My current obsession with finding Paschal Cook's parents and lineage has been revisited, I think his father may have served in the War of 1812 and thus have ceased to be present in the young man's life. Total speculation although I do know his parents were from Virginia as recorded on a census; he was born in Kentucky, lived in Missouri, married numerous times there and died in his last wife's home.
My current thought? Father possibility:
There are military records for Paschal W. Cooke who served in the War of 1812. and appears to have been born in Virginia, this may have been PHC's father, Cook and Cooke being frequently commingled during an earlier era.
See: United States War of 1812 Index to Service Records, 1812-1815, database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q29V-1LN6 : 11 March 2016), Paschal Cooke, 1812-1815; citing NARA microfilm publication M602 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); roll 45; FHL microfilm 882,563.
Can you help prove or disprove?
