Dr. John D. Cooke, a well known medical practitioner of Shortsville, Ontario county, New York. although a native of Canada, traces his descent to an American family, many generations of which lived at Hadley, Massachusetts, where they were among the early settlers, and bravely bore their share of the hardships and trials with which the early colonists were obliged to contend. Dr. Cooke has inherited many of the admirable traits which characterized these early hardy settlers, and he has followed his career with the sturdy determination to achieve the success which distinguished his forbears in their efforts to establish, in this country, a land of liberty.
John Cooke, grandfather of Dr. Cooke, was born at Hadley, Massachusetts, the native town of his father, in 1776, and like the majority of the settlers in those days, was engaged in agricultural pursuits. He married Sarah White.
Dr. Silas W. Cooke, son of John and Sarah (White) Cooke, was born at Hadley, Massachusetts, in 1816. and died in Canada, in 1884. At the conclusion of his preparatory education, he became a student at the Medical School in Fairfield, New York, in 1839. and was graduated with honor from that institution. He then removed to Norwich, Canada, where he entered upon the practice of his profession, but subsequently removed to Paris, Canada, where he practiced medicine with success for the long period of forty years. He married Mary Louise Cook, of Mount Pleasant. Canada, who was born in Dutchess county, New York, in 1819, and died in 1897. Their children were: Dr. John D., see forward; Mary, who now (1910) resides in the state of California.
Dr. John D., son of Dr. Silas W. and Mary Louise (Cook) Cooke, was born at Paris, Ontario, Canada, December 17, 1858. His early education was acquired at the Woodstock Collegiate Institute, and he then matriculated at the Trinity Medical College in Toronto, from which he was graduated in 1879. Subsequently he entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons, in Buffalo, New York, from which he was graduated in the class of 1881. He immediately established himself in the practice of his profession in the town of Shortsville, Ontario county, New York, and it was but a short time before he had a well-established reputation as a physician and surgeon in whom the greatest confidence might be placed. He has not alone won the respect and confidence of those whom he has so successfully treated, but his sympathetic manner and warm heart have won their love, and there is no physician in the county who has a greater number of sincere friends and well-wishers. While a man of a social, genial disposition, his time for general pleasures is very limited, as he spends all the time which his large and increasing practice leaves him, in earnest study and the reading of professional publications, holding the wise opinion that a physician must be constantly learning, otherwise he will be unable to keep abreast of the times in medical research. It is owing to his constant desire to increase his knowledge that Dr. Cooke may safely ascribe his professional success.
Dr. Cooke married, in 1885, Julia, daughter of Joseph Whetman, of Mount Vernon, Canada; he is a member of the Western New York Homoeopathic Medical Society. In politics he is a Democrat.