xiv] William Darnell pointed out, “[T]he office of county treasurer was in his cabin for the
first two years, and there the early settlers met to pay their taxes and
transact the other business with the treasurer”[xv]—just
as legal matters and church services had been conducted there before.
Uriah Cook passed away in
Westmoreland, Kansas, on February 9, 1864, and was buried in what, at the time,
was called the Cook Cemetery (today it is known as Old Westmoreland
Cemetery). I am proud to know my
ancestor (third great-grandfather) was not just a man who could consistently
live what he professed, but also that what
he lived and professed served God, the brotherhood of man, and the cause of
freedom. May we all be inspired by his
life.
[i]
Hill, W. F. “Early History [of Westmoreland, Kansas].” The Westmoreland Recorder. Railroad
Edition. 2 Nov. 1899. Web. n.d. 2
December 2013. http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/pottawat/rr_ed.html
[ii]
Darnell, William. “Reminiscences of
William Darnell.” Ed. George A.
Root. The Kansas Collection. Web. http://www.kancoll.org/articles/darnell3.htm
[iii]
Uriah Cook Obituary. Westmoreland Recorder. 1864. Findagrave
Memorial #44029709. Findagrave.com. Web. 7 November 2009. 2 December 2013. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=44029709
[iv]
“Reminiscences of William Darnell—Part Three.”
Ed. George A. Root. Kansas State
Historical Society. Kansas Collections. Web.
n.d. 2 December 2013. http://www.kancoll.org/articles/darnell3.htm
[v]
“Did You Know?” Frederick Douglas
Republicans. Web. 2013.
2 December 2013. http://frederickdouglassrepublican.com/did-you-know/
[vi]
“Reminiscences of William Darnell—Part Three.”
[vii]
Uriah Cook Obituary. Westmoreland Recorder. 1864. Findagrave
Memorial #44029709. Findagrave.com. Web. 7 November 2009. 2 December 2013. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=44029709
[viii]
Findagrave.com.
[ix] Findagrave.com.
[x]
“Leavenworth Constitution.” Kansas
Historical Society. Web. 2007-2013. 2 December 2013. http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/207410
[xi] Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History. Ed.
Frank Wilson Blackmar. Chicago: Standard. 1912.
Web. 29 July 2008. 2 December
2013. https://archive.org/details/kansascyclopedia02blac
[xii]
Cutler, William G. “Territorial History—Part 52” and “Pottawatomie County—Part
2 History
of the State of Kansas. Chicago: Andreas, 1833. Web. April 1999. 2 December 2012. http://www.kancoll.org/books/cutler/
[xiii]
“Four Different Constitutions.” Online Exhibit. Kansas Historical Society. Web.
2013. 3 December 2013. http://www.kshs.org/p/online-exhibits-willing-to-die-for-freedom-constitutions/15396
[xiv]
Cutler.
[xv]
Darnell, William. “Reminiscences of
William Darnell.” Ed. George A.
Root. The Kansas Collection. Web. http://www.kancoll.org/articles/darnell3.htm
Images
Pottawatomie
County log cabin. http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMCNGQ_Historic_Log_Cabin_Wamego_KS
Uriah
Cook’s homestead. Memorial
#44029709. Created by Judy. Findagrave.com.
Web. 7 Nov 2009. 5 Dec 2013.
Border
skirmish. Legends of America.
Web. http://www.legendsofamerica.com/ks-forts2.html
William
Penn and Native Americans. “European Colonization
of the Americas.” Wikipedia. Web. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_colonization_of_the_Americas
New York Times page. Historical Newspapers Collection. Ancestry.com.
http://search.ancestry.com/oldsearch/rectype/periodicals/news/
Uriah
Cook’s headstone. Memorial #44029709. Created by Judy. Findagrave.com.
Web. 7 Nov 2009. 5 Dec 2013.
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