Senator Lyman Cook View All Years

LYMAN COOK was born in Bennington, Ohio, June 6, 1820; he died at Burlington, Iowa, October 1, 1898. Mr. Cook was one of the most prominent business men in Southeastern Iowa for fifty-eight years. He was largely engaged in banking and railroading. He was an alderman of the city of Burlington in 1846-50, mayor of that city in 1851, ‘52 and ‘53, and was twice elected to this last office without opposition. He also served four years as senator in the sixth and seventh general assemblies. During the war for the Union he was active in the care of the soldiers rendezvoused in Burlington and was commissioned commissary by Governor Kirkwood. The Burlington Hawk-Eye said of Mr. Cook: “He had practically no enemies. He was the embodiment of strict honesty and made a noble record of personal integrity and fidelity to fiduciary interests. He guarded the interests of his clients and patrons as if they were his own. His name was a local synonym of financial honor and strength, assuring the bank with which he was so long connected as its chief, of the unshaken and unbreakable confidence of the community.” The Leader of Des Moines said of him that “he had taken no illegitimate toll from the millions he had handled for other people.”