Cook, Lydia A. McClain, 1840-1899

Born: 1840, Pennsylvania
Died: 6 Oct 1899

Uncertainty surrounds the early life of Lydia A. Cook, but newspapers articles from 1895 and 1896 make one thing clear, and that is that she was the mother of Ardell Moreland, also buried in this cemetery. (Unfortunately the F-A-G site misspells Moreland as Morehand, and it has so far proved impossible to get this error corrected.) Several visits are recorded of Lydia making trips to Payne County to see her ailing daughter. Ardell died in March of 1896 and is buried beside her mother.

Lydia Cook visits her daughter, Ardell Moreland, March 1894.

Born in Pennsylvania, Lydia’s maiden name was McClain, according to the marriage recorded for her to Franklin Cook in Platte County MO, 3 May 1852. Platte County is a recurring name in the documentation for McCorkle Cemetery, suggesting that a number of friends and relatives from that county settled northwest of Chandler. The earliest firm record for Lydia and her family is the 1880 census, which shows them still in Platt County, where four of her five children were born. It also shows that she is a widow. No other record emerges until her death on 6 October 1899. She received no obituary in either of the Chandler newspapers.
Of her known children, the three oldest were boys, the two youngest girls. The first son was Benjamin Franklin “B. F.” Cook (1858-1945), who died in Chandler and is buried in Oak Park (with his initials unfortunately confused at the F-A-G site). He seems never to have married. The second child was Thomas Jefferson Cook (1864-1911), who married at least twice and had three children that are known. He died in Marlow, Stephens County, where he is buried beside his last wife. The third son was James A. Cook (1865-1943), who married Nancy Jane Green in Platte County MO but spent most of his later life in or near Ripley in Payne County They had eleven children that are known.   
The first daughter was Ardell Cook (1866-1896), who lies with her mother in McCorkle Cemetery. She has her own page on this website under her married name Moreland. The second daughter was Nellie May Cook (1875-1968), who married George G. Irvine (1866-1937) in Chandler in 1896. The couple lived in Wichita KS after the turn of the century, but had returned to Lincoln County by the 1930 census. George died in 1937 and is buried in Star Valley Cemetery near Warwick. Nellie May lived until 1968 and is buried in Chandler’s Oak Park. They appear to have had no children. 

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