Hezekiah Cantrell Cooke was born in Greenville District
(county), S. C., November 4, 1806. He was the second son of
William Henry and Mary (Cantrell) Cooke, being one of a family of twelve
children. He was a direct descendant of
Robert Cooke, a Scotchman, a "saddler and shoemaker
by trade," whose wife was Sarah Fielding, from Devonshire
County, England. This couple came across the waters and settled in Maryland,
"St. Mary's County," in the year 1720. Another Robert Cooke,
grandfather of Hezekiah, was married to Susannah Watson, Culpepper County, Va.,
January 6, 1778, and died at his home in White County, Tenn., November 12, 1841,
in the (90th year of his age. Young Cooke came with his parents to Tennessee in
1819, and settled in McMinn County. At the age of eighteen be made a profession
of religion and was baptized by Elder William Wood into the fellowship of Connessauga Church. In 1830 he was married to Miss Mary
Wood, a daughter of
Elder William Wood, which union was blessed with a large family of children. In
November, 1847, he was "licensed" to preach, and later was
"ordained." For a long time be "fought his impressions" to
preach, but the Lord "chastised" him into duty by the rod of
affliction; both his health and his business projects failed. He promised the
Lord if he would give him back his health, and not kill him, he would preach.
His health was restored, and he kept his vow. Laying himself as a minister of
Christ on the altar of service, he not only regained his health, but prospered
financially and spiritually, the Lord's work also prospering in his hands. In
giving an account of Elder Cooke's call to the ministry, and his resistance,
justice requires, I think, this additional statement:
It was not simply his original, natural, Adamic stubbornness that made
him rebel, but his high ideal of the qualifications of a minister made him
hesitate and shrink from the responsibilities of preaching the everlasting
gospel to dying men.
In
his earlier ministry Elder Cooke was somewhat inclined, it is said, to Arminian
views, in regard to God and man and the plan of salvation; but as he went deeper
into the question of theology he adopted the Andrew Fuller theory of the atonement,
and became what is known as a "moderate Calvinist," one who is a
thorough believer in the "doctrines of grace" but who also believes in
the just accountability of man as a moral agent. "As a preacher he was not
what the world would call eloquent, but he presented the truth with a power,
force and perspicuity seldom excelled and rarely equaled." He was a pastor
of some three or four churches in the bounds of the Sweetwater Association, and
was gaining considerable reputation as a theological debater when death cut
short his career of promising and increasing usefulness. He died of pneumonia
January 24, 1859, leaving a widow and several children, a great number of
relatives and a host of friends to mourn his departure. The temporary resting
place of his mortal remains is the homestead burying ground on Connessauga
Creek. "Dust thou art, to dust returnest, was not spoken of the soul."
