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A. B. Cook papers, 1882-1940

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Cook, A. B. (Andrew B.), 1864-1928
Title
A. B. Cook papers
Dates
1882-1940 (inclusive)
Quantity
26 linear feet of shelf space
Collection Number
MC 280 (collection)
Summary
Andrew Cook was a Montana railroad contractor, state auditor, and later internationally known Hereford cattle breeder and rancher. Collection (1882-1940) consists of general correspondence, primarily concerning the A.B. Cook Stock Farms in Broadwater County; financial records; legal documents; reports; subject files; and financial and business records for Cook's ranching and contracting interests. There are subgroups for several of Cook's construction, ranching, and real estate businesses.
Repository
Montana Historical Society, Library & Archives
Montana Historical Society Research Center Archives
225 North Roberts
PO Box 201201
Helena MT
59620-1201
Telephone: 4064442681
Fax: 4064445297
mhslibrary@mt.gov
Access Restrictions

Collection open for research.

Languages
English
Sponsor
Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Biographical Note

Andrew Braid Cook was born on February 2, 1864, in Dundee, Wisconsin, the son of Cornelius and Margaret A. (Braid) Cook. After finishing his education in the public schools of Racine, Wisconsin, Cook attended the Spencerian Business College in Milwaukee and then became a bookkeeper for Charles J. Russell's coffee business in Milwaukee.

In 1883 he moved to Montana, where he held a variety of jobs over the next few years. He worked briefly shipping cattle for the 79 Ranch, as a clerk in the Blue Front Store in Billings, as a mule-skinner for a survey party on the Crow Indian Reservation, and as baggage master for the newly opened Northern Pacific Railroad office in Helena. He gained experience in railroad building working for Hugh Kirkendall and Peter Larson and for W.H. Guthrie and Company, including building the Wickes tunnel on the Montana Central Railroad south of Helena.

In 1889 he opened a real estate office in Missoula, in partnership with Frank W. McConnell. After McConnell, Cook and Company dissolved in 1892, Cook continued the business under his own name. He continued to manage his Missoula real estate holdings for the rest of his life, while devoting his major attention to his other occupations.

A.B. Cook was elected Montana State Auditor in 1892 and served one term. While serving as State Auditor he also established his own railroad construction business in partnership with Martin Wolfson. They negotiated a contract with the Northern Pacific to build a spur to the Parrot Smelter at Whitehall. Around 1905, Cook's Montana Concrete Construction Company got contracts in Livingston, Dillon, and Bozeman to do sidewalk work. He built the dam and irrigation canal system at Bynum Reservoir for the Teton Cooperative Reservoir Company.

As Cook, Deeks, and Hinds, and as the Toronto Construction Company he worked on the Canadian Pacific Railroad. In 1912 under South Dakota law, he incorporated the Cook Construction Company with Alexander McKenzie and L.L. Stephens. They opened an office in St. Paul, Minnesota, and a branch office in Montreal, Canada. Among the contracts this company obtained were the building of the Montreal Aqueduct, and the rebuilding of the Halifax, Nova Scotia, terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, following a freighter explosion in 1917. The Cook Construction Company dissolved in 1921.

A.B. Cook, however, was best known as a Hereford cattle rancher. In 1907 he bought the Flying U Ranch at Bynum from F. Augustus Heinze and began to develop the prize-winning Hereford cattle herd which became the passion of his later life. He bought the beginnings of his herd from the John Wellcome Estate in Waterloo, Iowa. With the herd came George Sim who oversaw Cook's breeding program for many years. Around 1912, Cook moved his cattle operation to the Missouri River Valley north of Townsend. He bought three ranches there: the Dunleavy and Rorvig ranches near the outlet of Confederate Creek, and the Bedford Ranch on the west side of the river. He later added Sheep Ranch in Meagher County, the Newland Creek Ranch, the Hevey Ranch, and several smaller pieces. During the 1910s he also was a partner with Alexander McKenzie in the Stiles Cattle Company which had extensive holdings on the Standing Rock Reservation in North and South Dakota. In October 1928, after losing a major lawsuit, Cook was forced to sell his herd. He died a month later on November 24, 1928.

In April, 1908, A.B. Cook married Mary Morgan Pettingell, a native of Bowling Green, Kentucky. While quite young Mary had married Frank Hervey Pettingell, with whom she had two children: Frank Hervey and Mary Agnes. That marriage ended in divorce. A.B. Cook adopted Mary's children, giving them his last name. The Cooks had one daughter Gloria, born in 1916.

Frank Hervey Cook was born in 1899 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He attended St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, graduating in 1919. He assisted his adopted father on the ranch, and on the death of A.B. Cook operated the ranch on a smaller scale. In 1931 he married Lena (Sally) Gosnell Finley, heiress of the Gosnell oil fortune. She died of a heart ailment August 5, 1933. With the flooding of much of the Cook ranch property by Canyon Ferry Reservoir in 1953, Cook moved the Dunleavy house to the Bedford Ranch north of Townsend. Frank Hervey Cook was murdered there, in an apparent robbery attempt, on November 22, 1970.

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Content Description

This collection consists of personal and business papers of A.B. Cook. The papers are divided into several major groupings: A.B. Cook's personal papers, his ranching records, his business records, his political records, and family papers.

The bulk of the correspondence (1888-1928) is in A.B. Cook's personal subgroup. This correspondence includes intermixed, personal, ranch, construction, and other business matters. Among the most substantive correspondence is that with his personal secretary Hazel Alsterberg, who conducted much of his business dealings. She reported to him regularly on the conduct of business. In addition to the correspondence, this subgroup includes court papers (1895-1929); financial records (1886-1928); legal documents (1886-1928) concerning Helena property holdings, mining claims, etc.; reports and subject files (1887-1928) concerning mining properties and other investments; and miscellany. There is a small subgroup of A.B. Cook Estate materials (1928-1932).

The A.B. Cook Stock Farms subgroup includes court papers (1890, 1921); employment records (1915-1954) including payrolls, time sheets, employment applications, and monthly labor reports; financial records (1913-1928), including inventories of the various ranches; legal documents (1882-1928) documenting the ranch properties; organizational records (1919) including articles of incorporation, bylaws and minutes; production records (1901-1933) consisting primarily of extensive Hereford cattle registration and breeding records; subject files (1912-1928) on a wide variety of topics; and miscellany.

The Flying U Ranch subgroup includes a small amount of general correspondence (1907-1911); employment records (1908-1909); financial records (1906-1912); and legal documents (1892-1912).

The Stiles Cattle Company subgroup consists of interoffice and general correspondence (1917-1928) concerning the operation of a ranch on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation; financial records (1918-1926); production records (1918-1923); and miscellany (1922-1924) including maps and lists of lands leased and purchased on the Standing Rock Reservation.

Records of A.B. Cook's Bynum Reservoir Contract consist of correspondence and court papers (1912-1914) of a lawsuit by the Teton Cooperative Reservoir Company; financial records (1908-1912); and legal documents (1909).

Records of Cook and Woldson, Railroad Contractors include correspondence, employment records, financial records, and legal documents (1895-1900) documenting work for the Gaylord and Ruby Valley Railway, the Montana Railroad, the railroad spur to the Parrot Smelter at Whitehall, and other jobs; and railroad specification and bid papers.

The Cook Construction Company subgroup consists of general and interoffice correspondence (1912-1925) of the offices of the company in St. Paul, Minnesota; Montreal, Quebec; and Halifax, Nova Scotia; court papers (1906-1907, 1914) including the seizure of company property by Canadian Customs, for alleged misquoting of value of equipment; financial records (1913-1921); an agreement (1916) with Wheaton Brothers for work on the Halifax Ocean Terminals Railway; copies of organizational records (1912-1921) re the founding and dissolution of the company; subject files (1911-1924) concerning various jobs contracted by the company including work in Sudbury, Ontario; Bulwer Junction, Minnesota; Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Montreal aqueduct and power development projects.

The Cook Tunnel Company / New Gould Mining Company subgroup includes general correspondence (1921-1928); and other materials concerning A.B. Cook's extension of the mining tunnel at Gould, Montana.

Records of McConnell, Cook, and Company and its successor A.B. Cook's Missoula real estate business consist of correspondence (1889-1928); financial records (1889-1928) including a lot ledger, financial statements, tax assessments, etc.; legal documents (1889-1929) including partnership agreements, deeds, certificates of redemption for delinquent taxes, etc.

The Montana Independent Telephone Company subgroup consists of general correspondence (1908-1915), prospecti, and subject files (1909-1913) concerning the merging of several small independent telephone companies into a statewide network.

There are minor business subgroups for the Banner Mining Company, the Buckeye Mining and Milling Company, the Gloria Mining Company, the Lexington Mining Company, the Montana Concrete Construction Company, the National Life Insurance Company of Montana, Shannon and Cook, the Silver Bow National Bank, the Toronto Construction Company, the Trail Creek Coal Company, and the Tuttle Land Company.

Documentation of A.B. Cook's activities in the "Republican Party include correspondence and financial records concerning the 1889 and 1892 elections; a petition for a post office for Tin Cup; petitions for Frank O. Lowden for President, and miscellaneous campaign materials.

The Frank Hervey Cook subgroup includes correspondence (1908-1949); financial records (1921-1955) consisting mostly of bank statements and cancelled checks for Cook, for the C.R. Cattle and Sheep Company, and the Cook Candy Company; several reports; and school records.

The Lena Gosnell Bowyer Finley Cook subgroup consists of incoming correspondence (1929-1933) from family and friends; financial statements (1929-1930); estate materials (1934); and European travel itineraries and brochures.

There are very small subgroups for Margaret A. Cook, for Mary Morgan Cook, for Gloria Cook, and for Mary Agnes Cook.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Researchers must use collection in accordance with the policies of the Montana Historical Society. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collection. In some cases permission for use may require additional authorization from the copyright owners. For more information contact an archivist.

Preferred Citation

Item description and date. Collection Title. Collection Number. Box and Folder numbers. Montana Historical Society Research Center, Archives, Helena, Montana.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

Arranged by subgroup and series. Some material housed in Manuscript Volumes and Archives Map Case. See inventory below for more information.

Location of Collection

14:5-3

Location of Collection

149:4-6 (Volumes)

Processing Note

Processing Information:

The collection was in very difficult shape as received. Many boxes contained totally unsorted material which included correspondence, invoices, stock records, and legal documents, advertising brochures, and other material. Some records were severely water damaged, including several boxes of legal documents which could not be salvaged. (These should be available in the Broadwater and Missoula County courthouses.)

Records of all the various companies were split, with some letters filed under personal names, some under corporate names. Incoming letters to companies were often interfiled with letters from that company to Cook. During much of his later life, Cook divided his time between the ranch in Townsend, and Cook Construction Company offices in St. Paul, Montreal, and Halifax. He continued to conduct the business of all operations from all locations. Some attempt has been made to pull together the correspondence belonging to the different operations, but many letters are not where one would logically expect them to be. The researcher is encouraged to look in the personal, ranch, and corporated subgroups for all phases of Cook's life.

Acquisition Information

Acquisition information available upon request

Separated Materials

Approximately 750 photographs and 4 scrapbooks were transferred to the Photographic Archives. Printed materials and some maps transferred to the Library. Artifacts transferred to the Museum. See inventory below for more information.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Detailed Description of the Collection

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection

Finding aid prepared by MHS staff
2004

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