The John E. Cook House (1818)

When Nathaniel Cook purchased land at the intersection of Walkley Hill and Hayden Hill Roads in Haddam in 1818, a Federal-style house already existed on the property. In this home, Nathaniel’s son John Edwin Cook was born in 1830. An ardent abolitionist, John E. Cook participated in John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859. Cook arrived in Harpers Ferry in 1858, with the mission of scouting the area for John Brown. While there, he worked as a schoolteacher, book agent, and lock tender for the C&O Canal. He also married Mary Virginia Kennedy, a local woman. When the Raid ended with the capture of Brown and most of his followers, Cook was one of the party who escaped. He was later captured in Pennsylvania and tried in Virginia. Cook was hanged on December 16, 1859.