Burton Chauncey Cook (Congressional Biographical Directory)

COOK, Burton Chauncey, a Representative from Illinois; born in Pittsford, Monroe County, N.Y., May 11, 1819; attended the Collegiate Institute, Rochester, N.Y.; studied law; in 1835 moved to Ottawa, Ill., where he commenced the practice of law in 1840; elected by the legislature in 1846 State’s attorney for the ninth judicial district for two years; reelected by the people in 1848 for four years; member of the State senate 1852-1860; delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1860 and 1864; member of the peace convention of 1861 held in Washington, D.C., in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending war; elected as a Republican to the Thirty-ninth and to the three succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1865, to August 26, 1871, when he resigned; chairman, Committee on Roads and Canals (Fortieth Congress), Committee on District of Columbia (Forty-first Congress); resumed the practice of his profession in Evanston, Cook County, Ill., and died there August 18, 1894; interment in Oakwood Cemetery, Chicago, Ill.