Politics / Business & brands
Levi Cook
1792–1866 · merchant, banker, mayor of Detroit
Dry-goods merchant and banker who held nearly every Detroit civic office of his era, including mayor in 1832 and 1835–1836 and chief of the fire department.
- Born
Bellingham, Massachusetts- Died
Detroit, Michigan
aged 73- Detroit years
- 1815–1866
- Field
- Politics, Business & brands
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Levi Cook came to Detroit from Massachusetts in 1815, the year civil government returned after the War of 1812, and that same year became one of the town's trustees. A dry-goods merchant, he rose into banking as a director and later president (1838–1845) of the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank. Few early Detroiters held as many public jobs: he was city treasurer in 1822, county commissioner, superintendent of the poor, alderman, treasurer of Michigan Territory and, from 1830 to 1836, chief engineer of the volunteer fire department in a town still haunted by the great fire of 1805. Voters made him mayor in 1832 and again for 1835–1836, years of cholera and of the land boom that preceded statehood. He later sat in the Michigan House of Representatives in 1838 and on the city board of review. A Whig who later turned Republican, he died in Detroit in 1866.
Highlights
- Mayor of Detroit in 1832 and 1835–1836
- Chief engineer of the Detroit Fire Department, 1830–1836
- Treasurer of Michigan Territory
- President of the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank, 1838–1845