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By Martha Jordan SolandOliver Bradford answered Father Abraham’s call to save the Union in 1861. He served in Company F of the 14th Iowa Volunteer Infantry. J.C. Leach rode with Company D of the Third Iowa Cavalry. Isaac R. Gaddis, a member of Company I of the 19th Iowa Volunteer infantry, survived the carnage outside Vicksburg and saw the city fall to the boys wearing the Union blue.What do these three Civil War veterans have in common? Each was rescued from oblivion by a Van Buren County superintendent of schools. He was Theodore M. Cook.To Linda and Gary Auwaerter, 1419 Division St., Cook was “beloved Grandpa.” Grandpa Cook was an individual who painstakingly, with the aid of his wife Mamie, now of Creston, transcribed diaries and letters of Billy Yank.GRANDPA, Linda explained, was not just a Civil War buff. He was one of those rare and amazing educators who recognized the historical signifance of first-hand accounts of the terrible civil conflict between the North and the South.Not only did Grandpa Cook understand the importance of words, written in crabbed penmanship on yellowing and decaying paper, but he also set himself to the task of preserving them for future gener-Theodore Cookations. “Grandpa, said Linda, “donated his works in libraries and schools in Des Moines and Van Buren counties rather than making money on them.”Cook's first literary endeavor was entitled The Boys in Blue. It was written in 1963 when Linda was 14 years old. Linda does not have a copy of this purblication and is looking for one.SHE SAID CANDIDLY, “I never
Newspaper Details
Burlington Hawk Eye
Burlington, Iowa, US
Wed, May 19, 1982
Page 7
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 10 Jun 2023
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