John C. Cook was the 4th child of Solomon Floyd Cook and Martha Shelton and the grandson of Hence Marvin Cook. John grew up in the mountains of Jackson County NC in the East Laport community. He was fatherless most of his life since Solomon had left to fight in the Civil War when John was only one year old. He probabily looked to his uncle Ethan Cook who lived near by as a father figure. Also, his mother's family, the Sheltons, may have lived in the area.

On April 14, 1881, John married Eva Browning in Waynesville, NC and they lived in Hazelwood which is near Waynesville. Over the next few years, John and Eva had three sons each born about 18 months apart: Robert, William and George. It seems there was a tannery close to where they lived and John would walk to work there every day.

There is a tragic part to this story. John found another man messing with Eva and he shot the man and then fled. We have heard several versions of this story.

One version of the story goes that John would travel away from home for several days at a time. He may have been taking produce or livestock to trade at market. When he returned home early from one of these trips, he found another man in bed with his wife. This so angered him that he pulled out a pistol and shot the man. John then hopped on his horse and fled thinking that he had killed the man. His wife's lover was only wounded and recovered but there was no way to get in touch with John. Not long after the incident a letter was received by his family that said he had riden his horse a thousand miles and felt like his horse had another thousand left in him. From this we have always thought that maybe he had gone to Texas or California.

Another version has John coming home from the tannery and finding the man with Eva. Eva was known for selling drinks from her residence. Eva and two of her sons were once charged with selling spiritious drinks by the glass. We have also heard that Eva was a flirt. It may have been that Eva had an irate customer that made an advance to her and that John came up on them, shot the man and then fled.

The common theme of the stories is that John shot a man who was messing with Eva in some way and thinking the man was dead then he fled the area.

Recently, another theory of what happened to him after he fled has surfaced. A death certificate was found in Clay County NC for a John Harrison Shelton that could be our John C. Cook who lived his life in hiding. John became an orphan when he was 3 years old (last seeing his father when he was one) and his family moved in with his mother's relatives, the Sheltons. He was raised in a household of Sheltons, so when he went into hiding after the shooting, he probabily took the Shelton name. On John Shelton's death certificate Ethan Cook (one of his father's brothers) is listed as his father.

For more information on William Shelton Family and Descendants click here.

According to Census reports John's mother Martha Ann Cook and 5 children were living on the family farm at East Laport, Jackson County, NC on July 1, 1870. She died in 1881 at the age of 52.

We will continually update our website as information is made available. Anyone wishing to add to or correct information on our website can contact John M. Cook, Jr at j-cook@mindspring.com or write to:

This Site visited times since 10/24/99.