Burton C. Cook

Burton Chauncey Cook was a United States [House of Representatives|U.S. representative] from Illinois.

Biography

He was born in Pittsford, New Yorkon May 11, 1819. Cook attended the Collegiate Institute, Rochester, New York. He studied law, and in 1835, he moved to Ottawa, Illinois, where he commenced the practice of law in 1840.
In 1846, Cook was elected by the legislature to the position of State's attorney for the ninth judicial district for two years. He was reelected by the people in 1848 for four years. He served as member of the Illinois Senate 1852–1860. He served as delegate to the Republican [National Convention] in 1860 and 1864. He served as member of the peace convention of 1861 held in Washington, D.C., in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending war.
Cook was elected as a Republican to the 39th [United States Congress|Thirty-ninth] and to the three succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1865, to August 26, 1871, when he resigned. He served as chairman of the United States [House Committee on Roads and Canals|Committee on Roads and Canals], and the Committee on District of Columbia.
He resumed the practice of his profession in Evanston, Illinois, and died there August 18, 1894. He was interred in Oakwood Cemetery, Chicago, Illinois.