Cook, Foxcrowle Percival

F.P. Cook was born in Bedfordshire, England on January 26, 1861.  Arriving in Montreal, Quebec on July 2, 1882 on the ship “Peruvian”, he worked his way west and arrived at Granite Creek in 1885, walking into the town with only his blankets.  He opened a bakery in the mining town, selling pies and bread to the prospectors.  Soon he bought out the store owned by Blair and Allan and stocked it with supplies of all kinds.

Cook would eventually own three stores, one each in Granite Creek, Princeton and Coalmont.  On June 15, 1892, Cook married Emma Woodward in Lower Nicola.    F.P. was so delighted to finally have a son, he gave the doctor $100.  Cook kept his investments diversified with a number of mining interests as well as half ownership of a ranch.  He was also the owner of the short-lived, Coalmont Courier newspaper in 1912.

A faulty stove pipe in his Granite Creek store burned down most of the town in 1907.  Cook was determined to rebuild the town.  Appointed in 1894, he was the last postmaster of Granite Creek.  In August, 1913, F.P. purchased the rebuilt Granite Creek Hotel when it went up for public auction.  Cook passed away at Vancouver General Hospital on July 31, 1918 from a brain abscess. He is buried in the family plot at the Granite Creek Cemetery.  Upon his death, the post office at Granite Creek closed and the town died.

His stores in Coalmont and Princeton continued to operate as the F.P. Cook Estate Stores.  Perley Russell ran the Princeton store for many years both before and after Cook’s death.

F.P. Cook was a successful businessman owning three separate stores.  He was a philanthropist, who donated money for the betterment of Granite Creek, Coalmont and Princeton.

Will of F.P. Cook