Solomon Cook
Cook, Solomon, (1813-1871)
Solomon Cook was born in Dixmont, County of Penobscot, Maine, USA in 1813. He was the son of blacksmith, Jacob Cook and his wife Mary Cook nee Harthorn or Hathorne. Solomon became a blacksmith and millwright. After both parents died in 1830, he travelled with sealing and whaling parties to the Southern Hemisphere, with journeys to Western Australia in 1831 and 1837.
On July 10, 1839, Solomon sailed on the whaling boat “Mayflower” from Massachusetts to whaling grounds in New Zealand. The boat visited Albany where Solomon and four companions “jumped ship”, in February 1840, with his absconding being reported to the Albany police. Solomon initially worked as a carpenter and a shipwright. One of the vessels he built on the Kalgan River was the 39 foot long “Chance” which was completed on July 5, 1842.
In 1846 became involved in a whaling partnership with John Craiggie and John Thomas. In May 1847, when applying for naturalisation, Solomon stated that he had also been involved in building the vessels “Emma Sherratt” and “Vulcan”. Another boat he also built was the “Fairy”.
In October 1847, Cook was granted a sawyer’s licence for a month, which may have been for timber for a vessel, or a water powered flour mill on St Werburgh’s, near Mount Barker. The mill, for George Egerton Warburton, was of timber construction with the mill grindstones made of local granite. John Maley, whom Solomon treated as a son, was a young apprentice on this mill.
On December 22, 1848, Solomon married Elizabeth West, aged 17 years, the daughter of Bob West, a sealer. They had a daughter, Isabella.
The American born Solomon needed to be naturalised to purchase land or to own a share in a boat. The process required the Colonial Government to pass legislation specifically naming the individuals to receive the rights as a British subject. It took nearly two years to resolve and an application fee of £5. On May 9, 1849 Solomon’s application was granted. In anticipation of being able to own land, Solomon applied for approval to take stone from Government Lands in April 1849 to build a flour mill at York. Also in April 1849, Solomon contracted to build the 520 foot long Canning Bridge. The timber bridge was open for traffic on December 2, 1849.
By January 1851, Solomon was advertising that his York flour mill was ready to receive grain. He also was the licensee of the “Dusty Miller Inn” at York up to April 1852. The mill was notable as being the first steam powered mill in Western Australia.
Cook was principally involved in constructing flour mills but was also active in converting river vessels to steam, as well as working on the construction of the second bridge across the Causeway at Perth. He was later involved with mills at Claisebrook and Point Belches.
In 1854, Solomon applied to use the abandoned Kingsford’s mill equipment to construct a mill at Claisebrook. In 1855 he was granted a lease on land adjoining the Perth Abattoir at Claisebrook provided he established a mill capable of grinding one ton of flour per day.
In 1857, Cook operated the first steam engine powered vessel manufactured in Western Australia, in partnership with Thomas William Mews and J Stevenson. The vessel was fifty feet long and ten feet wide with a boiler made of cartwheel rims welded together. It had an amusing end to its first journey with some passengers jumping in the water when clouds of steam issued from the engine. The stoker failed to operate a relief valve when he shut the engine off and a joint in the steam pipework failed.
By 1858, Cook established works in Murray Street on the site currently being occupied by David Jones. The work undertaken included manufacture of steam engines and agricultural equipment, wheelwrighting, coach and wagon building and boatbuilding. In 1858 he used an ingenious wheel and roller system to transport a 66 foot barge weighing 40 tonnes from his foundry. Travelling along Barrack Street to the launch site near the current Weld Club, the journey for the barge “Hope” took 20 horses and lasted several days.
On May 11, 1860, Solomon’s tender of £650 to widen and deepen the Perth Canal adjoining the site of the current Causeway was successful. He used a “spoon dredge” which had a leather bucket on a beam to undertake the work. It was a challenging project to achieve the required depth and also some of the dredged material was placed too close to the canal banks and was washed back in. Captain E M Grain was unsympathetic about the failure to complete the project as specified and an amount of £500 was paid for the partly completed work.
Cook's first wife Elizabeth and their daughter Isabella had died by 1860. On January 29, 1861, Solomon married the widow of his friend Henry Burgess. She was Louisa Elizabeth Betsy Burgess who had seven young children from her first and second marriages and went on to have five children with Solomon.
In 1865, Solomon assisted the convict construction of the second Causeway Bridge being 456 feet long and 18 feet wide. He was also involved in a large market garden operation on land leased from the Camfield Estate near the Causeway. In February 1866, a large fire caused £440 damage to his foundry in Murray Street. Public subscriptions were organised to offset some of his loss, and the fire resulted in Perth’s first volunteer fire brigade being formed.
Solomon Cook died on February 24, 1871. His widow Louisa arranged for his businesses, land and other assets to be sold up and by January 1872 had remarried John Hill of Guildford.
Francis Gow Armstrong and William Henry McGlew purchased the Murray Street premises and all of the patterns. They continued the business of machinists and iron and brass founders. Both F G Armstrong and W H McGlew had been apprentices with Solomon and F G Armstrong married Solomon’s stepdaughter Mary Ann Burgess in 1872.
Solomon Cook was a confident, capable and enthusiastic pioneer of new technology who sought out business opportunities ranging from whaling and mail runs to market gardening. He was able to reverse engineer a reaper and manufacture every component in Western Australia, to be able to introduce competitively priced reaping machines in this state.
Solomon regarded John Maley as his son and when Solomon died, John Maley took on responsibility for raising Solomon’s children.
References:
Greta Kuchling, Early Days, Vol 9 Pt3, 1985;
Martin Gibbs, A Biographical Index of Western Australian Whalers 1836 1879, 1996;
Rod Dickson, Steam Whistles on the Swam, Department of Maritime Archaeology, WA Maritime Museum No 70;
Rod Dickson, They Kept the State Afloat, Hesperian Press, Carlisle, 1998;
Inquirer, 14.7.1847, p1;
Perth Gazette and Western Australian Journal, 16.10.1847, p4;
Inquirer, 12.2.1851, p1;
Inquirer, 16.11.1853, p2;
The Perth Gazette and West Australian Times, 9.2.1866, p2;
The Inquirer and Commercial News, 17.1.1872, p2;
The Express, 30.1.1873, p1;
Western Mail, 23.4.1944, p29;
https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cook-solomon-3251 |Australian Dictionary of Biography Cook, Solomon]].
