Our Mountain Heritage -- COOK Family Home -- Western N.C. & S.C. Descendants of Hence Marvin Cook
OUR MOUNTAIN HERITAGE
OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA

 


The Heritage of the Early Pioneers
   The European settlers move to Western North Carolina.
THE COOK FAMILY HERITAGE

Among the early families of Western North Carolina were the Cooks.

Hence Marvin Cook and his descendants have lived in the mountains of western North Carolina, primarily in what is now known as Jackson county, since the early 1800's. Family tradition says we are "Scot-Irish" but since we have not been able to document prior to Hence, we may not be able to prove it yet, however several clues support the idea.

From a petition he wrote after the Civil War, we know that Hence was born in Buncombe County, NC so his parents were over here before then. The county lines have moved several times over the last 200 years as new counties were formed and the old ones were divided up. So Hence could have been born in any of these present day counties: Buncombe, Haywood, Jackson, Macon, Swain, or Transylvannia but was probabily born in present day Haywood county.

From land records we see that Hence and several of his sons were in Jackson County in the 1850's. Hence and his sons recieved at least 25 land grants from the goverment along with just as many deeds which they bought. It's believed they owned a good portion of the western side of the Balsam Mountains from Rocky Face near Addie, NC over to Caney Fork Creek and Balsam Grove at Rich Mountain and on to Wolf Mountain.

A lot of Hence's desendants still live in and around Jackson county. Around 1870, one of his sons, Rev. Henry Benson Cook, moved to Hazel Creek which is inside what is now the Smokey National Park looking for farm land to support his grewing family. Several of the family groups moved in the early 1900's looking for better jobs. One group went to Pickens County, SC to work in textiles and another went to Darrington, WA to work in the lumber industry. It is estimated that there are around 3000 to 5000 people alive today that can trace their lineage back to Hence Marvin Cook.



SCOT-IRISH
 

ESTABLISHING A HOMESTEAD

[Geology] [Wildlife] [Indians] [Pioneers] [Skills] [Religion] [Industry]

[goto TOP]

[HOME] [Index] [Family History and Sketches]
[Pictures] [Library] [Land Records] [COOK links]

[Hence Marvin Cook] [Solomon Floyd Cook]

We will continually update our website as information is made available. Anyone wishing to add to or correct information on our website can contact John M. Cook, Jr at [email protected] or write to:

Cook Family History
c/o John M. Cook, Jr.
PO Drawer L
Norris, SC 29667



This Site visited times since 10/24/99.