CHAPTER V 



Early Life and Experiences of Dr. Frederick 



A. Cook 



ABOUT the year 1849 there came to America from Hamburg, 

 Germany, as one of the Teutonic emigrants to this favored 

 land, a physician who bore the name of Theodore Albert 

 Koch. Landing in New York, he quickly made his way into the 

 interior, having decided to locate himself in the frontier settlements 

 and make his way upward with the growth of the country. Pushing 

 forward over a region then thinly inhabited, he in time reached a 

 village named Calicoon, now a station on the Erie Railroad, in Sul- 

 livan County, New York. Here he concluded to settle down, as 

 one of the pioneer physicians of that wilderness-like region. 



Calicoon is near the border-line of northwest Pennsylvania, a 

 hundred and thirty-eight miles from New York City, and was then 

 decidedly in the backwoods. At the date named the nearest point 

 which the traveler could reach, either by boat or train, was New 1 - 

 burg, thirty miles away. Landing from the Hudson River boat, 

 the newcomer to America traversed the woods, with two or three 

 others, until he reached the selected place. Here he built a log 

 cabin and entered upon his career as a country doctor. Ten miles 

 further in the wilderness was the home of a family which had 

 reached America ten years earlier, and in this family Dr. Koch 

 found his future wife, Miss Magdelena Long. Their marriage 

 took place three years after his arrival, and the log cabin was 

 replaced by an ampler and more comfortable house. 



The immigrant physician gathered a little property, comprising 



(84) 



