Reverend Joseph Witherspoon Cook was born February 2, 1836 in Bethel, Vermont. He attended Greenway Boarding School in Springfield, Ohio, and Kenyon College in Gambia, Ohio, from which he graduated, class of 1860. Cook also attended General Theological School, New York. He married Ellen Everett Hicks on July 9, 1878 in Grace Church, Brooklyn, New York with whom he had a daughter, Charlotte Everett Cook.
Cook traveled from Philadelphia to Cheyenne, Dakota Territory, in January 1868 to serve as the first resident Episcopal missionary in the settlement. In 1870, he established St. Paul's Mission at the Yankton Sioux agency, South Dakota. Cook translated religious texts into the Dakota language and served as missionary to the Sioux until his death in 1902.
2006. Indian Missions of the Interior States. http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/mission/interiorstates.htm (accessed July 2, 2007).
2007. The Hicks/Hix Database - Northeast Connections. http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=j-m-hicks&id=I08198 (accessed July 2, 2007).
Project Canterbury. Diary and Letters of the Reverend Joseph W. Cook, Missionary to Cheyenne, Arranged by the Rt. Rev. N. S. Thomas, S.T.D. http://anglicanhistory.org/usa/thomas_cook1919.html (accessed July 2, 2007).
A typed transcript of letters written and journal kept by Reverend Joseph Witherspoon Cook during part of his time as a missionary to Cheyenne, Dakota Territory, 1868-1869. The letters describe his journey from Philadelphia to Cheyenne, the process of setting up a mission in the settlement, the inhabitants of Cheyenne, and the living conditions in the area.
There is one bound volume containing the letters written by Cook. They are addressed to Rev. R.H. Clarkson and Rev. Geo M. Randall, are punctuated by selected entries from Cook's diary. The letters describe his journey from Philadelphia to Cheyenne, the process of setting up a mission in the settlement, the inhabitants of Cheyenne, and the living conditions in the area.
Three lithographs of contemporary scenes laid into the volume: Crossing the Platte Mouth of Deer Creek, Fort Laramie, and Scene in the Black Hills. Each bears the credit "Ackerman, Lith 379 Broadway, N.Y."