Cook - Stella
Source: Crawfordsville Weekly Journal 5 Sept 1861 p 3
Darlington, Sept 18 - When the 9:30 train pulled into Darlington yesterday morning carrying the body of Stella Cook, the girl drowned in Lake Michigan, the Tuesday previous, it was met by a large crowd of people. Many of the friends and relatives of the dead girl were there, and many others by curiosity and kind feelings for the relatives. The condition of the body was such that immediate interment was necessary. The casket was taken from the depot to the Rice cemetery where a grave had been prepared by the side of he rmother, followed by many. At the grave short services were held by Rev. JC Crowder, a choir led by Charley Foust sang a couple of hymns, and the casket was lowered into the grave. Sad hearts turned away. All was done that could be done for Stella. The father and family have the sympathy of the entire community in this, their sad affliction. – kbz
Source: Crawfordsville Weekly Journal Friday, 20 September 1901
The Chicago police are endeavoring to discover the whereabouts of Miss Stella Cook, the 17 year old daughter of Link Cook, of Darlington. They have strong cause for thinking that she was murdered in a row boat on Lake Michigan and her body thrown into the water. Her suspected murderer is William Thurston, with whom she had been living for some time past as a wife. Miss Cook met Thurston, who is a hotel chef, last June, having met him in Michigan City. They went to Chicago and last Thursday went boat riding on the lake. Later the boat was found dismantled and it was learned that Thurston had come ashore and left on a boat for Mackinac in the capacity of chef. Miss Cook has not since been seen and the police think she was murdered as Thurston is known as a savage man.
Source: Crawfordsville Weekly Journal Friday, 20 September 1901
With the finding in the water at the foot of Peck Court in Chicago Sunday, of the body of M. G. Vanderburg, a wealthy resident of the Netherlands, an associate of American capitalists, and a guest at the Auditorium Annex, the mysterious death of Stella Cook, of Montgomery County last Tuesday night, was cleared. Miss Cook was not murdered, according to the present belief of the police, but lost her life with Mr. Vanderburg by the overturning of a boat in which they were rowing.
The discovery of the Hollander’s body not only cleared up the ‘murder mystery,’ but dispelled the cloud of suspicion that has settled about Harry Thurston, cook on the steamer, City of Traverse, and companion of the dead girl. Thurston was under arrest at Mackinac Island, charged with the crime and the Chicago police had gone there after him.
Vanderburg disappeared from the Auditorium Annex on Tuesday evening and was not heard from until his body was found.
Vanderburg was connected with the Royal Netherlands steamship company and with the steamship company of Netherlands. His home was in Amsterdam, where he was a man of prominence. He was just completing a trip around the world, and had been several weeks in the United States making an effort to establish a steamship line between San Francisco and Batavia, Java, where the companies in which he is interested now have a port.
Identification of the man was made complete by George Birkhoff, Jr., consul for the Netherlands, who took dinner with Vanderburg at the Union League Club last Tuesday night.
The Journal Monday morning received the following letter from Sam S. Martin, who accompanied the girl’s father to Chicago:
“Chicago, Ill., Sept. 15, 1901—CRAWFORDSVILLE JOURNAL:--In company with A. L. Cook, father of Stella Cook, we came here Saturday morning for the purpose of learning any, or all of the particulars concerning her untimely death. Stella was last seen Tuesday evening as she was leaving the wharf on the lake for a pleasure ride with a man supposed to be Wm Thurston. An upturned boat and a broken oar was all that came back to tell the tale. Later Thurston was known to leave the city and the police wired for his arrest, at Mackinac Island which was done upon his arrival at that point. Mr. Cook, on the advice of the police, had sworn out a warrant for Thurston charging him with the murder of Stella and Detective Herman left last night to bring back the prisoner. The body of Stella was taken from the lake by a government life saver late yesterday evening, which fully convinced all on the case that Thurston was the murderer. But this morning when the body of M. G. Vanderburg was also found and identified as the person that went out with Stella, the whole thing is changed, and Stella’s death was undoubtedly accidental. Vanderburg is a comparative stranger here—a foreigner, traveling from place to place, and how or where he met her no one knows, as she was known at the hotel as Mrs. Thurston. Tomorrow an inquest will be held and we will leave here for Darlington, in the evening arriving there on the 9:13 a.m. train. The funeral will be conducted in the afternoon, interment at the Rice Cemetery, north of town.
“Stella left home near one year ago, going to Michigan City and coming here in June. Her life in this city was a short one and her death is a sad one, as it is a horrible sight to see the two bodies as they lie in the morgue today, scarcely to be recognized.”
S. S. Martin
A correspondent of The Journal at Darlington sends the following communication in regard to Stella Cook, the unfortunate young girl who met a tragic death at Chicago last week: “Stella Cook was the second daughter of A. Lincoln and Alice Cook, and would have been seventeen years old next month. She was born in Sugar Creek Township but has lived a part of the time in Darlington. Her mother died a little over a year ago. About one year ago Stella went to live with her cousin, Mrs. Laura Sharfenburg, at Porter, Ind., a little west of Michigan City. Later on the Sharfenburgs moved to Michigan City. According to her letters her cousin would not allow her to come home as she had often requested them to do, but instead, they refused her a home any longer. She was then obliged to look out for herself. She soon became acquainted with Mr. Thurston, a chef on a steamer plying between Chicago, Michigan City and other points on Lake Michigan. According to letters from her she went with Thurston to Chicago last June and put up at the Grand Eastern Hotel, 360 Wabash Avenue. She wrote her father later on that she was going to marry Thurston and asked his written consent that they might be able to procure a marriage license, she not being of lawful age she would be obliged to have his consent. On September 2, her father received another letter from her stating that she had been married to Harry Thurston and that she wanted him to go to the clerk at the court at Crawfordsville and draw her money and send it to her, that they were going to buy an interest in the hotel. Her father went to get the money but Clerk Kennedy informed him that as he was not the girl’s guardian nor empowered with power of attorney, that it would be impossible for him to get the money. Her father had written her concerning this matter on the morning he received the sad news of her supposed death. To know a person as we have known Stella Cook is to say that we have known her from her cradle to her grave. We see her in long dresses, a little cherub with all its lamb like innocence. We see her at school, at play with her classmates, her heart is light and free, never a thought entering her peaceful mind that she in some future day is to be the victim of an assassin. No never. We see her grow to womanhood. We take special notice of her kind amiable disposition and lady like manners. We prophesy that she will make some man a true and noble wife, but our prophesy has fallen to the earth. We too have daughters growing into womanhood, and I cannot help asking myself what I am raising them for. We know not the future.”
T. M. C.