Mr. and Mrs. Pitt Cooke

Pitt Cooke was born in 1819 in Bloomingville, Ohio. He was the son of Eleutheros Cooke, and the brother of Jay Cooke, well known banker, and financier of the Civil War. Pitt Cooke became a lawyer in Sandusky in a partnership with Lucas Beecher, following studies at Kenyon College. He later was in the forwarding and commission business with William Townsend, also of Sandusky. During the Civil War, Pitt Cooke assisted his brother Jay Cooke in the banking business. He continued in banking until 1873, when he moved back to Sandusky. Pitt Cooke died on December 9, 1879.

An excerpt from Pitt Cooke's obituary in the "Firelands Pioneer" read: "He was a man of large heart and warm, generous impulses, and ever ready to assist to the extent of his ability those who were in need. His loss will be deeply felt by many beyond his own family and immediate friends." He was survived by his wife, the former Mary Elizabeth Townsend, and six children.

Mrs. Pitt Cooke was the daughter of William Townsend. During the cholera epidemic of 1849, William Townsend died of the disease, along with his wife, daughter, and sister-in-law. In the Erie County section of the book entitled MEMORIAL TO THE PIONEER WOMEN OF THE WESTERN RESERVE, we read that Mary Elizabeth Townsend Cooke took in her orphaned siblings, and raised them along with her own children. A lovely framed photograph of Mrs. Pitt Cooke is found in one of the bedrooms of the Follett House Museum. Mrs. Pitt Cooke died on May 29, 1888. Mr. and Mrs. Pitt Cooke are both buried in Sandusky's Oakland Cemetery.