John Cooke, born in London in 1752, was kidnaped and sold to a Virginia planter as an indentured servant. He became a Revolutionary soldier and fought in the battles of Point Pleasant, Monmouth, and Stony Point. In lieu of army pay, he received a grant of land in Montgomery County, Virginia, on Little Laurel, where he and two sons settled in 1799. He was the first settler of Wyoming County and is buried here in the Delilah Chapel graveyard.