1831-1902
Lorrin Alanson Cooke, future 57th Governor of Connecticut, was born on this day in New Marlborough, MA. He was educated in Connecticut and was a teacher in Norfolk before becoming a politician. He was also, from the age of nineteen, a gentleman farmer and a member of the local agricultural society. It is within the society that he got his first taste of running for office, when he was elected president of the society at a relatively young age. He served in a number of community jobs and elected positions, including state senator and Lt. Governor before becoming governor in 1897. He was in office only two years, leaving on the 4th of January in 1899. During this time, he was the subject of one Edison film (in the form of an early newsreel): Governor Cook and Staff, Connecticut in 1897 (note the Edison Co's misspelling of his last name). The film was made/directed by James H. White, who was head of the Edison production department from 1896 through 1902. Cooke lived just 3 1/2 years after he left the governor's mansion, dying at the age of 71 in Winstead, Conn. on the 12th of August 1902. He is buried, with his two wives, at the Colebrook Center Cemetery in the Connecticut town of the same name. As with all historical figures, please follow the links posted below if you are interested in learning more about their lives, accomplishments, and why they were of interest as subjects of early film.
No comments:
Post a Comment