(EDITOR’S NOTE: A local man who became a leading oyster producer in Gloucester and later a leading benefactor of good causes got his start in the early 1950s. Eldridge N. Cook was profiled in the Gazette-Journal in the Nov. 18, 1954 issue. We have corrected the original spelling of Cooke-with-an-e throughout this reproduction.) From the Nov. 18, 1954 Gazette-Journal From an oyster tonger’s job, paying $2.00 per day, to owner and manager of Cook’s Oyster Co., Bena, the business venture to Eldridge Cook has not been free of troubles and plenty of hard work. Born in Gloucester County thirty-nine years ago, Mr. Cook, upon completing his studies at Gloucester Training School, got his first job in 1935 with Capt. Jack Blake, a large oyster planter in the York River, paying only $2.00 per day. This was the meager beginning in the seafood industry for the Negro, who now has the unofficial distinction of being the only colored oyster planter and packer on the Eastern Seaboard. “The work was har...