History of the Cook and Scooffy families
The following information is from The Garden of Innocence
"Edith Howard Cook was born on November 28, 1873, into two families prominent in the worlds of commerce and society in San Francisco, in the last half of the 19th century and well into the 20th.
Her father, Horatio Nelson Cook, born in Delaware in 1840, was one of several children of Matthew M. and Catherine Cook. He was from England; she from Nova Scotia. They brought the family to San Francisco from the east coast around 1860. Matthew M. Cook died in 1869. Catherine Cook lived until 1887. They were both buried in the Cook family plot in the Odd Fellows Cemetery.
Edith’s mother, Edith Scooffy Cook, was born in 1851 in San Francisco into one of California’s pioneer families. Two of her siblings who died young are buried in the cemetery at Mission Dolores. Her father, Peter M. Scooffy, was born in Greece and immigrated to the United States as a young man. About 1845 he married Martha J. Bradley, who was descended from one of the earliest established Virginia families. They lived for a time in New Orleans, and then made their way to San Francisco, where he became a successful merchant. Peter M. Scooffy was an original member of the Society of California Pioneers. Peter M. Scooffy died in 1875. Martha J. Scooffy lived until 1906.
Horatio Cook and Edith Scooffy married in 1870 and soon took up residence at 635 Sutter St., in San Francisco. With his father, Horatio Cook established M.M. Cook & Sons, which specialized in the tanning of
hides and manufacture of leather belting. He also served as Consul for Greece. He died in 1891 at the Cook
home in Belvidere, Marin County, CA, and was interred in the family plot in the Odd Fellows Cemetery, with
his father, mother and beloved daughter, Edith, as well as other Cook family members. His wife, Edith Scooffy
Cook lived until 1919. She was interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, CA.
Besides Edith Howard Cook, who died on October 13, 1876, Horatio Nelson and Edith Scooffy Cook
had the following children: Milton H. Cook: Born in 1871. After his father’s death, he continued to manage the family business, the H.N. Cook Belting Manufacturing Co. He died in 1926. Peter Cook, the living Cook family descendant found by the Miranda Eve researchers, and who made the identification of Edith Howard Cook possible, is the grandson of Milton Cook and the grandnephew of Edith Howard Cook. Ethel Cook: Born in 1878. She was a well-known figure in San Francisco society. Declared, by a Russian nobleman, to be the most beautiful woman in America. She married twice, the second time to a member of another prominent San Francisco family, the Currans. She died in 1935. Clifford G. Cook: Born in 1881.
He joined his older brother in the management of the family business. He died in 1927."
Information source: Garden of Innocence
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