View The Cook Family Tree
In 1823 Ansel Brainerd Cook was born to his father Willard C. Cook and mother Abigail B. Cook. After Cook had finished his education in 1845, they came to Illinois, where they settled in the Fremont area. Cook owned 448 acres of land at the corner of Winchester and Midlothian roads in Fremont. Cook married three times. Helen Marie Foster was Ansel's first wife. The Cook home in Libertyville was the country home that they would retire to on occasion. On one of their journeys on the new railroad "accommodation train" in 1881, the train was struck from the rear at Oak Glen Station (now Glenview) and Helen died. Helen's portrait hangs in the parlor of the Cook's home. (Ask about the frame!) For several years Mr. Cook returned to Connecticut. There he met and married his second wife, Emily Barrows. A few years later Emily died, and Mr. Cook married one of her sisters, Annie.
Mr. Cook's last wife, Annie, lived 25 years more than Mr. Cook. It was by her efforts that the Cook House was reclaimed, and transformed into a library and then a memorial for her late husband that we know today.
		Mr. Cook had two children with Helen Foster. Unfortunately the children both died in their early childhood. Finally, the Cooks did become the parents of one adopted child. Outside of family life Mr. Cook taught in the Lake County area. In 1849 he went to Waukegan where he had charge of Central School for some years. He then later pursued his long abandoned trade of stone masonry. In 1853, he became a builder in Chicago. He set up as a contractor (and builder), erecting some of the largest structures of that day and laying the first large flagstone walks. After that he became part of the state legislature in the years 1863-1865. In 1865 he became a Chicago alderman.
With failing health, Cook returned to Libertyville in 1866. In 1869 he was elected to the legislature from Lake County. He returned to Chicago in 1871 and was one of the contractors who rebuilt the city after the great Chicago fire. His place of business was on the site of what is now the Sears Tower.