Philip Cook was an American lawyer, soldier, and politician. He served as a Member of the U. S. House of Representatives from Georgia from 1873 to 1883. He was a Secretary of State of Georgia from 1890 to 1894.
Background
Philip Cook was born on July 30, 1817 in Twiggs County, Georgia, United States, the son of Philip and Martha (Wooten) Cook. The elder Cook was born in Brunswick County, Virginia, in 1775, and was taken as a boy to Georgia. He served as a major in the 18th United States Infantry in the War of 1812 and at the close of that war set up as a cotton planter in Twiggs County, Georgia, where he died in 1841.
Education
Philip received the college training at Oglethorpe University, an institution then located near Milledgeville, the capital of the state, and was subsequently graduated from the University of Virginia Law School in 1841.
Career
For a good many years after Cook took up his residence at Oglethorpe in Madison County. On the outbreak of the Civil War he volunteered as a private with the Macon County Volunteers, his company being assigned to the 4th Georgia Regiment at Portsmouth, Virginia. There he was made adjutant of his regiment. After the Seven Days’ battles about Richmond he was commissioned lientenant-colonel. His regiment passed through the battles of Second Manassas and Sharpsburg, and he was promoted to colonel. He was in the brigade of General George Doles, who was killed at the battle of Cold Harbor in August 1864. Cook, promoted to brigadier-general, succeeded Doles in the command of the brigade. He was several times wounded, the last time at Petersburg. He was captured there and remained in the Petersburg hospital until the close of the war.
After the return of peace, Cook changed his residence to Americus, Georgia, where he practised law until his retirement in 1880. He was a member of Congress from 1873 to 1883. In 1890 he became secretary of state of Georgia and was holding that position at the time of his death in 1894. In public service for twenty-three years, he had held other offices, among them those of a state senator, 1859-6180, and 1863-1864, member of the constitutional convention of 1865, and member of the commission which erected the present capitol of Georgia. One of Cook’s contemporaries said of him: “No than in Georgia was more entirely beloved by the people of the state. ”
Achievements
Connections
In 1842 Cook married Sara, daughter of Henry H. Lumpkin, of Monroe County. His son Philip was secretary of state of Georgia from 1898 to 1918.