James Merrill Cook (November 19, 1807 in Ballston,

Saratoga County, New York Saratoga County is a county in the U.S. state of New York, and is the fastest-growing county in Upstate New York. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the county's population was enumerated at 235,509, representing a 7.2% increase from the 2010 populat ...

– April 12, 1868 in Saratoga, New York) was an American businessman, banker and politician.

Career

From 1838 to 1856, he was the first President of the Ballston Spa Bank (later Ballston Spa National Bank) and also was the owner of cotton mills at Ballston Spa. In 1842, 1843 and 1845, he was President of the Village of Ballston Spa. He was a delegate to the New York State Constitutional Convention of 1846. He was a member of the

New York State Senate The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature; the New York State Assembly is its lower house. Its members are elected to two-year terms; there are no term limits. There are 63 seats in the Senate. Partisan com ...

(13th D.) from 1848 to 1851, sitting in the 71st, 72nd, 73rd, 74th New York State Legislatures. At the state election in November 1851, he was elected

New York State Treasurer The New York State Treasurer was a state cabinet officer in the State of New York between 1776 and 1926. During the re-organization of the state government under Governor Al Smith, the office was abolished and its responsibilities transferred to the ...

on the Whig ticket by a margin of only 228 votes (200,693 for Cook; 200,465 for Welch), and took office on January 1, 1852. His Democratic opponent Benjamin Welch, Jr. contested the election successfully, and on November 20, 1852, Welch succeeded to the office for the remainder of the term. He was

New York State Comptroller The New York State Comptroller is an elected constitutional officer of the U.S. state of New York and head of the New York state government's Department of Audit and Control. The New York State Comptroller is the highest-paid state auditor or ...

from 1854 to 1855, defeated for re-election in 1855 by the American Party candidate

Lorenzo Burrows Lorenzo Burrows (March 15, 1805 – March 6, 1885) was an American merchant, banker and politician. Life He attended the academies at Plainfield, Connecticut and Westerly, Rhode Island. He moved to New York and settled in Albion, N.Y., in 1824. ...

. From 1856 to 1861, he was Superintendent of the New York State Banking Department. He was again a member of the State Senate (15th D.) in

1864 Events January–March * January 13 – American songwriter Stephen Foster ("Oh! Susanna", "Old Folks at Home") dies aged 37 in New York City, leaving a scrap of paper reading "Dear friends and gentle hearts". His parlor song " ...

and

1865 Events January–March * January 4 – The New York Stock Exchange opens its first permanent headquarters at Broad Street (Manhattan), 10-12 Broad near Wall Street, in New York City. * January 13 – American Civil War : Sec ...

Personal life

Cook was married to Anna Cady. Their daughter, Catherine Phillips Cook married George Sherman Batcheller. Cook is buried in the Ballston Spa Village Cemetery.

Sources

Official state canvass, in NYT on January 1, 1852

Political Graveyard

''History of Saratoga County, New York'' by Nathaniel Bartlett Sylvester (1878)
Google Books
''The New York Civil List'' compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (pages 34, 36, 39 and 139; Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858)

The Whig ticket in 1855, in NYT on September 29, 1855

Re-appointed Bank Superintendent, in NYT on January 13, 1859

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cook, James M 1807 births 1868 deaths New York (state) Whigs 19th-century American legislators New York (state) state senators New York state comptrollers American bankers New York State Treasurers Burials in Saratoga County, New York 19th-century American businesspeople