Lyman A. Cook was born in Canisteo, July 22, 1830. He is the third child of Atwell and Fanny (Moore) Cook, the former a native of Conway, Mass., born in 1792; the latter a daughter of James Moore, and born in 1796, in Canisteo. Her father was one of the early settlers of Canisteo, and came here with his family about 1791. 

Mr. Atwell Cook is now one of the oldest residents of Canisteo; married in 1823, he and his wife have lived together upwards of half a century, and now reside in Canisteo.

Their other children are James M., Mrs. Lawrence Hopper, Mrs. Richard Allison, and Mrs. David Corbett; the three daughters are living.

Mr. Cook was eleven years of age when his parents removed to Hartsville. His minority was spent on the farm and attending the common school. In the year 1852 he married Polly, daughter of Nathaniel and Sophia Crane, of Waterloo, Seneca Co., N.Y. Her father was a native of Goshen, Orange Co., and her mother was born in New Jersey; reared a family of eight children; were farmers, and settled in Hartsville, in 1853, where the mother died in 1866, aged sixty-seven; the father died in Canisteo, in 1875, aged seventy-six.

After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Cook settled in Hornellsville, and he, in partnership with his brother, James M., carried on farming, and to some extent lumbering for nine years; when they removed to Hartsville, and after several years’ residence there, returned to Hornellsville village, where he remained for two years; his brother dying in the mean time. After settling the business, he returned to Hartsville, and in 1872 settled in the village of Canisteo, where he carried on farming, lumbering, and general business until his death which occurred Dec. 23, 1878.

In politics, Mr. Cook was active, and a staunch member of the Republican party. While a resident of Hartsville he represented his town in the Board of Supervisors, and after becoming a resident of Canisteo he held no office except as trustee of the village.

He was an interested citizen in all local improvements, good society, and schools; was a trustee of the Canisteo Academy, and also a trustee of the Baptist Church Society. He possessed a generous nature and integrity and strictness in all the relation of life. In his business relations his character was unsullied; his interest in and care for the poor were proverbial. He was a man of untiring industry, and, with a self-reliance characteristic of himself, he carried forward to successful completion whatever he undertook.

Their children are Mrs. William O. Hamilton and Dwight, living. One daughter, Frankie S. cook, died at age of eleven, in September, the same year, prior to the death of her father.

*The above information was obtained from the History of Steuben County, New York, Clayton (1879).