Trailblazing Women: The First Woman Methodist Minister in Oregon

WILLIAM COOPER > AMOS COOPER > WILLIAM LLOYD COOPER > ANN COOPER m (1) Daniel Thompson (2) Andrew Hardy > ALMEDA  THOMPSON m Francis "Frank" Herbst > REV ALICE HERBST KEATING m JT Keating

Ann Cooper and her first husband Daniel Thompson had seven children before Daniel died in 1864 while they were living in Osage, Iowa. Ann remarried three years later to Andrew Hardy.

Almeda Hannah Thompson was born in Feb 1856 in Osage. She married Franklin "Frank" Herbst, son of Andre and Maria Herbst in 1872. The elder Herbst's had come from Guewenheim, Haut-Rhin, Alsace, France originally around 1845 during an influx of German/French immigrants escaping political chaos and conscription in Europe. They first arrived in Wisconsin, then moved to Chickasaw County, Iowa.

Frank in back

Frank and Almeda would move on to Burwell, Nebraska, where a number of Cooper relatives settled, and then moved on to South Dakota. In late 1908, Frank had decided to move on to Oregon, which they did, eventually ending up in Portland. Not long after they got settled in, Frank died at age 56 on 24 Aug 1910.  He left his widow and three daughters.

Garibaldi

Alice Ellen was born 14 Sep 1876 in a log cabin in Bremer County. She married Rev Joseph Thomas "JT" Keating. Alice was very involved in her husband's ministry and was also deeply involved in the Salvation Army and became a captain. In 1919, she then herself became a licensed Methodist minister - the first woman to ever do so in Oregon.

Soon after, she was appointed to her first posting in the Salem district at a new church in the town of Garibaldi, a port town that sprung up out of the lumber industry. Her husband had a church in Bay City, located nearby.

The couple had two daughters:

Almeda E Keating, born 07 Dec 1907 in Nebraska. She married John Klerk of the Netherlands. Almeda worked for many years as a clerk at the Portland Visiting Nurse Association. She died 04 Aug 1992 in San Diego County, California. John died 23 Sep 2000.

Miriam Alice Keating was born 15 Mar 1910 in Seattle. She married Rev Ralph Kleen in Washington in 1932. She graduated from the Cascade Bible College in 1932 and served as organist, pianist, soloist, and as children's choir director and bell choir director in her husband's ministries in Oregon, Arizona, California, and Alaska. One of the churches he served in Oregon was Forest Grove United Methodist Church. She died 27 May 1997 in Los Angeles County. The couple had two children.

They also had a foster son, Rev Walter Stamm, who served in the Salem area.

Peter Smull Family: Sgt Jonathan Smull

PETER SMULL > JOHNATHON SMULL m Mary Jane Cooper

Click image to enlarge

My 2nd Great Grandfather. Johnathan Cooper was the eighth of 12 children born to Peter Smull and Mary Waggoner. He was born in 1834 in Centre County, Pennsyvlania and came to Stephenson County, Illinois with his parents in the 1850s.  John married Mary Jane Cooper, daughter of William Lloyd Cooper and Elizabeth Beams, 06 May 1860 in Monroe, Wisconsin, making this the second Cooper/Smull connection. Mary Jane's sister Ann's daughter Lorena Thompson married Samuel Smull, John's brother.

John was a sergeant during the Civil War, serving a year with the 147th Illinois Infantry Regiment. The regiment was organized at Camp Fry, Chicago, for a year on 18 Feb 1865 and were attached to the 1st Brigade, 2nd Separate Division, District of Etowah, Department of the Cumberland to July 1865 and to the Dept of Georgia to January, 1866. They saw service primarily in Georgia, including skirmishes with guerillas and regular soldiers for the next several months. They then returned to Springield, Illinois in January 1866 and John was discharged on 08 Feb 1866. The regiment lost three enlisted to battle/injuries and 31 to disease.

Johnathan Smull and Mary Jane Cooper

Since they had just started their family with two children before he left for war, they continued adding upon his return, adding six more, all born in Stephenson County, except the last three, who were born in Chickasaw County, Iowa. John owned 80 acres in Dakota, Stephenson County in 1866, which he sold prior to leaving for their next adventure. The Smull's moved to Chickasaw County in 1876 to farm in the Bradford area. According to his death record at the Chickasaw County Courthouse, John would die at age 51 on 16 Oct 1885 of a chronic intestinal enlargement of the liver for which he was treated by Dr. J. D. Horton. Dr. Horton indicated the condition was longer in duration than the last treatment period. Mary would move the family into Plainfield in neighboring Bremer County.

An older Elizabeth Beams Cooper,
mother of Mary Jane Cooper Smull

She cared for her elderly mother, Elizabeth Beams Cooper until her mother's death in June of 1897 in Plainfield. Mary Jane would die in Plainfield 14 Feb 1905 after a long illness.

The Smulls had eight children, including my great grandmother Katherine Mabel "Kate" Smull. The children of John and Mary Jane would play a significant role in the community and life of the small town of Plainfield for the next hundred years.

Listing the children, who will each be profiled at some point are:

1. Ulyssus: 1863, Rock Grove, Stephenson County, Illinois to bet 1881-1885 in Chickasaw County, Iowa. There are no dates on his grave. He is listed in the 1880 US Census but not the Iowa 1885 Census. There is no death record for him in Chickasaw County. 

2. Franklin Sylvester: 06 Mar 1865, Rock Grove to 12 Jul 1904 in Plainfield.

3. Jennie Elnora: 27 Jul 1869, Rock Grove to 09 May 1956 in Iowa. She would also connect withe the Jacob Smith family heretofore mentioned many times.

4. Viola Geneva: 06 Aug 1871, Rock Grove to 21 Nov 1947.

5. Katherine Mabel "Katie: 27 Sep 1873, Rock Grove to 04 Mar 1956, Waverly, Bremer, Iowa. Kate would also marry into the Jacob Smith line.

6. Saidee L.: 11 Jan 1877, Bradford, Chickasaw County, Iowa to 02 May 1962, Denver, Bremer, Iowa.

7. Florence: 20 Jun 1883, Bradford to 19 Aug 1963.

8. Amy: Dates unknown, died as infant/young child.

John Smull, Civil War Veteran and wife Mary Jane Cooper Smull
Son Ulysses' stone is next to his mother's
Greenwood Cemetery, Nashua, Iowa

Scandal Sheet: The End of the Frank & Grace Noble Marriage

William Cooper > Amos Cooper > William Lloyd Cooper > Ann Cooper Thompson > Omar Hazzard Thompson > Grace Lorene Thompson & Frank Noble 

Ann Cooper Thompson Hardy lost her first husband, Daniel Thompson after 14 years of marriage in 1864. They had seven children, including Omar Hazzard Thompson, the second born. Ann remarried Andrew Hardy and had two more children, one of whom died in infancy.

Omar and his wife, Mary Louisa Herbst married in Chickasaw County, Iowa on 25 Sep 1872. They moved west and by 1880, were living in Wheeling, Nebraska. They had six girls and finally a boy, Grace being the third child, born in October 1882 in Burwell, Garfield County, Nebraska.

Grace Lorene Thompson met and married Frank Noble of Illinois on an unknown date. They moved around a bit in Nebraska, then moved Haxtun, Phillips County, Colorado, where they were found in 1920. By this time, they had four children and owned a small hotel. Also noted in the 1920 census, was the fact that they also housed four lodgers: John Dill, Michael Burn, Charles Kester, and Hugh McLane.

1933 Billings MT City Directory

Frank and Grace were then divorced some time prior to 1929 when Mr. Hugh McLane, bachelor, married the divorcee, Grace Lorene Noble, in Livingston, Park County, Montana on 03 Sep 1929. They had been residents of Dillon, Montana. There is no indication that Grace kept the by-then teenage children, with her. They are all found in Nebraska on their own or married in 1930.

1933 found Hugh and Grace living in Billings, Montana. After this, no record is found, but I did find a grave marker for a "Grace L. McLane" located at Crown Hill Cemetery, in Park County, Wyoming which may be hers. No trace of Hugh exists either...except he may have gone to Colorado and worked as a woodcutter as of 1940, living with his business partner. I can't confirm this either.

Frank Noble reportedly died in 1958, though I've not been able to confirm. Three of their four children survived, Frank Jr. dying at age 53 in 1966 while living in Grand Island, Nebraska, after he was hit by a car while driving his son's motorcycle. Daughter Hilda died in Minnesota in 1995 after a long marriage to a railroad man and subsequent remarriage after his death. Daughter Helen married as well, dying in Nebraska in 2001.