Isaac Cook

	Isaac Cook

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Doraville Whitney was the first Black settler in Isabella County in 1860. The first documentation of an African-American settler in Mecosta County Michigan was James Guy. His deed was signed by Abraham Lincoln. He obtained 160 acres in Wheatland Township on May 30, 1861. Lloyd & Margaret Guy were the first Black settlers in Montcalm County in 1861. The Homestead Act of 1862 allowed each settler 160 acres in Michigan. By 1873 African-Americans owned 1,392 acres in the three counties of Isabella, Mecosta and Montcalm. In the 1860's most of the land in Remus was owned by the Old Settlers.

Isaac Cook

Jay, Allen, Solomon &Doyle (Dude) Cook

Jay, Allen, & Doyle (Dude) Cook

Erma (Norman) and Jay Cook

The Cooks were relatively late arrivals in Mecosta County. Jay Cook, son of Al and Nancy Cook, arrived in Mecosta County when he was about four years old around 1900. His newly widowed father, Al Cook, left Jay with Will and Harriet Cummings while making his way north to the lumbering camps at Manistee. Al Cook, Jay's father, was married first to Nancy Cook. Nancy's maiden name was also Cook. Al and Nancy had three children named Jay, Bessie and George.

Jay lived with the Cummings family until he was eight years old, then Ike Flowers took him to Harrietta, Michigan to Art Skinner's Lumber Camp, where he worked until he was 21 years old. Bessie lived with her aunt for several years then moved to Manistee to work as a cook in a lumber camp. George left Michigan and went west. Later Al married Mabel Ellis and this union three children were born. Their names were Mabel, Ethel and Eleanor. Bessie moved to the Millbrook area and married Charlie Green. Jay Cook married Erma Norman and they had six children: Garth, Vernice, Jay Allen, Lyle, Kenneth and Doyle. They lived in Grand Rapids between 1921 and 1930. When the depression hit, he came to Mecosta County and lived on a farm. Most of the children married into local families.


	Isaac Cook

There are "Old Settlers" who came from Canada via "The Underground Railroad." It was the most dramatic nonviolent protest against slavery in the United States that began in the Colonial Era and reached its peak between 1830 and 1865. An estimated 30,000 to 100,000 slaves used the "railroad" to get to Canada; many others escaped to Mexico, the Caribbean, and Europe.