Mystery Muddle: The Family Legend of James Fenimore Cooper

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

James Cooper, Livery Man

WILLIAM COOPER > AMOS COOPER > WILLIAM LLOYD COOPER m Elizabeth Beams > JAMES COOPER m Clorinda Evans

You can read a little about the Coopers here.

Clorinda Evans

James Cooper was born in 1839 in Illinois to William Lloyd Cooper and his Kentucky wife, Elizabeth Beams. In 1871, he married Clorinda Evans, whom was called "Aunt Toad." She was born 20 Aug 1847 in York, Clark County, Illinois. Her parents were Willliam and Jane. Jane remarried after her husband's death to a gent name Stuck, who also preceded her in death.

The young couple located from Rock Grove, Stephenson County to Hutsonville, Crawford County for the 1870 census. They moved to Plainfield, Bremer County, then they located to Nashua, Chickasaw County, Iowa, just a few miles from Plainfield. James operated a livery and feed stable in Nashua for many years.

In 1900, the couple had a niece, Saidie Smull, living with them as a servant (Mary Jane and Johnathan Smull's daughter) as well as Clorinda's mother, Jane Stuck, in Nashua. In about 1902, he sold the business which was located in a barn just north of CW Taylor's garage and packed up his household, moving back to Plainfield. In 1905, the folks who purchased the livery auctioned off the livery property and assets. Even in retirement, James made the news:

"James Cooper is chock full of aches and pains today, the result of a little runaway yesterday. He was fitting a new harness onto his team and as the last tug was snapped, as there was nothing to hold them, they started out of the barn as they are in the habit of doing. Mr Cooper grabbed for the reins and caught one near the bit. But, they had started down the incline and pulled them right along until they got into the street when he was thrown down, one of the horses' hoofs striking him on the head and a wheel running over him. The team ran up the street west past the hotel until they reached Mrs Moody's residence, where they again turned, and by a narrow margin missed running into Mr Foster's milk wagon. The lines winding around one of the hubs pulled them down to a walk and Mr Foster captured them."

Nashua Reporter April 2, 1903

James and Clorinda were noted in the local paper as having received many visitors to their home. Sister Ann Cooper Thompson Hardy was a frequent visitor. James died after several years' illness on 08 Oct 1912 in Plainfield.

The couple had no children, but as mentioned in Clorinda's obituary, "She outlived her generation, there being no blood relatives, except perhaps distant cousins, but during her later years, she had had the kind care of those in the community related to her by marriage."

Clorinda died 29 Oct 1932 in Plainfield.

1899 Ad, Nashua Reporter