When efforts to widen the Erie Canal were undertaken in 1835, there was a great demand for stonemasons. This was an opportunity for the young family to move west, away from the congestion of New York City and that is what they did. Peter left his brother William and ventured west, first to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and then to Joliet, Illinois where Peter opened a new quarry to supply the building needs of burgeoning Chicago, one of the main beneficiaries of the Erie Canal.
Philadelphia was also congested and barely an improvement over their previous residence, but it was more advantageous for Peter’s work on the canal project. Although their stay was relatively short, two new members were added to the family during their time in Pennsylvania. Theophilus was born in 1834 and Peter Jr. was born October 7th, 1838. The family now consisted of five members. Peter was now 30 years old, Ann was 27 and the children were 6, 4, and 1. At this time, Martin Van Buren had just replaced Andrew Jackson as President of the United States, the Indian removal was in full gear, the Mormons were fleeing Ohio and being run out of everywhere they settled, the new territory of Iowa had just been established, the battle of the Alamo in Texas had just been fought, and young Mr. Lincoln was making himself known in Illinois. Peter was kept very busy working on the locks and dams of the Erie Canal, but that market was soon to diminish with the onset of a financial panic in 1837 that resulted in a depression that lasted for five years.
The young family moved on to Channahon, Illinois, 8 miles southwest of Joliet, where Peter opened up the now famous stone quarries of Joliet and delivered the first bill of cut stones ever used in Chicago. He hauled it with wagons from Joliet to Chicago, a distance of forty miles. This stone was used in the construction of the Demmings bank and many other new office and government buildings that were sprouting like mushrooms in the “Windy City.” Four new family members were added during their stay in Joliet. Isaac was born in 1839, Lydia M. was born on March 3rd, 1842, Watson Richard was born on February 17th, 1844, and William F. was born in 1848.
During this time, William Henry Harrison had replaced Martin Van Buren as President, but he only lasted about a month in office before he died and his Vice President, John Tyler, took the helm. The decade of the 1840’s was a busy one for the Coopers and by the end of it, Peter had exhausted his opportunities at the quarry and launched his activities as an itinerant preacher. Martha, their first child, turned 18 and had attended teacher’s college in Chicago, and Ann Cooper’s brother, John, became a “49er” when he traveled to California during the gold rush.
Anne’s brother is one of the few who had good luck in the gold country, and he returned in 1851 with his pockets full of money. He must have spun a good yarn because it wasn’t long before he had convinced Ann’s sisters and brothers-in-law and, eventually, the entire Cooper clan to uproot and head west. By “Prairie Schooner” the party made it as far as Council Bluffs, Iowa before illness prevented the Coopers from continuing. During the trip by wagon, family legend tells of the cows of the caravan being milked, and the morning milk, placed on the shady side of the wagon boxes. From the constant jolting of the wagons, lumps of butter would form in the containers before evening. It must have been a bone jarring ride to cross the prairies in those days.
It was 1851 when Ann and two of the children had come down with the measles that forced them to stop for the winter in Council Bluffs. Ann’s sisters and their husbands stayed with the Coopers for a short while, then continued on to California where they remained for the remainder of their lives, but the Coopers settled in Council Bluffs.
Peter and Ann added the final member to their family at Council Bluffs with the birth of Cornelius S. Cooper in 1853. These were happy times for the Coopers. Their oldest daughter, my great, great grandmother, was married on April 24th of that year to Willaim Addison Scott. It was the year the first survey for a transcontinental railway was authorized by congress, and the “Gadsden Purchase” was consummated in preparation for a Southern route. The nation’s first Worlds Fair was getting underway in New York City, and Franklin Pierce had just been elected the 14th President of the United States.
Just across the Missouri River from Council Bluffs was the future site of Omaha, Nebraska. It had, just recently, been vacated by the Mormons who had used it for “winter quarters” before moving on to Salt Lake City. There was a ferry at the location and a boathouse on the Omaha side of the river, but other than that and a few sod huts left by the Mormons, there was not a building to be seen. Peter Cooper has the distinction of having preached the first sermon in Omaha, Nebraska. He held services under an arbor attached to the boathouse shortly after his arrival in the area. The oldest daughter, Martha, started the first Gentile school in Omaha and was its only teacher until her death in 1861 at the young age of 28.
Martha C. Cooper in 1858
The following is a description given in a letter by Peter’s son William F. Cooper:
When the family arrived in Council Bluffs, which was then called Kanesville, in June, 1851, they found not a frame building in the town. All were log cabins built by the Mormons. From the head of Broadway down to where the old Pacific Hotel was afterward built, there was a continuous row of log cabins on both sides of the street. That street is now the same as when first laid out, only new buildings have taken the place of the cabins. There were many cabins along the base of the bluffs and up the gulches, adjacent to the town, used for dwelling houses; some of them covered with clapboards while others had sod-covered roofs. Where the Methodist church now stands was a saloon, known as the “Ocean Wave,” where many a returned miner parted with his gold dust. Hundreds that summer occupied tents and covered wagons. It was a continuous camp from Council Bluffs to the Missouri River. That was the summer of the Mormon exodus. There was no church of any kind in Council Bluffs. Mrs. Cooper, who afterward had the reputation of being the most useful woman in Western Iowa, was nurse, doctor, friend and counselor to all who were in need. Her services in a town like this were invaluable.
The Council Bluffs and Nebraska Ferry Company engaged Mr. Withnell to erect a good sized log cabin as a beginning for the new “Omaha City,” as it was called. Peter Cooper, a stone cutter by trade, was engaged to lay the foundation for the building. No stone quarries had been discovered at that time in this vicinity, but Peter Cooper with his experienced eye was not long in discovering stone in abundance southeast of the town site in what is now known as Green’s Woods.
“I was too young to work on the foundation of the first house, but I drove over from Council Bluffs with the men who did the work. They were Peter Cooper sr., Isaac and Peter Cooper, Jr., William Jenkins and William A. Scott, his son-in-law, who had married Martha Cooper, the oldest daughter.”
Peter’s other son, Peter Cooper Jr., saw the surveyors at work laying out the new town of Omaha. He writes:
“Father preached the first sermon under a brush bower at the southwest corner of the site for the first building. There was not a house nor a shanty on the town site then. Father opened a stone quarry a mile or so in the timber south of the place designated for the first building. This building was used as a capitol for a time. I drove the first team that hauled the first load of rock ever taken into Omaha. The first stone was a large one laid at the northwest corner. The town company was then burning brick in a kiln at the southwest corner of the town near a creek. We mowed our hay that summer on the town site. I never saw mosquitoes as large or numerous as they were that summer. Our hands and faces were badly swollen from their stings.”
Next: Ch. 3
Next: Ch. 3
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