sentences:  Born in Seneca, Ohio, just two days before Iowa was admitted as a state, Cook attended common schools as a child, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1867, commencing practice in Newton, Iowa.He was judge of the sixth judicial district of Iowa in 1878.In 1880 Cook won the Democratic Party and Greenback Party nominations for the U.S. House seat in Iowa's 6th congressional district.