Charlene Cole
Sandy Creek/Lacona Historian
Historian's Corner
October 31, 2014
Photo: Dr. Newton Cook with his dog “Billy Brownie” (c. 1935)
For the greater part of 60 years the sick and afflicted members of the community found their way to the Dr. Cook home on Railroad Street (Harwood Drive) and it was from these portals that the Doctor departed for calls taking him often into the rain and snow. Dr. Cook was the oldest physician in this section of the county and has seen the transition from the period when doctors reached their patients only after difficult drives over muddy or snow-blocked roads to the present era when the automobile enables the physician to make his daily rounds within a few hours.
Dr. Cook was born July 1, 1854 and came to Sandy Creek in 1876 and after his graduation from New York University Medical College in 1880 came back here to establish his practice.
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Mrs. Julia (Grinnell) Robbins, mother of Mrs. Cook built the house about 1876 following the death of her husband in 1871. After the marriage of Flora Robbins and Dr. Newton Cook in February 1880, the couple made their home there. Dr. and Mrs. Cook were leading members of the community with a wide circle of friends. They were members of the Congregational Church in which Mrs. Cook was very active. She was President of the Wednesday Club for a number of years and both were identified with numerous activities and projects about town. The house through the years rang with parties, get-togethers and fun. It was a house at which everyone was welcome. Upon Dr. Cook’s death on January 7, 1940, the house was sold to Judge and Mrs. Don Colony and was rented for several years.
When it was first built, the house stood alone, but is now the center of a busy, residential street. A picture of the house found in the History of Oswego County published in 1877, shows the house in a rural setting, surrounded by a picket fence. At one time Dr. Cook kept from three to four horses in the barn immediately back of the house, but as the years went by the number of horses dwindled and Dr. Cook bought a car with which to make his calls.
From a little boy who has fallen and scraped his knee to a man, badly injured in a lumbering accident, they have come to the house, or called on Dr. Cook in the near 60 years that he served the town and area. In the latter years he seldom answered calls, but his old patients kept on coming to the house for advice. Although the Cooks had no children of their own, many young girls were taken into their home, made a part of it and helped with their education.
August 7, 1956: Sanford Wheeler files: The Dr. Cook house was extensively damaged by fire (more than $8,000). Mr. and Mrs. Leon Bortles purchased the house about 1954 from Mrs. D. A. Colony who owned it after the death of Dr. Cook. |
Charlene Cole
Sandy Creek/Lacona Historian
1992 Harwood Drive
Sandy Creek, NY 13145
315-387-5456 x7
office hours: Friday 9am to 2pm
www.sandycreeknyhistory.com |
