Cosmo, the only child in his family to be born in a log cabin (in Hartwick Township), lived the first half of his life in Michigan. His family lived on a 40-acre farm in the rural community of Sylvan, near Evart. The farm was also home to a shingle mill operated by his father and the four boys in the family. He completed the 8th grade in his local school -- only a minority of young people went further in school at that time -- and then entered employment in a wide range of work. He was a wholesale candy salesman, clerk and then assistant manager in a 5 & 10 cent store, worked in a casket factory, helped in his sister Maud’s restaurant in Evart, and experienced other forms of work. He corresponded with a young lady in far away southern West Virginia and, after two visits and several years of on and off letter writing, asked Lora Zicafoose to marry him. He was 37 years old, and she was 23. They started their married life in Michigan, but she was homesick for family, friends, and mountains back home. In the early 1930s they settled down on a small farm, Lora’s inheritance, on Muddy Creek Mountain, and Cosmo lived there until his death in 1971. Besides his work on the farm, Cosmo was prominent in the affairs of the State Fair of West Virginia, especially as Agriculture Department Superintendent and as an exhibitor; surveyed crop land for a government agency; taught Sunday School at Jane’s Chapel Methodist Church for many decades; was a volunteer Forest Protector, and adult leader in the local 4-H Club. He returned to Michigan with family members every few years to visit family and friends, and many of them made the journey to West Virginia to visit him at his mountain-top farm. He was very well known and deeply respected by members of the local community and the greater Lewisburg area as well.

Grave marker coordinates: 37.895610, -80.624344