Mode Cooke, 88, Valley Pioneer, Taken By Death
Widely Known Fairview Farmer Resided Here 75 Years
Death yesterday took Morand D. (Mode) Cooke, 88, in the Kittitas valley’s oldest pioneer in point of years and the last remaining member of one of the Northwest’s pioneer families. He died at his home in the Fairview district, where he had lived for 74 years, yesterday afternoon [died September 2, 1945].
A son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Charles P. Cooke, Oregon and Washington pioneers, he came to the Kittitas valley with his parents in 1871. At his death he made his home on the Fairview ranch which lies on the creek which took its name from his family and which surrounds the original Cooke homestead.
He was born in Polk county, Oregon, November 27, 1855, and witnessed the growth of the Kittitas and valleys from Indian county to one of the richest agricultural district of the Northwest. The Cooke family lived at Independence, Ore., until 1867, when they moved to Moxee in Yakima county. In the winter of 1870-71 they moved to the Kittitas valley and homesteaded in Fairview, the third family to settle in this valley.
Mr. Cooke was the second oldest living valley resident in point of residence. Only Clarence Houser, who was brought to the valley in 1870 as an infant by his parents had lived here longer.
The Cooke family came here when Indians still roamed the area and Mode Cooke and his parents and brothers and sisters knew old Chief Joseph of the Umatillas and many of the other famous Indian chiefs of that time. Although in 1874 he and his brother-in-law, Charles Coleman, became the first assessors of the Wenatchee valley, throughout his adult life he engaged in the livestock and farming industry and his operations were of considerable size.
He was married in 1888 to Miss Belle Fulton. She died in 1903. Surviving are four sons, Lester Cooke and Charles Cooke, Ellensburg, Frank Cooke of Seattle and Earl Cooke of Menlo; two daughters, Mrs. Edna Dawes and Mrs. Ruth Teske of Ellensburg; six grandchildren, and four great grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held Thursday afternoon at 1:30 o’clock at the Honeycutt chapel with Rev. W. M. Martin officiating. Burial will be in the IOOF cemetery.