February 4, 1843 – January 9, 1927
A member of the famed "Fighting McCooks," Second Lieutenant John James McCook served briefly in Company D of the 1st (West) Virginia Infantry Regiment during the Civil War.
John James McCook was born on February 4, 1843 in New Lisbon, Ohio. He was the fifth son and sixth child of John James McCook and Catherine Sheldon McCook.
Soon after the American Civil War began, John James McCook was commissioned as a second lieutenant in Company D of the 1st (West) Virginia Infantry Regiment (Three Months Service) on May 15, 1861. Records indicate that McCook left the army when his regiment's three-month term of service expired later that year.
After leaving the army, McCook enrolled at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, where he graduated in 1863. He then enrolled at the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale University, graduating in 1866. During the same year, McCook married Eliza Sheldon Butler in 1866.
After graduating from divinity school, McCook took the position of rector at St. John's Church in Detroit, Michigan. Later, he returned to Hartford and served as professor of modern languages at Trinity College for thirty years. Trinity's John J. McCook Professorship in Modern Languages was endowed in his honor. At Hartford, McCook was volunteer rector of St. John's Episcopal Church for sixty years. He was a nationally prominent social reformer whose groundbreaking research was among the first to address the social ills of the Victorian Age in America.
McCook died on January 9, 1927. He is buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery, Hartford County, Connecticut.
McCook was a member of the “Fighting McCooks,” fifteen family members who served the Union during the Civil War. McCook's father and five sons who served in the war were known as the “Tribe of John.” His uncle and eight cousins who served in the war were known as the “Tribe of Dan.” More men from the McCook family served the Union during the Civil War than any other family in the nation.
