International Corn Judging Award, Iowa State College, 1905-1907

Date1906

OriginUnited States of America

MediumBronze

Dimensions36 x 40 in. (91.4 x 101.6 cm)

ClassificationsSculpture

Credit LineAwarded to Iowa State College judging teams in 1905, 1906 and 1907 by the International Corn Association. In the Art on Campus Collection, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Object numberU86.523

Status

On view

Collections

Label TextCOOK CORN TROPHY Albert Eugene Cook, the donor and eponym of the Cook Corn Trophy was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Willard Cook. He became the manager of the Cook Ranch in Sac County in 1893 and later became the sole owner after buying the interests of two other heirs of the C. W. Cooks. (Brookmont Farm History, AS TIME GOES BY; The Odebolt Chronicle, May, 1977.) A.E. Cook also became an important citizen and friend but not an alumnus of Iowa State. The Beginnings The Brookmont Farm, also known as the Cook Ranch, was made up of 12 sections, 7680 acres, in a block spanning three sections north and south and four sections east and west. It included sections 27 through 34 of Cook (named for C. W. Cook) Township and sections 3 through 6 of Richland Township in Sac County. C. W. Cook, a resident of Chicago, purchased the land on April 15, 1873 at $5.00 per acre for a total of $38,400 from the Iowa Railway Land Company. He divided it into half-section farms with a complete set of farm buildings for the tenants, and identified them as Farms 1 through 23. He built his own home in the southeast corner of Section 33, Cook Township. It burned in the early 1990s and was replaced with a smaller but fully modern home. C. W. Cook imported his foundation herd of Hereford cattle (306 head, including 290 heifers) from England in 1883. The herd cost about $200,000. Later he was to import another 200. The animals were selected by the best cattle judge available, transported to Liverpool by a special train of 30 cars and a passenger coach, loaded on the chartered steamer Quebec of the Dominion Line, and remained in Canada for several months before arriving at the Cook Ranch. Hundreds of progeny were sold at the Farm before Albert E. Cook held the final dispersal sale on April 16 and 17, 1914. (Brookmont Farm History, AS TIME GOES BY, ibid.) Charles Willard Cook was born in Haddam, Connecticut to Willard and Abigail (Brainerd) Cook on July 13, 1832, both descendents of two prominent colonial immigrant English families, and died on August 11, 1900. (In another source by Lewis Publishing the birth and death years are each two years later.) He lived in Connecticut 12 years until his father, who had granite quarry interests in New England, became interested in the West, so he moved the family to a farm in Lake County, Illinois, quarried in Joliet, and moved into Chicago in 1854. In 1869 C. W. went into the wholesale coal business in downtown Chicago and rapidly expanded into additional pursuits. He and the first of three wives, Sarah E. Coonley, had three children, one of whom was Albert E. Cook. In failing health by age 32 and the absence of a business partner forced him to give up and sell his wide-spread interests to become an investor after three years recuperation travel with his family in Europe. One of these investments was the Brookmont Farm that he created in Sac County, Iowa. There were four school houses on the Farm and a church at each end in addition to the 23 half-section tenant farms. (CRAWFORD, IDA AND SAC COUNTIES, Lewis Publishing Co., 1893.) Later he also had land holdings in Monona County, Iowa, a ranch in Montana and a plantation in Louisiana The employment at the Cook Ranch part of Brookmont Farm reached about 50 men by 1885 in addition to the tenants living on the 23 farms. It is not clear how the cattle herd and the tenant farms were organized, but the herd had reached 640 by 1885, and was reputed to be the largest herd of purebred Hereford cattle in the world. The purebred Hereford cattle regularly were sold to stockmen and farmers, far and near, as cattle ranching continued to replace the decimated bison herds of the plains. Albert E. began to sell off small parcels of Brookmont Farm in about 1908, and then seriously started to liquidate larger farm units until the last land sales including the Cook homestead and the last tenant farm completed the exit from Brookmont in about 1918, some two years after the dispersal sale of the Hereford herd. The improved land was sold at about $200.00 per acre. Meanwhile, A. E. Cook had moved to Kankakee, Illinois where he and Mrs. Cook passed away. The Corn Trophy The Trophy was promised by A.E. Cook of Odebolt (personal comm. Bradley Kuennen, University Special Collections) in the midst of a period of unrest of our farming clientele with the direction in which the agricultural part of the "Peoples College" was taking. The curriculum was viewed as getting farther away from practical agriculture, in spite of the fact that the State Act of 1858 establishing the Agricultural College and Model Farm had been brought into conformity with the Federal Morrill Act of 1862, in 1884 after discussions starting in 1871. The results were the reorganization of this institution after changing its name to Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts and establishing divisions, including a Division of Agriculture led by Dean C. F. Curtiss in 1902 and departments, one of which was the Department of Agronomy led by P.G. Holden known for corn breeding. There seemed to be a new sense of "getting together" and setting the course for the future in Agriculture which by this time also had a Division for Research, the Agricultural and Home Economics Experiment Station resulting from the passage of the Hatch Act by Congress (E.D. Ross, HISTORY OF IOWA STATE COLLEGE, 1942). Many other trophies coincided with and followed the Cook Trophy, all having to do with corn improvement. An image and description of The Cook Trophy was presented in the Iowa Agriculturalist for November 1903, pp. 16-17 (personal communication, Bradley Kuennen, 2012.) The digitized caption by Google follows: "This magnificent trophy has been given by Albert E. Cook of Odebolt, Iowa, to encourage work in the improvement of corn. It will be awarded to the person exhibiting the champion ear of corn at the short course held at the Iowa State College, Jan.4-16, and will be competed for yearly. "The trophy is of bronze and glass, thirty-six inches in height. It was designed and manufactured by the Gorham Mfg. Co., New York, and will have cost Mr. Cook $1500.00 when delivered to the college Jan. 1st, 1904. The glass cylinders are of such a size to contain the actual ears of corn which carry off chief honors each year. "On one side of the glass cylinders stands a bronze statue of an Indian chief, dressed in full war regalia. He represents the original conditions in the corn breeding belt. On the other side of he glass cylinder[s] stands a bronze statue of Charles Willard Cook, who purchased the Brookmont Farms when Iowa was but wild prairie, roamed over by Indians. The statue of Mr. Cook represents the energy, skill and patience of the modern corn breeder. "Capping the trophy is a bronze globe supported by bronze American eagles. The globe shows a map of the world, with the state of Iowa in relief, emphasizing the work of Iowa in the development of this new work. The position of the globe is indicative of the position King Corn holds in the world's prosperity." A plaque on the lower left side of the trophy states: "The Cook Trophy Presented to Iowa State Agricultural College By A.E. Cook, Odebolt, Iowa, for Excellence in Corn Judging: to be Awarded In State Or National Contests As the College My Direct - The Cylinders To Hold Sweepstake Ears." The trophy was ready for the January 1904 Corn Short Course in Ames and presumed to include the winning ears of corn shown. Apparently it became a traveling trophy before the Chicago International Live Stock Show that fall, where teams from colleges competed in corn judging an activity in which the Iowa State Team usually prevailed. The first time this Trophy was at stake, however, the Kansas State Team surprised all by winning it in 1904 and presumably the Cook Trophy left Iowa. But the Iowa State Team returned to its winning ways the next three shows, and retired the trophy to Iowa State College after the l907 Live Stock Show (The 23rd Biennial Report of the Iowa State College, 1906-1908). Apparently it was properly displayed in Curtiss Hall (Second Agricultural Hall) since then but notes to that effect were not found. It resurfaced when the rotunda and its display cases were remodeled in the mid-1980s while preparing for the Brenton Center. When it was found, hidden from view by some earlier construction, Lynette Pohlman was called to view and identify it and to decide on its display (personal communication, Lynette Pohlman, Director of University Museums, 2012). It was displayed in Agronomy Hall since then but at the request of Dean Wintersteen in 2012 it has been repaired and refreshed, and is displayed in The Dean's Gallery of Agriculture and Life Sciences in Curtiss Hall. I acknowledge with thanks and deep appreciation the help in understanding and suggestions given by Bradley Kuennen, Brian Myers, Lynette Pohlman, Judith Willemsen, Dean Morton, Russell Mullen and Kendall Lamkey in the preparation of this report. John Pesek, emeritus professor

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