52 Ancestors #11 Bevlie Anderson Cook

Bevlie Anderson Cook & an
unidentified friend, Sunny Lane
Race Team, Sunny Lane,
Burnet Co., TX

 Sorry that I'm a bit late this week posting. They say a picture is worth a thousand words & for this photo, at least, those thousand words form a story about this one that has been passed down in my family.

The photo to the left is of my mother's maternal grandfather when he was a young man. Bevlie (or Beverly) Anderson Cook was the first born of four sons of William Melvin Cook & Lucendia Temperance Berry. He was born in Burnet Co., Texas on 11 Aug 1878. His younger brothers were Robert, William & John. His parents' marriage was not a very happy one (his father William was a good deal younger than his mother & if you consider their date of marriage with Bev's date of birth, they were probably forced to marry. They eventually separated). William has been reputed, in family lore, to have been a mean individual & as a consequence, Bev spent most of his time with various members of the McCoy family who lived nearby.

When Bev was 22, he married one of those McCoy neighbors, Dora Lee McCoy, daughter of William Riley McCoy & Martha/Mariah Elizabeth "Betty" Holland. Dora was only 15 years old when she said yes to the

Wedding photo of Bev Cook
& Dora Lee McCoy, Burnet Co.,
Texas-4 Nov 1900

farmer boy who spent so much time around her family members. They married on 4 Nov 1900 in Burnet Co., Texas. Their first son Leslie was born three years later, but only lived a month. A year later, they would be blessed with a little girl. It was during these years that Bevlie liked to take his bicycle & race it against the other young men in the area on the dirt roads of Sunny Lane on Sunday afternoons. The story goes that he would leave Dora to her own devices on those occasions to go off & race.

Dora prayed that something would break on Bev's bike so that he would be forced to quit racing & stay home with her. Eventually, the bike broke down & she got her wish. Bev farmed for a living & he & Dora raised six daughters (Bessie, my maternal grandmother Vera, Maggie, Goldia, Ruth & Maybelle) & a son (Melvin). Growing things was a talent he passed down to his children (I myself missed inheriting the green thumb they were blessed with). The family mostly lived in Burnet & San Saba County, Texas. The children eventually found spouses. They pretty much all stayed fairly close to home as young adults, farmed the land & started their own families. The Cook family continued the tradition of a yearly family reunion that Dora's McCoy family had started which continues on to this day each July. Bev & Dora enjoyed their grandchildren & great grandchildren, of which they were blessed with a seeming multitude. Of their children, only one, Maybelle Cook Ray, is still living.

Bevlie died on 28 July 1963 in San Saba, San Saba Co., Texas. A little over a year later, his wife Dora joined him in death. Both were laid to rest at Chappel Cemetery, San Saba, San Saba Co., TX, USA.