1 Cook/Early Years in Belle Plaine, Iowa

The history of my family is fascinating to me. Not just when and where they were born but what was happening around them at the time they lived in that place.  It brings their history to life.

I am still working through the best approach to this blog because I also want to add my husband's family tree.  Two separate blogs were considered, but my daughter pointed out they are all her relatives, so here we go.  There may be growing pains in this family.

It all begins with my Grandfather Bernard Roy Cook.  He was born in Belle Plaine, Iowa in 1895.

One of my sisters recently found this photo tucked away in some other mementos. I was very young when my grandfather died so the hair is fascinating to me.  I wish I had more photos of my grandfather and his family.  This is the youngest photo, I'm guessing late teens early twenties, but I'm not very good at guessing ages.

Bernard Roy Cook
10 Oct 1895-22 May 1959

I want to begin with a little bit of history about Belle Plaine.  (When you see words in a different color that means I created a link to a new page where you learn more if you want.)   This community was established in 1862, so it was pretty young in the whole scheme of things.  Iowa had only become a state in 1846.

The majority of early settlers were farmers.  The advent of the railroad in 1862 changed the landscape of this community and all those it impacted on its route.  The Government was pushing to establish the railroad all the way to the Pacific Ocean.  One of the original settlers of Belle Plaine, Prestley Hutton, negotiated with the railroad to offer some of his land in exchange for a rail stop in Belle Plaine.  The Railroad agreed.  The Railroad wanted to call the new depot Halifax.  The Hutton and White families of Belle Plaine, were not fond of this name.  The families got together to decide on a name to present to the Railroad.  Belle Plaine came into existence3. (side note:  watch for the name White again, sometime in the future)

Originally people were drawn to Belle Plaine for their artesian wells and their treatments.  Local businesses sprang up for all the people who came for the mineral springs.  There are photos and more information about the well in the The Gazette .  (if you click the link it takes you to another page with an article and photos about the well)

For those who want the condensed version they tried to start another well, it gushed out of control and caused the original wells to stop.  The out of control well became known as Jumbo.  It flowed uncontrollably for 14 months.  Jumbo even made the news in Europe, and was for a time labeled the Eighth Wonder of the World.  It flooded several streets in Belle Plaine and caused quite a stir with all of the people who arrived to try to stop the gushing water.  This literally dried up the spa treatments in about 1886.

In 1888 electricity came to Belle Plaine, at first only the main street was lit up for a few hours at dusk.  It was too expensive for the average citizen.  In 1890 the telephone came to Belle Plaine, only used by businesses and those few citizens with the money to afford it, probably not my family.

The city continued to grow and by the 1890's the population was 3,2001.  This may seem very small to most of you but to put it in perspective Ames, Iowa (home of Iowa State University) had a population of 1,276 that same year.  Luck was not on their side A second disaster hit the city hard.  The new telephone service was used to call for help to put out the Great Fire of 1894.  A fire raged through the business district2.

Sioux Valley News (Correctionville, Iowa)
2 Aug 1894, Thu- Page 1
Newspapers.com

Ok, I have set the background, this is the time and place where my grandfather was born.  A growing city on the Railroad, with two big disasters under their belt.  The average age in Belle Plaine in 1895 was 44 years old.  Life expectancy at the time was 474.  My grandfather's family were pretty young.  His father, Ben, was 30, his mother, Kate,  was about 23, his sister, Maud, was 4 and his brother, Frank, was 2.

On the first of June in 1900 Bernard seemed to be doing well.  He was 4 years old, his mom was at home with the kids and dad had a good job with the Railroad, he was a Bridge Carpenter6.  They lived at 204 third street (I did try to google to see what is there today).  I think it is an automotive shop.  In less than a month on June 27, 1900 Bernard lost his father.  He was run over by a train, pretty horrific and unexpected.

The article above was sent to me by someone I hired to help me in finding my great grandfather's family, (but that is a story for another day)  I think the next few years might have been pretty rough.  I like to think my great grandmother had a lot of help from the community.  They nearly lost their home over a rather large grocery bill, but it ended up at the Iowa Supreme Court, and the ruling was for my great grandmother.  Not sure how they ran up such a large grocery bill or if it got paid eventually but here is the article about the lawsuit.  I think she must have been a strong woman.

Belle Plaine Advantage 5

This is the beginning of my journey into the life of my ancestors.  I hope you enjoy traveling along with me as we explore their journey in the United States.  The next post will be about my husbands grandfather.  I'll try to alternate and post once a week about each family.
Happy Discoveries to you from one Ancestral Explorer to another,
Janet

Sources:
1.  Carpenter, Stephanie Ann, "Portrait of a community : Belle Plaine, Iowa, 1895-1925" (1992).       Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 17632. https://dr.iastate.edu/rtd/17632.
2. Newspapers.com, Sioux Valley News (Correctionville, Iowa), 2 Aug 1894, Thurs., pg 1, "Big Belle Plaine Fire."
3.  Belle Plaine Area Museum, History of Belle Plaine, "150 years of History, Belle Plaine, Iowa 1862-2012", Mitch Malcolm.
4.  Wikipedia.org, Belle Plaine, Iowa.
5.  Digital Archives of Belle Plaine Community Library, belleplaine.advantage-preservation.com.
6.   'Bernard Cook' 1900 U.S., Federal Census, Belle Plaine, Benton County, Iowa; sheet 9B, Line 88, Ancestry.com online.