Carl James Cook-Life Sketch Part 1

Life Sketch of Carl James Cook

Zelda Irene (Hix) Cook

Carl James Cook

1909-1966

     Like Nephi of old; Carl James Cook was born of goodly parents. Carl was the first son and third child of a family of thirteen born to James Edward and Christina Magdalena Cook. He was born 16 January 1909 at LaBelle, Jefferson, Idaho. When he was six years of age the family moved to Taylorville and from there they moved on to Shelley, Woodville_t Ucon, Coltman, Grant and Roberts; all in Idaho. He went to school at Woodville and Coltman and graduated from the Coltman Grade  School under Mr. Wm. S. Brighton as Principal and Teacher. One amusing  experience he always enjoyed telling was when he was in the seventh grade on Apri1 Fool's Day, he, Ralph Taylor and Bi11 Severson went up  into the belfry at noontime and rang the old school bell and in doing so Ralph Taylor fell through the ceiling with one leg and naturally they were all caught and expelled, but they were able to get back in and he graduated at Coltman the next year.

     Carl always loved horses, he enjoyed riding them as well as working on the farm with them and after his marriage he belonged to a posse group in Coltman.

     Being the oldest boy of a large family necessitated his going to work at an early age to support himself and also help his family when it was possible. He worked for August Muehlfeit in a potato warehouse and worked at this occupation more years than he cared to remember. Healso spent some time herding sheep for his Uncle and also for Emmett and Wayne Dabe11.  

     Carl was thirty one years old when he married and always stated that he hadn't married sooner because he was afraid he wouldn't be able to make a living for a wife and family. On October 29_t 1940. Carl married Zelda Irene Hix in the Logan Temple. They traveled to Logan with Allen Lewis and Aileen Webster, Zelda’s cousin, and the two couples were married the same day. The first home they lived in was Zelda's Uncle Joe and Aunt Julia Ellis's one front room. The next spring they rented a two room home on the Robert Field's place at Grant. For the first three years of their marriage they moved about seven times andin 1943, they moved to Coltman, Idaho on the Lewisville Highway and rented a farm from William Frie. Del and Orville Smith helped him in getting started farming on his own. 

     On 29 December 1941, their first daughter, Sheryl Eda, was born to them. She was born with some birth defects and was taken to Salt Lake City for surgery when she was three weeks old. The surgery was to close a hare lip. This was something very unheard of by this couple, but she was a sweet lovable child and they loved and cared for her in the best way possible. In February 1943 they again had to take her back to Salt Lake for another operation on a cleft palate, but she died on the operating 

table on February 24, 1943. The Doctor's report stated that she died of an operative shock. Their 1ives were quite empty until Janae, another daughter was born to them on February 24, 1945. 

     Carl loved to hunt and fish and when time permitted, he and his family and other friends and their fami1ies would go out to Camas Meadows or Medicine Lodge and camp. He especially enjoyed hunting in the fall with a group of men. At one six-day hunt in the Little Lost River section near Howe, Idaho, they got their picture on the front page of the Rigby Star with their game hanging in the back- ground. There were eight men in the group, Milburn Hix, Orval Randall, Dean Gneiting, Bill and Ralph Jardine, Junius Taylor and Carl. They were all successful in bagging their deer, but had three more deer that they didn't dare have their picture taken with.

Rigby Star 6 Nov 1947

     Another time Carl, in company with Dean Gneiting and Milburn Hix went to the Salmon area and got in a little trouble with the law. They were spearing the Salmon and got caught. They came home and the families enjoyed eating the salmon until they found out that the men had been caught and fined $25.00 each. It later came out in the newspaper so they had to own up to it.

     In 1947 Carl had the opportunity to buy an 80 acre farm from Ray Neilson located on the Bonneville-Jefferson County line. Carl talked to William G. Miller of Grant about buying the property and Mr. Miller loaned Carl $14,000 at 4% interest to buy the farm. Mr. Miller had to loan him another $100.00 to pay to himself to make it legal. Carl was able to pay the Miller's back all the money he had borrowed in ten years, even though the contract had been set for repayment in fourteen years. 

To be continued