Solomon Cook: War of 1812 veteran buried at Bethel

Among other things, I keep track of War of 1812 veterans buried in Lucas County ---  more than a dozen have been located so far. All were quite old when they arrived so their history tends to be a little sketchy --- unless family members had the good sense to ask questions and write things down or I can find pension files.

So I was gratified the other day when while writing a post entitled "Sarah Wirt (1786-1871): Just passing through Russell," to happen upon another veteran buried here --- Solomon Cook, a permanent resident of Bethel Cemetery in Cedar Township. And I was lucky enough to be able to find his pension file, some 50 documents that contain a good deal of information.

Sarah, of Edina, Missouri, was visiting in the home of her nephew, James F. Cook, in Russell when she became fatally ill during September of 1871. She had made the trip to Lucas County from Missouri for a reunion with her older brother, Solomon Cook, who had arrived in Russell from Mercer County, Pennsylvania, earlier in 1871 with his wife, Mary, to live with their son, James, and his family.

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Solomon was born January 8, 1790, in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, but moved with his family to Mercer County, located north of Pittsburgh midway on the road to Lake Erie with Ohio as its western border.

He was 22 and single when the War of 1812 broke out and, according to his pension file, served four enlistments during the next two years. All of his service was with companies of the Pennsylvania State Militia commanded by Capt. John Junkin or Capt. Epaphroditus Cossitt.

He first volunteered at Mercer during June of 1812 and served a month, then re-enlisted on the 2nd of October and served until April or May of 1813 when he was honorably discharged at Fort Meigs in Ohio. During August of 1813, he enlisted again at Mercer and served at Erie until mid-September, when he was discharged. During December of 1813 he enlisted again, this time serving at Erie until February of 1814.

According to Solomon, his unit was in rendezvous at Pittsburgh during the summer of 1812 before being sent to build Fort Meigs in Ohio. He seems never to have been engaged in combat --- his company was sent in as reinforcements at one point, but the fighting was over by the time it arrived. And he also was assigned to help build a second fort in Ohio.

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After the war, when he was 40, Solomon married Mary Biggs, some 15 years younger, on the 12th of February, 1830, in Beaver County,  Pennsylvania. They settled down on a farm in Mercer County where they raised a family of seven children. Mary was a widow when they married --- her application for a widow's pension filed after Solomon's death states that her first husband, James Biggs, drowned in the Allegheny river. So we don't know her maiden name.

By 1871, Solomon was 80 years old and it was decided that he and Mary would relocate to Iowa, where their son, James, had established a home at Russell and a daughter also was living nearby, near Melrose. 

Solomon and Mary continued to live at Russell until his death on Dec. 29, 1877, age 87. There was no cemetery at Russell at the time, so he was buried at Bethel, a couple of miles northeast of town.

Later on, during the spring of 1878, James F. Cook and his family moved from Russell to New Sharon in Mahaska County.  Mary was just beginning the process of applying for a widow's pension when she died there, age 72, on the 6th of June 1878.

Her remains were interred at Friends Cemetery, New Sharon, but James ordered identical tombstones for his parents --- the stone at her grave in Mahaska County identifying Mary as the wife of Solomon Cook; and the stone at his grave in Lucas County's Bethel identifying him as the husband of M. B. Cook.