My paternal grandfather, William Harry Cooke, came from England to Missouri where
  he married my grandmother, Helen Burton. They came to Lake City in 1886. My father, 
  Frank Samuel, three sisters, and two half-brothers were raised on a farm ten miles
  south.
     My maternal grandfather John, two brothers, and sister were born in Iowa, moved
  to California in 1851. He married my grandmother, Elizabeth Lester, At Syracuse,
  Kansas, in 1881. They came to Lake City in 1895. My mother, Gertrude, two brothers,
  and two sisters, and a half-brother live east a half mile. My father and mother
  were married in 1904. There were eight of us children born, approximately two years
  apart, Lillian, Guy, Alice, Pattie, Fred, myself (Keith), Phil and Rex.
     On Christmas we would go in a wagon with straw and blankets to the farm of
  Grandfather Cooke's for two or three days. We would meel all the aunts, uncles, and
  cousins - Lockerts, Larkins, and Cookes.
     Thanksgivings would be at Grandfather Durfees with the Davises, Ritches, Marquands,
  and Durfees. Their house is still about the same as then, and everytime I return, it
  seems I can still smell the spicy good odors of the food when I open the pantry door.
     It wasn't all holidays, as we all had work to do. My Dad thought if we kept busy,
  we would stay out of trouble. The older children worked to help support the
  younger ones at home. I did all the regular jobs; threshing, combining, shocking
  feed, cultivating, plowing, working cattle, shearing sheep, picking turkeys, fixing
  fence, and chopping wood. On one job tromping silage, I lost two goats; from that I
  realized not to feel too important.
     I spent the usual twleve years of schooling witht he following teachers; Beth
  Bradley, Robinson, Detwiler, Pagett, Northup, Cowan, and Voth.
     I delivered hand bills for silent movies at the old Community building, and
  delivered the Wichita Beacon and Eagle. All would meet at Harry Martin's, the only
  radio, and listen to Eddie Cantor, Amos and Andy, and Lum and Abner. I got lost
  going home three blocks one night in a dust storm.
     I went to work in 1936 for Texaco. I've worked for them in Wyoming, Colorado,
  Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois,
  Columbia, and Venezuela, South America.
     I married Virginia McAlvain in 1947 i Utah. She is from Oklahoma. We have one son
  and four daughters, each born in a different state; however our son ws born at 
  Hardtner, which gives another generation to Barber County.
     I return at least once a year to visit my mother at the Indian Hills Lodge. Each
  trip, I still feel right at home.
                
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas,  pg. 141 
     Submitted by: Keith L. Cooke