Early Years
Cook was born as Joseph Cooke in Silverdale, a small mining town near Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. He had no formal education and worked in the coal mines from the age of nine. During his teens he embraced Primitive Methodism, and marked his conversion by dropping the 'e' from his surname. He married Mary Turner in 1885 and shortly after emigrated to New South Wales.
Cook settled in Lithgow and worked in the coal mines, becoming General-Secretary of the Western Miners Association in 1887. In 1888, he participated in demonstrations against Chinese immigration. He was also active in the Single Tax League and was a founding member of the Australian Labor Party in 1891.
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