EARLY LIFE AND EXPERIENCES OF DR. COOK 85 



about fifteen acres of land, in the midst of which stood the family 

 homestead. It still stands, dwelt in by one of his sons, being among 

 the oldest houses in that part of the State. Here he thrived in a 

 modest way, and here was born to him a family of four "children, 

 three sons and a daughter, the one with whom we are especially 

 concerned, Frederick Albert Cook, being born in the Calicoon home- 

 stead on June 10, 1864. He therefore passed his forty-fifth birth- 

 day in June, 1909, somewhere in the frozen north, on his return 

 from his great discovery of the North Pole. The name of Koch 

 became Americanized into its present form of Cook during the Civil 

 War, before the birth of the future explorer, in the following man- 

 ner: His father joined the medical corps of the army, and through 

 the mistake of a government clerk his name was entered on the 

 medical roll as Cook. By this name he was afterwards known, 

 though the other branches of the family hold to the original name. 



Until he was six years of age young Cook's life was an easy 

 one, and the family perhaps as prosperous and happy as any in that 

 section of the State. The early death of the father did not reduce 

 the family to poverty. The efforts of the mother to keep her small 

 household together, and the products of their little farm, enabled 

 them to live in some degree of comfort, the elder son, then twelve 

 years of age, being a help to his mother in his care of the fatherless 

 flock. Life in the Cook home went on with little change until 1878, 

 when Frederick was fourteen years old. 



During this period the frugal mother not only managed to 

 provide for her small family, but prudently saw that their schooling 

 was not neglected. About the time of his father's death, when he 

 was nearly six years old, young Frederick was sent to school in the 

 primitive schoolhouse at Hortonville, a short distance from Calicoon. 

 His brothers went there also, though not for a long time during the 

 year, the period of tuition in the old district schoolhouse lasting only 

 four months annually. In those days, as soon as the farming season 

 began, the school closed its doors. The boys could not be spared 



