Since earliest days, I remember my dad telling me we were related to
James Fenimore Cooper, the noted author. As I started this project, my Uncle Harold Ripley also reminded me that this was so. He added that his grandmother had letters from Cooper, and he was quite adamant about them having existed in the ownership of his grandmother, Mary Jane Cooper Smull (daughter of William Lloyd Cooper).
I've poked around some, but don't see a direct connection. Both William Cooper, James' father and William Cooper, Amos Cooper's father, were Quaker and both lived in Quaker communities in Pennsylvania, but they are not the same William Cooper. James Fenimore Cooper's father William, was quite well-known and removed to the town he founded, Cooperstown, in Otsego County, New York. He was a US Congressman as well. Our William Cooper seems to have been a modest farmer. Records get dicey going back earlier, but this is what I've come up with. I'd say if there is a connection, it's very distant, at best. Though, I will keep poking at it.
The second point I want to mention is that if you had letters from a famous author in your family treasures, where are they? No one in the Cooper/Smith/Smull family has them. Would they have tossed them out? I doubt it. Especially as I learned recently that a third cousin also grew up hearing this legend.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
 |
| Click to enlarge |
No comments:
Post a Comment