The Family of Henry Cook and Sarah Kincaid

Henry Cook was born on May 28, 1775, in Fincastle, Castle County, in the province of Virginia which later became West Virginia. His parents brought the family to Green County, Illinois, where they lived in Kaskaski, a French settlement near an Indian Village. He served in the War of 1812 as a lieutenant and was a French and Indian interpreter.

In 1845, his son, David, came to Trinity Mills with Pleasant, Preston, and Hamp Witt; Elic and Weston Perry; Henry Miller and his wife, Mary Ann Cook. Both David and Mary Ann Cook were Henry’s children by a previous wife.

On September 1, 1846, Henry Cook left Illinois for Texas with a caravan of seven wagons. The Cook family had three wagons for Henry’s wife, Sarah, and her six children, and there was one each for the following families: John Nix, John McCann, Josh McCann (a married son of John McCann), and Bill Miller, whose wife was a twin sister of Josh McCann. Two pigs and a few chickens were brought from Illinois. Henry took the caravan to St. Louis, Missouri, to secure a way bill to Texas since there were no roads and the Mississippi River could only be crossed in certain places with wagon and oxen. In St. Louis a cook stove was purchased and some tools including a frow for making shingles and a broadax to smooth logs.

The caravan reached Trinity Mills near Carrollton on October 15, 1846, but Henry thought this area too low and wet to be healthy so after a couple of weeks he moved back to Old Indian Springs (later the property of Tandy Haggard) where the group camped in a tent for the winter. On this white rock ridge the travelers had camped on the journey down.

In the spring they moved near the present Baccus Cemetery. Henry patented land as a Peters Colonist selecting property in two separate tracts, one with a spring and one with adequate wood supply, both being vital necessities. First two log cabins were built. Later one large room was constructed with a white rock chimney, known as a dirt and stick chimney. Just before the Civil War Henry built two large rooms with an open hallway between and used the old cabin for a kitchen at the back. The logs for this house were prepared at Lanson Clark’s mill on Little Elm, where there was a circular saw.

Mr. Cook had sold his Illinois farm to a man named Rodes, who paid just part of the cash. So a year later John Nix, a young red headed fellow, and Witt rode horseback to Illinois for the remainder due on the farm. The money was paid in gold and was kept in a chest in the log cabin home. The second year a neighbor, Good Clark, brought a flour sack of silver to exchange for gold to go east to buy cattle at $3.50 a head.

A one-legged Methodist preacher named Easterwood taught school near McCann Springs. Pupils were a McCann girl; Sarah Cook; Mat, Dick, Tobe, Matilda, and Elizabeth Clark, children of Lanson Clark. The girls took their knitting and spelled aloud.

Sarah Cook rode to McKinney on horseback to be married in 1861. She also rode on horseback to Denison in a day. Houston, Shreveport, and Jefferson were the trading posts for these early settlers.

Henry Cook seems to have had quite a number of wives. His previous wife, Alcy Nix. had six children. All of Alcy’s children came to Texas in the 1840s. Her eldest child, John Cook, married Rebecca Finley and after her death, he married Mrs. Alice P. Wims. John came to Texas in 1849 and is listed in the Collin County census. He was one of the charter members of Liberty Baptist Church. Jake married Christina Armitage; Mary Ann married Henry Miller; and David married Eliza Frances Boggess. Henry died in Mexico never having married. With the exception of John and Mary Ann Miller, who lived in Collin County, all of Henry Cook’s children by Alcy settled in Denton County not distant from Henry Cook’s home.

Henry Cook, the original settler, had six children by his last wife, Sally. They were Martha, who married John B. Martin; Elizabeth, who married Henry Heustis; Rachel, who first married William Bridges, and after his death, she married Joseph Baccus; Daniel, who died at seventeen and is buried in Baccus Cemetery in what is thought to be the first marked grave in the county; Lewis, who married Ellen Maria McIntyre and moved to Idaho; and Sarah Jane, who married Nicholas Dudley.

Henry was evidently a man of forceful and magnetic personality to the end of his days. He led a caravan from Illinois to Texas at the age of 75, a task seldom undertaken by any but a younger man. He arrived on the frontier so early that Texas was just entering statehood. He evidently was the focal point for two different sets of children almost all of whom lived within riding distance. He died in 1862 and is buried in Baccus Cemetery.

Henry’s daughter, Rachel Baccus, gave the land for Baccus Christian Church which for a number of years was adjacent to Baccus Cemetery.

The Baccus farm was recognized by the Texas Department of Agriculture for inclusion in the Family Land Heritage Registry as one of the farms which had been operated by the same family for over 100 years.

BACCUS CEMETERY: Baccus was originally known as the Cook Cemetery. It was started by Henry Cook, who buried his 17 year old son, Daniel, not far from the newly built Cook cabin with its animal skin for the front door. The date was January 13, 1847. The second burial was that of George W. Martin, son of J.B. and Martha Cook Martin. George was born on April 1, 1849, and died August 17, 1850. George’s mother was Martha Cook, eldest child of Henry Cook and his last wife, Sarah Kincaid Cook. Martha’s little son lies next to his Uncle Daniel.

In time, Henry Cook’s daughter, Rachel Baccus, acquired the land, and in 1878, she deeded it to the heirs of Henry Cook for church and cemetery purposes. In about 1915 the cemetery association changed the name to Baccus Cemetery in recognition of Rachel’s gift of the burial ground and the tract for the neighboring Baccus Christian Church, organized in 1908.

Families buried at Baccus Cemetery which are descended from Henry Cook are the Cook, Heustis, Martin, Dudley, Baccus, Miller, Bishop, and Pearson families. There are many neighboring families as well. One of the last burials is that of Libby Louise Pearson, a sixth generation descendant of Henry Cook. There are about 285 marked graves. A cemetery board is responsible for the cemetery and an endowment fund provides income for maintenance. The cemetery is located 5 miles south of Frisco, 1 mile south of State Highway 121; and 1.3 miles west of State Highway 289. A Texas State Historical Marker stands at the gate.

Contributed and compiled by Richard Beaver -2007