Background
Cocke, William Michael was born on July 16, 1815 in Rutledge, Grainger County, Tennessee, United States.
Cocke, William Michael was born on July 16, 1815 in Rutledge, Grainger County, Tennessee, United States.
He pursued classical studies and graduated from East Tennessee College at Knoxville, Tennessee. He studied law, was admitted to the bar, and practiced in Rutledge and Nashville.
Cocke was Clerk of Grainger County Circuit Court from 1840-1845. They had seven children. Cocke was elected as a Whig to the Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth Congresses.
He served from March 4, 1845 to March 3, 1849.
During the Thirtieth Congress, he was chairman of the United States. House Committee on Revolutionary Pensions. He was not a candidate for re-election in 1848.
Elected to the State Senate, Cocke served from 1855 to 1857. Cocke served in the 31st General Assembly in the second session of 1855-1896, replacing Christopher Hitch, who had resigned.
Representing Anderson, Campbell, Claiborne, and Grainger counties as a Democrat.
From 1859 to 1865, he resided in Asheville, North Carolina. in about 1872, he moved to Lexington, Kentucky, and from there to Nashville, in Davidson County, Tennessee. Cocke died in Nashville on February 6, 1896 (age 80 years, 205 days). He is interred at Mount Olivet Cemetery.
He served as a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives.