Ivy Elizabeth (Mullins) Cook

I wrote the following memoriam as a tribute to my great grandmother, Ivy, that was to be included in a cookbook my Cook cousins and I were planning to put together:

Ivy Elizabeth Mullins was my great grandmother, mother of my grandmother Greta Cook Shoeman.  She was born on July 23, 1862, in Red Rock Township, Marion County, Iowa, the daughter of Gordon Lambert Mullins and Nancy Jane Courson.  She was the third born in a family of thirteen children, two of her siblings having died early in life. Her father, Gordon, was one of the "speculators" of his day, a prosperous Iowan who engaged in considerable buying and selling of land. The family moved from Marion County to Polk County sometime after 1883. Gordon purchased the Locke Farm, which later became Camp Dodge. A fine brick home occupied by the Mullins family later became the officers quarters for the camp. Those lovely brick homes are still standing today. Ivy's sister, Araminta, relates in her memoirs that Ivy had more than she could do to help care for an extended family of seventeen members when their mother, Nancy, fell ill while living at this location. Father, Gordon, had brought the eldest daughter, Lora, and her children home for safety because of Indian scares in Nebraska, thus adding to the already large Mullins family. The family would soon move again a few miles from Des Moines, and then lastly to Dallas County where Gordon bought a 400-acre farm south of Adel in Van Meter Township.

On February 24, 1888, Ivy was united in marriage to Charles Campbell Cook in Adel, Iowa. To this union were born two daughters, Vera L. on August 18, 1888, and Mamie "Greta" on November 29, 1890. Tragedy would soon befall the young family when Ivy contracted influenza during the winter of l895. She died on January 29, 1895 at the young age of only thirty-two. Left to mourn her passing were her husband, Charles, and their two young daughters, ages 7 and 5. Vera and Greta were sent by their father to live with their grandparents, Gordon and Nancy Mullins, following their mother's death. They received piano lessons from their grandmother during this time. Their father, Charles, was remarried on October 27, 1897 to Mary Ada Longmire and the girls then joined their father and his new wife in their home. 

Ivy was laid to rest at Otterman Cemetery south of Adel, Iowa with other members of the Mullins family. May God bless the memory of my beautiful, and forever-young great grandmother, Ivy Elizabeth Mullins Cook.

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