Scope and Content Note
The papers of the McCook family span the years 1809-1966, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1850-1900. The collection relates to the Ohio family of “Fighting McCooks” that became prominent through the service of fifteen of its sons in the Civil War, seven of whom rose to the rank of general. Daniel McCook and his three sons, Robert, Daniel Jr., and Charles Morris, died of wounds received in action.
The larger part of the collections relates to the military and political career of Anson G. McCook (1835-1917), congressman from New York, 1877-1883; secretary of the U.S. Senate, 1883-1893; Union Army officer; and father of Katharine McCook Knox, the donor of the main body of the papers. The correspondence, principally 1830-1957, includes letters from Presidents Grover Cleveland, James A. Garfield, Ulysses S. Grant, Benjamin Harrison, Rutherford Birchford Hayes, William McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), as well as from correspondents such as Cornelius Newton Bliss, Robley D. Evans, Hamilton Fish, Marcus Alonzo Hanna, Thomas Nelson Page, Elihu Root, William T. Sherman, Edwin McMasters Stanton, and Mark Twain. Other material consists of scrapbooks, journals and diaries, photographs, printed matter, invitations, autograph albums, other memorabilia, and miscellany.