Edwards, Rev. Jonathan.  "An Illustrated History of Spokane County, State of
Washington."  San Francisco: W. H. Lever, 1900.  p. 493.
 
FRANCIS H. COOK

     A pioneer of February, 1878, came to Puget Sound in 1871, went to work at
the case in the office of the Puget Sound Courier, and within three weeks was
made foreman of the paper.  He subssequently purchased the Olympia Echo, of
which he was editor and publisher for three years.  He next started the Tacoma
Herald, the first paper in Tacoma, publishing both daily and weekly editions for
three years thereafter.  During this time he was elected a representative to the
territorial legislature.  Although the youngest member of either house, he was
chosen president of the council, so that he became presiding officer in all the
joint sessions.  While editing the paper in Tacoma he at one time rode on
horseback into every county in eastern Washington.  In the spring of 1879 Mr.
Cook moved a printing press over to this side of the mountains, expecting to
start a paper in Spokane, but the roads were in such a condition that he was
forced to tarry at Colfax.  The first issue or two of the Spokane Times were
printed there and carried on horseback to Spokane and Colville by the present
sheriff, Cole.  He, however, finally succeeded in getting his plant to Spokane.
Mr. Cook ran the paper three years, during one year of which it was a daily,
with telegraphic dispatches, then sold out and began improving the property now
known as Cook's addition.  He constructed for this purpose the first steam motor
line ever built in this city.  Mr. Cook now lives on a farm of six hundred and
forty acres, situated on the Little Spokane river.  He is raising fruit and
stock and takes a great deal of pride in his fine artificial lake and streams,
in which are more than one hundred thousand trout.  He is a man of prominence,
and has frequently been offered public offices, but has invariably declined.  He
it was who imported the first Italian bees, the first Chester White swine, also
the first stream drill into the county, and he was the organizer of the first
agricultural fair, north of the Snake river.  He is constructing many different
kinds of mills and shops on his farm for the benefit of his boys.  In 1880 he
was united in marriage to Miss Laura McCarty, of Sumner, Washington, and they
have a family of ten children, two of whom, Katie R. and Laura A., are attending
the Cheney Normal School.

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Submitted to the WA. Bios Project in May 2006 by Diana Smith.

Notice: These biographies were transcribed for the Washington Biographies
Project. Unless otherwise stated, no further information is available on the
individual featured in the biographies.