The village of Cooksville was settled in 1840 and platted in 1842 on land purchased from the US government by John Cook in 1937. Also in that year, Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts purchased land to the east of Cook and sold it to his friend, Dr. John Porter, who platted the village of Waucoma around a public square in 1846. Both villages became known as “Cooksville,” a flourishing crossroads community in the mid-nineteenth century.