Ariana C. Cook was born around 1844 in Georgia to George and Mary Cook. Her father was a merchant and school teacher who owned $700 of real estate and $250 of personal property by 1860. The family lived in Cherokee County, Georgia, until the late 1850s, when they moved to Sumpter, Texas. During the Civil War, she was courted by Confederate soldier John David Swor. She may have died around 1866.