GEDmatch kit #s:
Trish Taylor A725028
Edgar F. Cook, Sr. T512206
Evelyn B. Cook A535133
*****This site is under construction****
In the late 1890's, a man named Henry E. Hardtner purchased a tract of land and a sawmill south of the present-day town of Urania.
Because of the noise and activity of the mill, Hardtner moved his living quarters a mile to the north. The peace and quiet of the new location, combined with the beauty of the towering pine trees of the new site inspired Hardtner to call the town Urania, which means "heavenly".
Founded in 1898, the Urania mill evolved from a small sawmill of a few hundred feet daily production to one of the nation's largest sawmill operations, sending its products to all parts of the world.
Henry E. Hardtner conceived and practiced a program of reforestation. His experiments with forestry, along with improved logging methods and cutting practices began early in the 1900's and their real value in forest conservation's was recognized 35 to 40 years later. Urania has been the laboratory for hundreds of forestry experiments that has been of great value to the timber and lumber industry of the nation.
Urania has also been a home to my family for generations. Even before Mr. Hardtner began his sawmill operation, ancestors of mine were living in the pine woods of what was then Catahoula, and now LaSalle, Parish.
I was born here, my father was born here. His mother was born nearby, as was her mother.
My mother was born in just a few miles north, in Clarks, Louisiana, but moved to Urania when she was a child.
My father, the late Edgar Forrest Cook, Sr., spent many hours in his later years doing research on our family history and the history of the area. This Web site is dedicated to his memory.
Patricia Cook Taylor
