The Coopers, Ch. 4

As if the loss of three family members was not enough for the Coopers to deal with, the conflict in Kansas erupted into Civil War just three months after Martha’s passing and it would not leave the Coopers unscathed.  The oldest of the Cooper boys, Theophilus, was 27 when war broke out and had already flown the nest to Arizona and New Mexico looking for gold.  It is unclear what 23 year old Peter Cooper Jr. was doing at the time, but no record has been found of him serving in the army although he did reside in Council Bluffs for the duration.  Of the Cooper boys, it was Isaac who was 21 at the time, and Richard Watson who was 17, who would get caught up in the conflict.

In March of 1859, Peter Cooper performed the marriage ceremony to unite his only other daughter,17 year old Lydia Mae, in marriage to Charles Hugh Hunter.  Over the next five years, the two gave Peter Cooper 4 more grandchildren.  Charles served in the Civil War with Company “K” of the Iowa Infantry and was severely wounded.  He died of his war injuries just two years after the end of the conflict on July 21^st, 1867.

Isaac Cooper was 21 when the Civil War erupted.  He enlisted with Co. F, 15th Iowa Infantry on November 18^th, 1861 as a Corporal and was promoted to Sergeant on August 25^th, 1862.  During the battle for Atlanta Georgia, on August 10, 1864, Isaac was wounded in the right shoulder, just 18 days after his brother Richard was taken prisoner in the same battle.  He recovered, and was promoted on December 17^th, 1864, to the rank of 1^st Sergeant.  Near the wars end, on January 5^th, 1865 he was promoted to the rank of 1^st Lieutenant and was mustered out of service at Louisville Kentucky on July 24^th, 1865.

Brother Richard Watson also saw service with Co. F, 15^th Iowa Volunteers, known as Crocker’s Brigade.  He was severely wounded in the ankle on April 6^th, 1862 at Shiloh but recovered well enough to continue his service.  He subsequently marched with General Sherman to the sea but was captured in the Battle for Atlanta on July 22, 1864 and served a short time in Andersonville Prison before he was released in an exchange.

The country was changing fast.  In 1869 the Transcontinental Railroad was completed at Promontory Point, Utah and suddenly, a trip from coast to coast that heretofore had taken 3 months, could be made in 7 days!  Railroads were being built all over the West, and this provided many jobs for the war weary populace.  These were “boom” years for the U.S. economy.  The women’s suffrage movement was underway with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton making headlines regularly.  In 1870, John D. Rockefeller gave birth to Standard Oil, ushering in the Industrial age of the nation.

Life was changing in America, evidenced by the fact that, during this era many sports games appeared on the scene.  The first football game was played between Rutgers and Princeton, and organized baseball appeared in the guise of the “Chicago Baseball Club” and the Cleveland “Forest Citys.”  It seems, for the first time in history, Americans finally had time for pursuits of leisure.  In 1873, barbed wire (pronounced Bob-War, in Oklahoma) finally solved the fencing problem that had plagued the plains states since the first settlements and Levi Strauss began manufacturing his famous jeans, selling for $1.13 a pair.

Even with all this progress, Indians were still an issue.  The “Sand Creek massacre in Colorado and the Sioux war of 1865 are examples, as is “Custer’s Last Stand” in 1876, and  “Wounded Knee” in 1890.  After “Wounded Knee,” things settled down considerably, but isolated incidents continued into the 1920’s.

After the war, things would never be the same for the Coopers.  There was some joy in the family when Lydia remarried to Alfred Emmott and gave Peter Cooper 4 more grandchildren to bounce on his knee, but the joy was short lived.  Soon after the birth of their fourth child, Ruey, in 1884, Alfred and Lydia relocated to Washington State.

 Lydia Cooper with 2nd husband Alfred Emmott, son George, and Daughter Ruey, about 1898

Peter’s son William went west to join his brother Theophilus “Theo” who had been in the Arizona gold country since 1859.  William never married and never returned home.  He owned a quartz gold mine 80 miles from railroad and spent some time in Tombstone when Wyatt Earp was there.  Will told his nephew, William H. Scott, who spent some time with him along the border, "I'll stay here until the railroad comes, or leave my bones here."  In his older years it finally came, and for a time he enjoyed the comforts he had worked so hard and long for.  This pioneer died in Tombstone, Arizona in 1939 and lies buried with his brother at Willcox, Arizona.

It is said that brother Theophilus, who had been in Arizona for many years, “was of the tall and agile type.  That he helped run down Geronimo, the noted Apache chieftain, and was unhorsed and badly wounded in those battles, two shots penetrating his lungs.”  The 1867 Arizona Territorial Census lists Theophilus Cooper living in Fort Goodwin, only a year after, the fort had been overrun by Geronimo and 2,000 braves and the entire garrison of 124 men slaughtered.  It is possible that Theo joined the re-manning of the fort to assist in avenging this outrage.

                                              Geronimo 1886

  Three years later, we find Theo back in civilian life prospecting in New Mexico.  The 1870 U.S. census of “Grant, New Mexico Territory” lists Theo as a “miner” living with 3 other characters.  Research shows that prospecting was a respectable career field in the late 1800’s.  Theo never “struck it rich” or found the mother lode, and that is probably why he returned to the military for employment in his later years.  The 1898 records of Fort Bowie, just 25 miles from Willcox, AZ, show Theophilus cooper attached to troop “C” of the 4^th Cavalry, as a civilian employee.  By then, Theo was 64 years old and is listed as a “lime burner and mason.”

Theo’s sister’s grandson, Cecil Hunter, tells this story of Theophilus: “…Theo was an Indian Scout for the Army for many years in the Southwest.  He was one of Frank Fair's favorite subjects and he told one story about his being ambushed by Indians while reconnoitering.  The others in his party were killed and scalped.  Theo Cooper was scalped too, but since he had a couple of arrows s ticking out of him, they took him for dead.  He lay there bleeding in the hot sun and the cold night until they found him the next day.  At the age of 9 or 10 I was enthralled by this story, but when I mentioned him to Gram [Lydia Cooper] one time she wrinkled up her nose and remembered him as dirty, bewhiskered, and tobacco-chewing, and said she'd been afraid of him.  My hero suddenly became an ordinary man.”

Theophilus Cooper filed for a pension from his military activities and the wounds he suffered from that endeavor.  He was granted a pension on July 2^nd, 1891.  It is not known when Theo passed away, but he probably did not last long into the 20^th century.  Family oral history tells us that Theo is buried with his brother in the cemetery at Willcox, Arizona.  I visited the cemetery, found a large monument for the Coopers

The Coopers, Ch. 3

The new city of Omaha grew rapidly, and by late 1855 the temporary capitol was in place and the first newspaper had arrived.  “On Sunday, September 27, 1931, the First Methodist Episcopal Church at 20^th and Davenport Streets in Omaha, observed its 76^th anniversary.  In a beautifully illustrated church bulletin, a brief history of the church was set forth, reading in part as follows:”

The first preaching service held in Omaha was conducted by Rev. Peter Cooper, a Methodist pastor of Council Bluffs, Iowa.  Morton’s History of Nebraska has this to say regarding this service:  ‘The ferry company built the first house in Omaha….  It was a rude log structure and was occupied by Mr. And Mrs. Snowden, who kept it as a hotel during the summer and fall of 1854, more especially for the accommodation of the employees of the ferry company.  It was located on 12^th  and Jackson Streets, and was called the St. Nicholas, but was better known as the ‘Claim House.’  This was the first house and the first hotel in Omaha, and here the first religious services were held.  At the solicitation of Mr. Snowden, a Methodist Episcopal preacher, Rev. Peter Cooper crossed over from council bluffs to preach.  The following announcement of this meeting appears in the Omaha Arrow of August 4, 1854:

“Religious Notice

‘There will be preaching at the residence of Mr. Snowden in Omaha City, Nebraska Territory on Sunday the 13^th inst., at 2 o’clock P. M. by Rev. Peter Cooper, of the Methodist Episcopal Church.  The citizens of Omaha City and vicinity, also of Bluff City, are respectfully invited to attend’.

There were about twenty-five people present, a number of whom were from Council Bluffs. Rev. Mr. Cooper continued to hold services in Omaha until he was succeeded by Rev. Isaac Collins, a regularly appointed missionary pastor, who organized the First Methodist Church in September, 1855, having at that time a membership of six.  Services were then being held in the Territorial Capitol building on 9^th Street...”

In 1855/56, the political climate of the country was heating up considerably.  The Kansas/Nebraska Act of 1854 effectively repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which forbade the introduction of slavery above the 36° 30’ North parallel and created the states of Kansas and Nebraska.  The settlers of these new states were to be allowed to make their own choices regarding slavery but ballot box stuffing by both sides created a state of insurrection in “Bleeding Kansas.”  After the “Sacking of Lawrence Kansas” by a pro-slavery group, John Brown and his sons came from Connecticut to strengthen the cause of the abolitionists and retaliated by perpetrating the “Pottawatomie Massacre” in 1856.  With all this activity taking place just 150 miles south of Council Bluffs, it was only a matter of time before the Coopers would get caught up in the conflict.

Daughter Martha Cooper and her new husband William Scott were very busy during these years.  While William was working with Martha’s father, Peter Cooper, providing material for the physical development of Omaha, Martha had set up the first schoolhouse and was seeing to the intellectual needs of its future citizens.  Martha and William had their first child and Peter Coopers first grandchild on March 20^th, 1856.  Martha was 24 years old and she named her son William Hamline Scott.  The middle name, Hamline, comes from Bishop Hamline of the Rock River Methodist Conference at Plainview, Illinois, who ordained and licensed Peter Cooper on July 21^st, 1850.

The next few years would not be happy ones in the Cooper family.  In August of 1858, Ann Cooper died of the Flu while attending to others who were ill with the same malady.

33 days after Ann’s passing, her daughter Martha gave birth to her second child, my great grandmother, Martha Ann Scott.

Only two years later, in December of 1860, Martha gave birth to her third child, Charles Wesley, who only survived a couple of days, and Martha herself passed away a few days later in January of 1861 from complications of the delivery; she was just shy of her 29^th birthday.

Martha’s husband William, was left to care for their 5 year old son William and 2 year old daughter Martha Ann.  In less than four years, the Coopers had lost 3 family members.

Further details of [Martha’s] life and family are indicated under the name of her husband, William A. Scott, and in a clipping from an old newspaper, found by the writer [Nelson Mason] in the trunk of her son, William Hamline., reading:

MEMOIR OF MARTHA COOPER SCOTT

[By her husband, William A. Scott]

“Martha Cooper Scott was born in New York City, May 18, 1832, and died of complicated puerperal peritonitis, January 18, 1861, near Magnolia, Iowa, in the twenty-ninth year of her age.

The subject of this memoir was blessed with religious parents, her father, Rev. Peter Cooper, having been for years an effectual and useful local preacher in the M E. Church.  As a consequence her religious impressions began early, and in her sixteenth year, on New Year’s Eve, she joined the M. E. Church, under Rev. W. Palmer in Chicago; where she was attending school.  The writer’s acquaintance with her began in 1852, at Council Bluffs, Iowa, which resulted in our marriage on April 24, 1853.

About two years after our marriage we entered the itinerancy.  Our first work was Magnolia Mission, Iowa Conference, where we traveled a year, and made many warm friends, who proved their devotion by administering to her in her last sickness.  Our last work was Indianapolis [Indianola] circuit, Iowa conference, over two hundred miles distant, and in order to go to it, she must leave all her friends and go among strangers.  How hard is the lot of the itinerant’s wife.

During this year her health began to fail, and was never good to her death.  Last spring we journeyed to the Rocky Mountains, which seemed beneficial, but proved delusive.  About three weeks before she died her little infant preceded her to the “blessed land.”

She has left her husband and two little children to mourn her early departure; but we mourn not as those who have no hope.  Little Willey, the oldest, who is nearly five years old, says his “ma has gone to help the lord take care of the little baby.”  The day before her departure, having been to all appearance dead, she suddenly aroused from her lethargy and commenced praising God aloud, and told, while her face beamed with heavenly radiance, of having seen the glories of heaven.  She described its beauties with rapture, and longed to be back again, and said that in a few hours she would be gone, and exhorted us to meet her in heaven,  Shortly after, delirium came on, during which she sang sweetly and pathetically: “There is a happy land,”

Oh, if the redeemed of the Lord sing more sweetly in Heaven, what glorious music we shall have when we all get there.  Then her mind turned to the resurrection morn, and she sang:  “Glorious morning,”

This chorus we had often sung in our protracted meetings.  What a glorious time it will be when we all rise together in that “morning!”

“Then all the ship’s company meet

Who sailed with the Savior beneath.”

Thus a beautiful life was ended, the sad event taking place at Magnolia, Harrison County, Iowa, 35 miles north of Council Bluffs.  Some years later her brothers arranged for re-burial beside the sainted mother in the little rural cemetery, a mile east of Hillsdale.  Her son, William H. Scott, has erected a red granite 

 

memorial to her memory, reading:  “Martha C. Scott, May 18, 1832; Jan. 18, 1861”

Next: Ch. 4

The Coopers, Ch. 1

 My earliest ancestors in this country are the Coopers and the Scotts.  The Scotts came by way of Nova Scotia and the Coopers came by way of England.  This is the story of the Coopers.  It begins with my great, great, great grandfather, Peter Cooper and his wife, Ann King.

When I first began my hobby of genealogy it was just a fact gathering process.  Census records, military records, city directories etc., just dry facts without color or personality.  I’m not sure when all that changed for me, but it did.  Somewhere along the way I became very interested in history.  I think it was a desire to know and understand what my predecessors had to deal with in their everyday lives.  I wanted to know what their surrounding were like, what they ate for breakfast or lunch, and what their daily activities were.  Were they happy or sad, did they attend church on Sundays, were they involved in the politics of their day, what did they have for dinner?  Just who were these people who came, lived their short window of time, and passed into history.

In my travels, I made it a point to visit many of the places they lived.  Cemeteries and genealogical centers became the focus of many of my travels and I have visited many of them.  I have seen the haunts and homes of my ancestors from one end of this country to the other and it has been a fun and fascinating journey.  It’s a strange feeling to stand where your ancestors stood, to occupy the same space they occupied many years before.

                                                                   Peter Cooper

Peter Cooper is one of those people.  I have been to his birthplace in England and his cemetery plot in Glenwood, Iowa.  When I began my research, all I knew was that he arrived in America in the 1830’s with his wife Ann (King) Cooper.  I knew that he was newly married, having departed the old country (England) on his wedding day.  At least, that is what family verbal history told me.  I wondered what had driven this stonemason to abandon his home and family and travel across the North Atlantic Ocean to a new and, at least to him, an unknown world.  I know that England, in the early 1830’s was a place of labor unrest.  The new reaping machines were putting people out of work, there was a recession in progress, and jobs of any kind were difficult to find.  Wages had been deteriorating for several years and, therefore, labor was cheap.

In this country, during that same period, Andrew Jackson was president and he had just signed the Indian Removal Act, which effectively opened up the frontier for mass settlement.  Coupled with the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825, an era of unrestrained growth along the eastern seaboard demanded the talents of many stonemasons.  Enter, Peter Cooper.

Whether it was due to the tough economic environment at home, or the promise of a growing American economy, one or the other was enough enticement for Peter and Ann to make the move.  I can just picture the young couple, in their early twenties, madly in love and facing a future at home with few opportunities.  In England, even marriage would have been out of the question without a viable means of support.  They must have had many conversations about their future before making the decision to emigrate.  It would mean leaving family and friends and giving up their familiar surroundings for a fresh start.  I wonder how much they had heard of America or if friends or family had preceded them and awed them with tales of unlimited possibilities.  When they departed, were they reaching for the “brass ring” or were they escaping a dismal future, or both?

Initially, Peter and Ann Cooper settled in New York, where Peter and his brother opened a rock quarry to supply the growing needs of the metropolis.  I had been told that Peter and Ann arrived, accompanied by Ann’s mother and two of her sisters (Charlotte, & Sarah), and a brother (John).  It was only later, after reading papers found in the family archives, that I discovered that Peter’s brother, William, was also with them in New York.  When I finally found the records of Peter and Ann’s arrival on the 12^th of September 1831, on the ship “Minerva,” there is no mention of any other members of the Cooper or King families being with them.  Peter was only 24 years old and Ann was just 21, what an exciting adventure for this young couple.  I eventually discovered the manifest of the ship “Cumberland” that brought Peter’s brother William to America on the 14^th of November 1832; a full year after Peter and Ann had arrived.

The fact that their first child Martha was born in the Bronx, (a rural country setting at the time), indicates that Peter moved out of the tenement district as soon as he could, but not before Ann’s mother was stricken by the disease that thrived in the filth and squalor of the inner city.  Ann’s mother was an early victim of the 1832 cholera epidemic in New York City, and died there shortly after their arrival.

One can only imagine the deplorable rat infested conditions the newlyweds stepped into in September of 1831.  It was not unusual for each tenement building to have its own cistern, septic pit, and trash dump in the back yard, all within close proximity to each other, and the “five corners” area, where most new immigrants found lodging, was considered a dangerous place for anybody not living there.  New York City was a bawdy seaport town in the 1830’s, and not a place to raise a family.

Peter and his brother William noticed the abundance of hard stone lying near the surface in and around the city, and recognized the opportunity they had for supplying stone for the buildings going up in the city.  Together, they opened a stone quarry where they were kept busy for the next couple of years supplying stone for the construction of Girard College.  During this time their first child Martha C. was born on the 18^th of May, 1832 in the Bronx section of New York City.  Given the arrival dates and the birthdates, either Martha C. was a preemie or she had been conceived aboard the Minerva during the transatlantic crossing!

Next: Ch. 2