"... From Proquest Historical Newspapers and Michigan county histories [61]
I was able to locate material about Cook's family, particularly his father, John
Potter Cook. William Cook's career has remarkable parallels to his father's,
although his father was not a lawyer. John P. Cook was a farmer, businessman,
builder of railroads, and lumbering man. He owned many acres of white pine in
Calhoun County, Michigan, and a sawmill, which was probably the source of
most of his fortune. He was as respected as any contemporary lawyer, was
elected to the State Senate, and was nearly nominated for governor in 1874, [62]
when Cook was an impressionable sixteen. He was a member of the Michigan
Constitutional Convention in 1850, and chaired the committee that drafted the
new constitution's provisions on corporations. [63] The senior Cook was also one of
the founders of Hillsdale College. From John, William learned the value of education, a respect for the law, the need for hard work, and an understanding of the
political process. ..."