4-H thread runs through 4 generations of the Cook family

Cook family members on their farm near Glasgow: (standing in truck, from left) Kristin Cook, Linda Somers, Brian Somers, Ben Somers; (seated on truck, from left) Sara Somers Mindy Cook, Madison Cook; and (standing, from left) Betsy Morris, Stephen Cook, Martha Cook, Hap Cook, Jordan Cook and Herman Cook

2:23 p.m., July 27, 2005--To Hap and Martha Cook, the concept of a family farm is more than a vaguely nostalgic notion of northern Delaware’s vanishing rural heritage. For the Cooks, farming is an ongoing way of life and one where the focus always is on family.

Their 270-acre dairy farm on Frazer Road near Glasgow is a rarity now--a working farm, not only in New Castle County, but also north of the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal. The farm, which has been in their family for more than a century, today is surrounded by suburban housing developments. The Cooks, however, say they couldn’t imagine living or working anywhere else.

Hap Cook was born H. Wallace Cook Jr. in 1934. His parents, Herman Wallace Cook and Frances McCoy Cook, brought him home from the hospital to the farmhouse where he and his wife now live and where they raised their own four children.

“My mother moved here when she was a year old, in 1902,” Hap Cook said. “When she and my dad got married, they kept living on the farm and raised dairy cows. One of the oldest photos we have of my dad is of him competing in the Cooperative Extension Corn Yield Contest.”

The photo isn’t surprising, the Cooks said. The family’s involvement with Delaware Cooperative Extension goes back almost as far as the program’s inception 90 years ago, and it continues today with the Cooks’ nine grandchildren. Those grandchildren, ages 6-22, make up the fourth generation of Cook youngsters for whom 4-H has played an important role in their lives.

“Dad was in 4-H when he was young, and then when he was farming, he was an Extension ‘cooperator’ right from the beginning,” Hap Cook said. He recalled the county Extension agent visiting the farm frequently to discuss concerns and offer research-based advice. When the elder Cook went overseas with the Delaware National Guard in World War II, it was the Extension agent who helped Frances Cook downsize the operation to the point that she and her young sons and daughter could manage it.

“My dad ran the farm from the South Pacific” in 1943-45, Hap Cook said. “He wrote letters to my mom telling her how to handle things, and our county agent helped. My brother and I stayed active in 4-H and FFA [Future Farmers of America] during that time, and when my dad came home, we still had 14 cows we were milking.”

Martha Gruwell Cook also grew up on a farm, in Kent County, Del., and was active in her local 4-H club. As teenagers, she and Hap Cook both attended 4-H “short courses,” which were the predecessors of today’s popular 4-H summer camps, but they didn’t meet until some years later when both were students at the University of Delaware.

At UD, Martha Cook earned a degree in nutrition and dietetics in 1956 and then went to Boston to complete a hospital internship to earn her registered dietitian credentials. Hap Cook, who graduated the same year with a degree in animal science, remained involved in Extension-related activities during his four years at the University. He was a member of the agriculture college’s competitive poultry-judging and dairy-cattle-judging teams, and during his senior year, he broadcast the “Delaware Farm and Home Hour” on WDEL-AM, interviewing professors about agricultural research and reporting other news of interest to farmers and gardeners.

After graduation, Hap Cook worked as a Cooperative Extension agent in Chester County, Pa., for about 18 months, then returned to the family farm in 1958 to work with his father. He and Martha married that same year and went on to have four children, Herman W. Cook III, Linda Cook Somers, Betsy Cook Morris and Stephen Cook. Linda is a manager in the dean’s office of UD’s Lerner College of Business and Economics.

Today, Herman Cook and his own son, 22-year-old Jordan, work on the farm with Hap Cook. The three generations will farm about 500 acres this year, including a few parcels they rent, raising corn, soybeans, hay, wheat and barley, in addition to their dairy herd.

Over all the years, the Cooks have continued their partnership with Cooperative Extension, particularly with the 4-H program. All four of their children and all nine grandchildren have been involved—attending summer camps, first as campers and later as group leaders and then counselors; holding leadership positions in their local clubs and regional organizational boards; completing projects from sewing to woodworking; and, of course, raising and showing animals at the Delaware State Fair and other competitions.

“When our kids were growing up, I was mostly involved as a chauffeur. I got them all to where they needed to go for 4-H,” Martha Cook said with a modest laugh. When pressed, however, she acknowledged that she helped “a little” with the projects, overseeing her daughters’ entries into various baked goods contests and spending a week each summer at the state fair, while her children cared for the calves they were showing.

At the Cooks’ farm today, various grandchildren keep the animals they are raising as 4-H projects, and three or four other youngsters are leasing cows there. The lease program, pioneered by Stephen Cook several years ago, allows children who don’t live on farms to take part in the traditional 4-H animal projects. A 4-H’er signs a lease in which the Cooks retain ownership of the Jersey cow or other animal, but the youngster is responsible for its care for several months, usually culminating in its entry into the state fair.

“It’s different today, because so many of the kids don’t live on farms,” Hap Cook said. “Until they come to visit a farm with their 4-H club or go to a 4-H camp, they don’t even know where the food they eat comes from.”

“I think 4-H has really reached out to work with urban and suburban kids and to do more different kinds of projects with them,” Martha Cook said. “Even when they’re not doing a project with animals, it’s still a wonderful experience for kids.”

Her children agree, saying they gained lifelong benefits from their involvement with 4-H and encouraging their own sons and daughters to join the organization, as well. The new generation is part of a 4-H that has broadened its activities a bit, adding crafts and environmental clean-up projects to the traditional cooking and sewing, and showing pigs, goats and sheep in addition to dairy cows.

But, the basic values and services provided by the program remain constant, Linda Somers said, adding that her children, Ben and Sara, “enjoy 4-H as much as I did.” Although Linda Somers earned her degree from UD in 1987 in accounting, not agriculture, she said her 4-H experiences have helped her career.

“The most important thing I got out of it was the confidence to stand on my feet and speak to a group,” she said. “I learned how to run a business meeting, because the clubs have their own organizational meetings that the kids run themselves, and other leadership skills. I also think that caring for animals teaches responsibility and the importance of keeping your commitments.”

Somers continues her involvement as one of the leaders of her children’s 4-H club, and her husband, Brian, teaches shooting sports for the organization.

Her sister, Betsy Morris, works part-time with 4-H after-school programs in the Knollwood neighborhood of Claymont, Del. She said the youngsters in those programs, who live in an urban community of row houses with small yards, nevertheless “have really latched onto 4-H.” They do such projects as crafts, gardening, community service and substance-abuse prevention education.

Morris and her husband, Richard, who is a research associate at the University and responsible for the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources’ dairy herd, also remain involved in 4-H through the participation of their three children, Jenna, Tara and Jason.

“My kids have been involved for years, and they all do the summer camps,” Betsy Morris said. “I can see where it’s benefited them greatly in developing leadership skills and an interest in helping their community.”

Stephen Cook earned his degree from UD’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources in 1996 and teaches agricultural science at Caesar Rodney High School in Dover, Del., where he also is the FFA club adviser. His wife, Kristin, teaches the same subject at Smyrna Middle School, and their children, Mindy and Madi, participate in livestock shows and other 4-H activities.

The animal leasing program that Stephen Cook started as a way to help some of his nonfarm students get hands-on experience in animal care “has really snowballed,” Hap Cook said, and is being offered at various farms and 4-H clubs.

Herman Cook III, who has made the family farm his career and shares it with his son, called 4-H “an excellent experience for me and my kids.” Being an officer in his local club and a group leader in summer camps were especially positive ways of gaining confidence and building friendships, he said. His son, Jordan, continues to be involved in the organization, he said, and his daughter, Kaitlin, was active in various projects until she moved from Delaware.

“A lot of these kids in 4-H nowadays are not living on farms, and they’re not going to grow up to be farmers,” Hap Cook said. “But, I still say that there’s no better experience for a kid than learning a little about what farming is all about.”

Article by Ann Manser
Photo by Duane Perry

E-mail this article

To learn how to subscribe to UDaily, click here.