Los Angeles County
Biographies
JOSEPH EDWARDS COOK
COOK, HOSEPH EDWARDS, Manufacturers’ Agent and Warehousing, Los Angeles, California, was born in New York City, December 3, 1854. His father was Charles W. Cook and his mother Charlotte R. (Folger) Cook. Mr. Cook has been married twice, his second marriage taking place at Chicago, Illinois, November 19, 1900. By his first wife he had one child, Morris M. Cook, born at Oakland, California, and by his second wife, Josephine Cook, born at Los Angeles.
Mr. Cook was reared partly in California and partly in the New England States. He attended the public schools of San Francisco between the years 1862 and 1864. During the following three years he studied at Newburyport, Massachusetts, and at Brooklyn, New York, between 1867 and 1869. In 1870 he returned to the Pacific Coast, attending Heald’s Business College of San Francisco during that year. He entered the brokerage business for himself in that city in 1871, and up to 1886 followed that business with varied successes. Between the years 1870 and 1873 he was a member of the City Guard of the First Regiment of San Francisco.
In 1886 he located at Los Angeles. He associated himself with William T. Coleman & Co. of that city in the capacity of manager of that firm. A year later Mr. Cook became a member of the firm known as Cook & Langley, fruit business and warehousing, which ultimately evolved into the present concern, known as the J. E. Cook Mercantile Company. The house has since been incorporated. Not a great while after the establishment of the house Mr. Cook bought the interests, and from that time until today has been the chief spirit in the development and progress of the corporation. This corporation is the agent for many of the largest producers and manufacturers in the United States, besides representing Government interests. It is proprietor of the large Merchants’ Warehouse and of the U. S. Customs Bonded Warehouse No. 1, United States Bonded Warehouse No. 8, the United States General Bonded Warehouse No. 3, and Southern California agent for the Quaker Oats Company, Church & Dwight Company, D. Ghirardelli Company, Proctor & Gamble Company, C. B. Knox Company, Fels & Company, Douglas & Company, Hawaiian Pineapple Products Company, Western Chemical Company, Phoenix Packing Company, and a great number of the largest salmon, oyster and canned corn industries throughout the United States.
The success of the establishment is due very largely to the keen and discriminating business ability of Mr. Cook and to his far-sighted policies. His management has brought the firm into the front ranks of the business circles of the Pacific Coast, his persistency and personality being a controlling factor in the upbuilding of the enterprise.
At the present time Mr. Cook is the President and Manager of the firm, and he has many other business interests which share a fair proportion of his time.
He is a director in the Los Angeles Country Club and in the Country Club Land Association and Realty Company.
Mr. Cook is active in the club affairs of Los Angeles, and he has been a member of the California Club since 1889. He is now Vice President of the Los Angeles Country Club.
Transcribed
by Joyce Rugeroni.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 764,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2011 Joyce
Rugeroni.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES