The Neverending Job: Robert Thompson Cooper, Again

AMOS COOPER > WILLIAM LLOYD COOPER > CHALKLEY JARED COOPER > ROBERT T

COOPER

Many moons ago, I had researched Capt Robert T. Cooper, stalwart and engaged citizen in some detail. You can read about it here. Doing the research is NEVER done. I do a round of research and then start all over again to see what new tidbits have been added to the volumes I've already collected.

I had already discovered that he lost his wife early in their marriage. I knew of some of his business dealings and his war record, but discovering his obituary recently filled in some of the blanks.

If you remember from reading about the Cooper's trip west, they were a Quaker family who left Pennsyvlania to go to a Quaker settlement at the edge of Crawford and Clark Counties, Illinois, where the pioneering journey of the family begins.

Nephew WW Fisher, a veterinarian, seems to have enjoyed his uncle's company. Joseph Cooper had early on worked with his brother Robert in the milling business when he was a tinsmith. He lived a full, fruitful life, but one without a life's companion by his side. Always kind of made me sad for him.

Civil War in Stephenson County, Illinois

Battle of Fort Donelson

Franklin Boyd

I was recently going through some muster rolls for various Illinois Infantry Regiments and noticed that the bulk of our relatives served in one of two places: in the earlier part of the war, many of the family joined up with Co B, 46th Illinois Infantry. It was a kick-butt regiment that saw a lot of action. It fought at Ft Donelson, the Battle of Shiloh, and the Siege of Vicksburg, among other battles.

It was organized in 1861 at Camp Butler, Illinois and mustered out in January 1866 at Baton Rouge, La. The company was discharged two weeks later in early February 1866. The original 3-year enlistment of these men expired in 1864. The government asked them to voluntarily reenlist. It met with great success:

"With the initial three-year enlistment of the Regiment about to expire, the Government issued General Order number 191, relating to the re-enlisting of Veteran Volunteers. This was to be a voluntary re-enlistment, and with the enthusiastic support of the officers and noncoms, three-fourths of the 46th Illinois Volunteer Infantry signed up on January 4, 1864, for another three years or less, depending on how long the war was to last. The re-enlisted Regiment now numbered twenty officers and three hundred and thirty four enlisted men, who were embarked on a steamer headed north. They reached Freeport, Illinois on January 23, where they proudly marched through the town to a hall where the citizens gave them a big reception and dinner. After the festivities ended, they marched out to the fairgrounds west of town, where they were given a 30-day furlough.

Having made a name for itself, the 46th Illinois was able to attract new volunteers to join the ranks. Recruiting offices were set up in Lee, Ogle, Whiteside, and Stephenson counties, hoping to bring the Regiment back to full strength by the end of the leave. On March 2, 1864, the Regiment left Freeport with a total of nine hundred eighty-seven men, heading south." http://www.illinoiscivilwar.org/cw46-hist.html

Included in this bevy of soldiers from both the original group and the later additions were the following family members:

• Private Franklin Boyd (married Elizabeth Beams Cooper, youngest daughter of William Lloyd & Elizabeth Beams Cooper)

  

  Capt Robert Cooper

• Private Amos J Cooper (son of John L. Cooper and Asenath Maples)
• Captain Robert F Cooper (son of  Chalkley Jared Cooper and Margaret Thompson)
• Private George Washington Cooper (son of John L Cooper and Asenath Maples)
• Private Jonathan E. Thompson (son of Robert Thompson and Susannah Gourley).
• Private Robert Scott Thompson (son of Robert Thompson and Susannah Gourley. Two of their children married Coopers)
• Private Peter Wagner (son of William Wagner, brother to Mary Waggoner, wife of Peter Smull)
• Private Jacob N Kryder (brother-in-law to Catherine Smull, daughter of Peter Smull and Mary Waggoner)
• Private Jacob Lauck (brother-in-law to Emma Meyer Lauck, granddaughter of Peter Smull and Mary Waggoner)

Another Thompson, Private John A. "Jack" Thompson, brother to Johnathan E. and Robert Scott Thompson, served in Co A of the 11th Illinois Infantry and died in battle at Fort Donelson in February 1862.

The other Stephenson County-heavy company with several family members, was Company E, 147th Illinois Infantry. It was organized late in the war, at the beginning of February 1865 and was mustered out in late January 1866 They had a brief fighting history and mostly engaged in minor skirmishes and engaged with guerrillas.

Sgt John Smull

• Sgt Johnathan Smull (son of Peter Smull and Mary Waggoner)
• Private Samuel Smull (son of Peter Smull and Mary Waggoner)
• Private Barton Gourley Cooper (son of Chalkley Jared Cooper & Margaret Thompson)
• Private Alfred Kaup (his daughter Minnie Kaup married Chalkley Jared "Jay" Cooper, Jr.)

Cooper Family Stories

This page features the stories related to the descendants of Amos Cooper and Hannah Lloyd.

AMOS COOPER & HANNAH LLOYD

Meet the Coopers: Amos & Hannah Lloyd Cooper
Mystery Muddle: The Legend of James Fennimore Cooper  

   JOHN L COOPER

        John L Cooper's Kids

        Civil War in Stephenson County

        ALFRED JAMES COOPER
        Alfred James Cooper, A Restless Guy
        LINA COOPER
        Trailblazing Women: Angie Debo, Historian Pt 1
        Trailblazing Women: Angie Debo, Historian Pt 2
        ALFRED D COOPER
        Together Forever: Alta & Elva Cooper  

     AARON WASHINGTON COOPER
     Aaron W Cooper & His Neighbors

       HANNAH H COOPER
       Hannah H Cooper, Crazy as a Hawk 

   WILLIAM LLOYD COOPER

    On the Road....Stephenson County, Illinois and Grant County, Wisconsin
    William Lloyd Cooper & Elizabeth Beams
    Mystery Muddle: Truth, Legend, or Something In Between  

            ANN COOPER
            Susanna Gourley Thompson: Rock Grove's Oldest Resident
            LORENA THOMPSON
            Peter Smull: Samuel Smull of South Dakota
            The USC Trojans: Willis Smull's Children
            OMAR HAZZARD THOMPSON
            Scandal Sheet: The End of the Frank & Grace Noble Marriage
            ALMEDA HANNAH THOMPSON
            Trailblazing Women: The First Woman Methodist Minister in Oregon

            HANNAH COOPER
            Hannah Cooper of Spring Grove 
            Levi Bolender and Sarah Haas
            Jacob Marean and Mary Bolender

            JAMES COOPER
            James Cooper, Livery Man

            MARY JANE COOPER
            Peter Smull Family: Sgt Johnathan Smull

            ELIZA COOPER
            The Hennich Family & the Burwell Tornado of 1905

            ELIZABETH BEAMS COOPER
            The Boyds of Plainfield
            Roy Boyd, Plainfield Merchant
            Miss Hazel Boyd, Woman of Substance
            Frank Ross Boyd, Merchant of Horton
            Civil War in Stephenson County

    CHALKELY JARED COOPER

      Susanna Gourley Thompson, Rock Grove's Oldest Resident
        
        ROBERT T COOPER
        Capt Robert T Cooper
        Civil War in Stephenson County
        The Neverending Job: Robert Thompson Cooper, Again

        MARY ELLEN COOPER
        Walton Ward Fisher, DVM, Seward, Nebraska

        BARTON GOURLEY COOPER
        Civil War in Stephenson County 
        CLAUDIUS MILTON COOPER
        Ma, The Rawleigh Man is at the Door: Claudius Cooper 
        THEODORE LLOYD COOPER
        Willow Creek, Montana - Part 1 Theodore Lloyd Cooper
        FRANK OSCAR COOPER
        Willow Creek, Montana - Part 2 Frank Oscar Cooper
     
        JOSEPH L COOPER
        Joseph L Cooper: Spanish War Soldier
        JESSIE COOPER
        The Miracle Braves of 1914: Leslie Mann
        JENNIE COOPER
        Jennie Cooper Conklin

        MARGARET ANN COOPER     
        More Coopery: George Emrick and Family
        ALICE EMRICK
        Alice Emrick, Grocer

        SUSAN LOVICA COOPER
        Case Solved: Susan L Cooper  

        CHALKLEY JARED "JAY" COOPER
        Civil War in Stephenson County

   FRANKLIN COOPER

       WILLIAM CLAYTON COOPER
       William Clayton Cooper of South Dakota

Willow Creek, Montana - Pt 2: Frank Oscar Cooper

"Poker Crew- Bill Taylor, Ted Heily,Johnny Jenkins, Frank Black, Frank Cooper,WN Nixon" - 1935 Ron V. Nixon Collection - Museum of the Rockies, Montana State University - Bozeman 

William Cooper > Amos Cooper > Chalkley Jared Cooper > Barton Gourley Cooper > Frank Oscar Cooper

Chalkley "Charley" Cooper, Frank Cooper's grandfather, found most of his children decamp from the Stephenson County, Illinois area and remain in parts west. One exception was Barton Cooper. He did leave Illinois for the untapped prairie of Prairie, Jewell County, Kansas for about eight years in the 1870s/1880s. He and his first wife, Mary's first addition arrived months after the great blizzard of April 1873 and before the holidays, 21 Dec 1873 in the form of Frank Oscar Cooper. In the early 1880s, the Coopers returned to Stephenson County and remained there

Frank moved from Stephenson County to Seward County, Nebraska, where he was found in 1900. Several other of Charley's children had either settled there permanently or had lived there temporarily. In that year, he married his first wife, Anna Diers Dupin, daughter of Joseph W. Dupin and Georgia A. Fairleigh. They had three children before Anna died in 1914 not terribly long after arriving in Willow Creek, Montana. She was buried in Seward.

That year, Frank headed west to Willow Creek, Montana. His brother Theodore also arrived that year (see that story here). A young widow named Anna Matilda Shogren Holden married Frank in 1916. She had one child, Leslie Holden. Between the three children Frank had with Anna Dupin, the five they had together, and Leslie, there were nine kids. Son Jack took over the ranch from his father and continued the ranching legacy which has now reached into its fourth generation.

Jack Cooper

Willow Creek.

According to the family website, the history of the land went like this:

"Recorded as the Silver Brook Farm by the County Clerk on November 28, 1914, the original homestead of 480 acres was settled by Frank Oscar Cooper. He raised farm animals and harvested a large garden before losing the land during the Great Depression. After receiving a Land bank loan for $200/year, Frank repurchased the land. In 1946, his son Jack bought the land and continued to run a general farming operation for several years.

In 1977, after studying Ag-Production at Montana State University, Jack's son Mark returned to Willow Creek permanently to assist with the ranching and farming operations. Mark began actively working with registered cattle as a teenager under the tutelage of his father. He and his wife Cristy now manage the ranch which consists of over 5,000 acres." http://www.cooperherefords.com/

In 1942, daughter Marjorie moved to Vancouver, Washington, where she worked for Kaiser Ship Builders, designing "baby flattops" for the war effort. She then enlisted in the US Navy. She was stationed in Washington, DC, where she drew maps showing where the US fleet was during WWII. Her sister Connie also served as a WAVE for two years.

All nine children have died: Leslie Holden (Anna Shogren's son); Mary Verniece, Howell Raymond "Raymond", and Helen Dorothy (Anna Dupin); Jack Lawrence, Marjorie Lee Jenny, Betty Ann, Clee Scott "Scott", and Constance "Connie," but the legacy of what Frank Oscar Cooper and his children built remains.

Willow Creek, Montana - Part 1: Theodore Lloyd Cooper

Willow Creek Today

William Cooper > Amos Cooper > Chalkley Jared Cooper > Barton Gourley Cooper > Theodore Lloyd Cooper

Theodore was born the sixth of eight children to Barton Gourley Cooper and his first wife, Mary Magdaline Bollinger in Rock Grove, Stephenson County, Illinois. By 1910, Theodore had moved west to Seward, Nebraska where he was a farm hand to the August Brandhorst family.

The Willow Creek, Gallatin County, Montana area had first been mapped by Lewis & Clark in 1805.
It’s considered part of the greater Bozeman area. The stage route also ended up routing through the area in the 1860s. The Northern Pacific Railroad came through Willow Creek in 1887. Theodore arrived in 1914, when the town had a population of about 400 people.  His brother Frank Oscar Cooper bought land there the same year. Electricity arrived in 1918 and some families had telephone service some time later. The downtown included a saloon and a handful of small businesses, including a grocery/meat market, where he was employed. He later purchased the market and operated it as “Cooper’s Market” until 1944, when he retired to his farm.

Cooper married for the first time to at the age of 41 to Effie M. Coursin/Coursan in Silver Bow, Montana on 09 Dec 1925. Their son Ralph Cooper was born in June of the following year. His daughter Ella was born about 1933. The main road through Willow Creek, bringing trade and traffic, was The Yellowstone Trail. In the early 1930s, Highway 10 began construction and bypassed the town in favor of Jefferson Canyon. This hurt the economy of small Willow Creek in the midst of the Depression.  T.L. died in 1957 at a Bozeman hospital and was was buried in Mount Green Cemetery in Willow Creek leaving his wife, children, and four grandchildren. Effie died in 1973 and son Ralph in 1980.

T.L.'s brother Frank became a rancher and next up is a little about the five-generation 5,000 acre ranch just down the road from the little store his brother operated.

Ma, the Rawleigh Man is at the Door: Claudius Cooper

William Cooper > Amos Cooper > Chalkley Jared Cooper > Barton Gourley Cooper > Claudius Milton Cooper


Barton Gourley Cooper and his first wife Mary Magdaline Bollinger had eight children, including their last, a set of twins, Claudius Milton and Minnie M. Cooper, who were born on 19 Feb 1886.

Minnie remained in their hometown of Freeport, Stephenson County, Illinois her entire life, never married, and was the last remaining of Barton’s children, dying in Mar of 1982.

Her twin brother Claudius, or Claude as he was known, graduated from Northern Illinois Teacher’s College and went to work for W. T. Rawleigh Co., a Freeport firm that sold more than 100 household products — medicines, salves, balms, spices, flavorings, seasoning, ointments, makeup, and cleaning products.

A typical W. T. Rawleigh Salesman early 20th Century

W. T. Rawleigh Factory, Freeport 

At 18, W.T. had reportedly started his business with $15 and a borrowed horse. As his success grew, he moved from Wisconsin to Freeport, Illinois, where he built his first factory. W.T. Rawleigh’s success spread across the country where he built production facilities and had thousands of door-to-door salesmen adding to his success. Products were sold on “time and trial” – meaning they’d sell the product with satisfaction guaranteed. The height of the popularity of W. T. Rawleigh, like so many other companies of its type, was primarily in the 1920s-1940s. Large pharma and consumer product companies were buying up brands to add to their lines and absorbed many such companies. Rawleigh’s managed to keep things going until 1989, when financial struggles finally did it in, leaving five massive factories vacant. The W. T. Rawleigh name is now owned by a company in Florida called Vitamins Direct.

251 Wildwood Ave, Piedmont

Claude was a sales executive when he was transferred to Oakland, California. He eventually became a division manager of the Oakland factory. He met Miss Josephine Fisher (born 04 Nov 1896 in Michigan) while there and they married on 01 Sep 1917 in Marysville, Yuba County, California. The Cooper’s had two daughters while in California, Mavis (10 Jan 1919-23 Feb 1999) and Joyce (Theodore) Pierce. They resided at 251 Wildwood Ave in The exclusive Piedmont section of Oakland, off of Piedmont Park. The estimated value of that home today is $2 million.

Prior to 1930, Claude was called back to Freeport corporate headquarters to work. After residing briefly with his parents, the Cooper’s settled into their own home. Claude continued to work for W. T. Rawleigh until 1958, when he retired. He was a member of the First Presbyterian Church, the Elks Club (past president), and the Freeport Country Club. Claude died at the Freeport Memorial Hospital after a long illness in March of 1973 at age 87. His wife and children survived him.