Home Old Settler Family Pages UncategorisedIsaac Cook

Isaac Cook

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Jay, Allen, Solomon & Doyle (Dude) Cook

Jay, Allen, & Doyle (Dude) Cook

Erma (Norman) and Jay Cook

Jay Allen Cook & Minnie Whitney

Chuck and Vernice (Cook) Manning - 25th Wedding Anniversary

Dude, Lyle, Phyllis, Vernice & Manning-Cook

The Cooks were relatively late arrivals in Mecosta County. Jay Cook, son of Al and Nancy Cook, arrived in Mecosta County when he was about four years old around 1900. His newly widowed father, Al Cook, left Jay with Will and Harriet Cummings while making his way north to the lumbering camps at Manistee. Al Cook, Jay's father, was married first to Nancy Cook. Nancy's maiden name was also Cook. Al and Nancy had three children named Jay, Bessie, and George.

Jay lived with the Cummings family until he was eight years old, then Ike Flowers took him to Harrietta, Michigan to Art Skinner's Lumber Camp, where he worked until he was 21 years old. Bessie lived with her aunt for several years then moved to Manistee to work as a cook in a lumber camp. George left Michigan and went west. Later Al married Mabel Ellis and in this union, three children were born. Their names were Mabel, Ethel, and Eleanor. Bessie moved to the Millbrook area and married Charlie Green. Jay Cook married Erma Norman, and they had six children: Garth, Vernice, Jay Allen, Lyle, Kenneth, and Doyle. They lived in Grand Rapids between 1921 and 1930. When the depression hit, he came to Mecosta County and lived on a farm. Most of the children married into local families.

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Old Settlers

The "Old Settler" families arrived in Michigan from different places. They came from Canada through "The Underground Railroad," and from Payne's Crossing in Ohio as "free" people. The draw was to homestead land made available through the Homestead Act of 1862 which allotted homesteaders 160 acres. The Underground Railroad was the most dramatic nonviolent protest against slavery in the United States beginning in the Colonial Era and reaching its peak between 1830 and 1865. An estimated 30,000 to 100,000 slaves used the "railroad" to get to Canada and eventually came back to the states and Mexico. A large settlement stayed in Ontario, Canada.

Doraville Whitney was the first Black settler to Isabella County in 1860, and in Mecosta County, Michigan was James Guy. His deed was signed by Abraham Lincoln. He obtained 160 acres in Wheatland Township on May 30, 1861. Lloyd & Margaret Guy were the first Black settlers in Montcalm County in 1860. The Homestead Act of 1862 allowed each settler up to 160 acres in Michigan. By 1873, African-Americans owned 1,392 acres in the three counties of Isabella, Mecosta, and Montcalm. In the 1860's most of the land in Remus was owned by the Old Settlers.

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Old Settler Dedication

Instead of disappearing into the dust that swallowed many other Black rural areas, the old settlers of Mecosta, Isabella, and Montcalm Counties prevailed. They came there in 1860 and they're still here. Some have moved to the larger cities of Lansing, Grand Rapids, Flint, and Detroit. There is compiled data and drawn maps of Black households in nine townships in Mecosta and Isabella Counties. In 1870, the nine-township area had 41 Black households; 86 in 1975, and 106 in 1994. The website was created to remember our ancestors who were the trailblazers making us who we are. We have become enriched, enabled, and elevated because of the ample regard and gratitude for the work of our ancestors. This site is dedicated to the Old Settlers.