ORIGINAL HIGH COURT JUDGE HAD TIES TO CAPE GIRARDEAU COUNTY

One other judge in Missouri Supreme Court history had strong ties to Cape Girardeau County -- Judge John Dillard Cook, an original member of the state high court.

Cook was born in Virginia in 1790, but moved to Kentucky when he was 7. He began practicing law in that state in 1814 before establishing a practice in Ste. Genevieve, Mo., two years later.

In 1818, he represented Ste. Genevieve on the Territorial Council of Missouri, the pre-statehood governing body. He was named to the Supreme Court, which then consisted of three judges, in 1820. He resigned in 1823 and twice refused re-appointments to the high court.

According to an 1891 source, Cook was liberal in granting law licenses. One cabinet maker, fancying himself a lawyer, took his oral examination before Finch but could answer no questions on the law. Finch is purported to have said: "I will take pleasure in granting you a license, for I think you can do as little harm to the profession as any one I know."

After leaving the high court, Cook immediately moved to Cape Girardeau to serve as the circuit court judge for the region. He later established circuit courts in Stoddard, Dunklin and Mississippi counties. He resigned from the bench in 1848 to become U.S. attorney for eastern Missouri, a post he held until 1850.

Cook died in 1852 at Cape Girardeau, where he was buried. Although appointed to the Supreme Court from Ste. Genevieve, his portrait in the Supreme Court Building in Jefferson City lists him as being from Cape Girardeau.