The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1910-12-23
PRESIDENT COOK OF sPEARFIsH
NORMAL.
{ BY C. w. Coursey, in Sioux Falls
Argus-Leader.)

Argus-Leader.)
Cook. Let's see-have we not
heard that name before? Never
mind! You need not bring on your
Eskimos" We shall adduce not
ing that needs confederation. Our
case is proven. No instruments need
be brought from Etah. We are not
ON the road either to or from the
north pole-just merely taking a
pleasant little trip up Spearfish can
on with Lafayette l.. Cook, president
of the Spearfish State Normal school.
Here is man whose life is an
open book; who never faxed trip
up mountain, saw the midnight
Sum-" had his moral vision obscured
by the aurora borealis, or confessed
brainstorm through Hampton's
Magazina-at SO much per line.
Here is man who went west instead
of north, who staid instead of re-
turned, who became a monumental
benefactor instead of monumental
malefactor. who is embellishing his
name instead of relishing his shame,
who tells the whole truth instead of
playing the sleuth, who looks onward
and upward, not backward ana
downward
In our who's Who" series, we
have seen that one of our men,
prominent in the public life of the
state, came from New Hampshire, two
from New York, two from Iowa, and
a superlative abundance of them
from Wisconsin,; but this is the first
time we have picked up q victim
from Michigan.
President Cook made his advent
into this world in Ottawa county,
Michigan, sixty years ago last Au-
gust. He deceives the public in one
thing only-his looks portend him
to be man of not over forty-fve.
We wish he might live forever. In
fact, we think he will The good
men do is not always inferred with
their bones"
Like the others who have won
distinction, at an early age, Cook
went west. Few men ever became
big by going east (Taft tried it,
Down east is a good place to spend
your fortune-out west is the place
10 make it.
President Cook is graduate of
the state normal school at Winona,
MINI. He taught in country and vii
iage schools for three years; in the
Minneapolis Commercial school one
year; was city superintendent 1872
4; taught in the Winona normal
1863; was superintendent of Ohm
sted county, Minnesota, 1874; was
Instructor in theiry-eight teachers
institutes in Minnesota; and contin-
uously, since 1885, he has been pres
ident of the Spearf1sh Is. d. state
normal school.
1t will keep any other man in the
state running to beat this record.
Think of 1t! Twenty-Five years-a
quarter of century-at the head of
one of our schools. During this time
we all know what has happened to
others. Trouble? Politics! Cook
has been over in that western re-
gion where he has been left alone.
By the way, If those philosophical
literary students who contend that a
man has no right to digress from his
theme, will not be too severe on us
We should like to halt here for mo-
ment to interject the proposition that
those chaps over in the Black Hills
region have demonstrated the fact
that they are pretty sturdy set of
pioneers. They have kept Martin at
Washington through six congresses,
Strachan as city superintendent OF
schools at Deadwood for twenty con-
of the Spearfsh normal for twenty
five.
Suppose the constitutional limita-
ton on county superintendent of
schools embodied city superinten-
dents and the heads of our state
schools; where would Cook be?
Where would the Spearfish normal
be? Well, it might as we'll have
been the law, so far as the region
east of the river is concerned. But
new day has just dawned upon us.
The flippancy of early days and the
formative period Of young state are
just sinking beneath the horizon; the
east is reddening with the rosy-tip-
ped fingers of a more stable period
SkiddOoo's Comment.
The students of the Spearfish nor
NAL issue an annual which they
have named "Skiddoo." In the one
issued June, 1909, they paid most
deserved tribute to their esteemed
president. We clip and use only
small portion: