Last week, I was in Indianapolis, Indiana, with my daughter, for the 10th Annual Eucharistic Congress. Indianapolis is a one-hour drive from Alexandria, Madison, Indiana. Alexandria, the home of the Alexandria Paper Company, the Cook House on South Park, and the portrait of Jennie Cook. 

I have known about the portrait of Jennie since 2001, when my mom contacted the Alexandria-Monroe Township Historical Society via email. I do not have a copy of Mom’s email to the society, but she kept a copy of the response. The response states: “We have a large picture of Mrs. S. H. Cook [sic], painted in 1917.”¹ In 2016, a cousin visited Alexandria and took a photo of the portrait that she shared with me, telling me that she had been told that the portrait had been saved from the dump and was then donated to the historical society’s museum.² “The back of the 1917 painting indicates the portrait was created from a photograph.”³

Other than comparing the image to the only known image we have of her daughter, Maud. I filed the electronic image for later consideration.

The time for further consideration has come. On Wednesday, 17 Jul 2024, we traveled to Alexandria to see the portrait that now hangs in the Alexandria-Monroe Public Library. 

The following are my thoughts, musings, speculations, my considerations. 

Samuel Andrew Cook, the husband of Jennie Christie Cook, a serial businessman, had his first taste of politics in 1889 when he was elected the mayor of Neenah, Winnebago, Wisconsin. He went on to serve in the Wisconsin State Assembly in 1891 and 1892 before being elected on the Republican ticket to the Fifty-fourth Congress (March 4, 1895 – March 3, 1897). In other words, we have many images of S.A. taken through the years but no image of Jennie or their children, Henry Harold (Harry) and Maud Cook Lancaster.

Walking into the library, we were met by board members Vickie and Jenny and were led upstairs to where the portrait was hung. There she was—Jennie Cook, or as she is labeled, Mrs. S. A. Cook. The portrait is large, about 3 feet wide by 4ish feet long. She stares out at you with a bit of a side-eye. The artist has chosen to color her dress black; her face glows out from her black dress and background. The frame is beautiful. Elaborate in a refined sort of way. 

I am speculating that the original photograph was taken in 1895, possibly in Aurora, Ontario, Canada, while she was visiting Yule relatives.⁴ It was during this trip that she fell ill and passed away on 19 Sep 1895 at the age of 46. Her body was brought back to Neenah, Winnebago County, where she was buried on 23 Sep 1895 in Oak Hill Cemetery. She left behind her husband, Samuel, age 46, daughter, Maud, age 17, and son, Harry, age 14.

If the painting was made from a photograph in 1917, this date coincides with Harry’s marriage to Martha Wheeler Paine on 30 Jun 1917. While the couple had grand plans to enlarge the house beyond the expanded footprint that was achieved through the remodel that Edwin Yule had done at the time of his marriage to Georgina Lemon, the current living room at 28’x 15’⁵ was large enough for entertaining, and to support a large portrait. 

If Harry had commissioned a portrait of his mother for his home, then it stands to reason that he would also have commissioned a portrait of his father – the founder and head of the Alexandria Paper Company. I imagine the two portraits hung side by side in the living room.

Harry contracted sleeping sickness in January 1920 and never returned to Alexandria to live full-time. The house sat empty for almost a decade. In early 1925, it was broken into, and “every room had been entered, and the contents of all drawers, wardrobes, closets, pantries and even the attic had been rummaged.”⁶ In 1928, Harry and Martha divorced, and Martha received a “portion of the furnishings.”⁷

There is no record that Harry returned to the house. He passed away on 25 Jan 1931 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. We know that at some point, the house was cleared of its contents, as in June 1934, the home opened as the Colonnade Inn.

I would like to add one additional speculation. It is just a thought. In September 1931, Maud presented “a large and beautifully done oil portrait” to the S. A. Cook Armory board. The portrait was hung in the main hall of the armory.⁸ No image of the portrait was included in any of the newspaper accounts telling of the donation. Could this have been the companion piece to the portrait of Jennie? Had Maud removed both portraits, hanging her mother’s likeness in the Ed Yule home and donating her father’s to the Armory? Was it at the time of Ed’s death in December 1970 that the portrait made its way to the dump? We may never know.

While the portrait of Jennie now hangs safely in the library, her husband’s portrait is missing. In 1970, the S. A. Cook Armory was sold and became a mini-mall known as The Armory Shops. The portrait stayed with the building “mounted on the main floor…near the North Commercial Street entrance.” About 18 Aug 1982, the portrait was stolen. I find the following statement odd. The “Cook portrait was taken about a week ago. The theft was reported to police on Wednesday.” This newspaper report was dated Thursday, 26 Aug 1982. Why did they wait a week to report the painting stolen? The portrait was described as being 3’ x 5’, believed to date from the early 1900s. No image of the portrait was included in the report of the theft. The frame was estimated as weighing 25 to 35 pounds and was “constructed of heavy ornately carved wood painted over gold. The carving includes scrolls and other designs familiar to the early 1900s period.” “Despite intense efforts…the Cook portraitist has never been identified.”⁹ The portrait was never recovered. 

I am grateful to the Alexandria-Monroe Township Historical Society for their care and consideration of Jennie Cook’s portrait. It would have been so easy to set her aside. Rightly asking why they should care about this large image of a woman who never lived in Alexandria and whose family’s impact on the community is but a distant memory? Thanks must also be given to the Alexandria-Monroe Public Library for agreeing to prominently hang the painting at the top of the stairwell. The Cook family thanks you.

1. Nancy Draper, “Cook Family,” email (Alexandria, Madison, Indiana, United States), to Emmie Lou Sternitzky, 23 Mar 2001.  ↩︎
2. Sharon Cook, “more from Alexandria,” email to Susan Sternitzky Fassbender, 29 April 2016. ↩︎
3. “Alexandria-Monroe Township Historical Society portrait hung in Alexandria-Monroe Public Library,” Jenny Corbett, Editor, T he Alexandria Times-Tribune, 3 May 2023; digital images, (alexandriatimes-tribune.com : accessed 2 Jul 2024), a CherryRoad Media Newspaper. ↩︎
4. CarolAnne Prentice Chepurny, “Jennie Cook,” email, to Susan Sternitzky Fassbender, 9 Jul 2018. ↩︎
5. Zillow listing, (https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1515-S-Park-Ave-Alexandria-IN-46001/97338853_zpid/) : accessed 23 Jul 2024). ↩︎
6. “Bold Thieves Break into The Cook Home,” The Times-Tribune, 10 Jan 1925, p. 1, col. 7; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 24 May 2016). ↩︎
7. “Life Insurance Policy $25,000 to Mrs. Cook,” The Times-Tribune, 21 Feb 1928, p. 1, col. 2; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 24 May 2016). ↩︎
8. “Cook Portrait is Given to Armory,” The Daily Northwestern, 25 Sep 1931, Friday Evening, p. 16, col. 2; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 20 Jun 2016). ↩︎
9. “Historic Cook portrait stolen,” Neenah-Menasha Edition of The Post-Crescent, 26 Aug 1982, Thursday, p. 1, col. 1 and p. 3, col. 2; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 9 Jul 2024). ↩︎