Jennie Cooper Conklin

AMOS COOPER > WILLIAM LLOYD COOPER > CHALKELY JARED COOPER > JOSEPH L COOPER > JENNIE L COOPER m Clyde Conklin

Joseph Cooper was a tinsmith by trade and though he regretted not being able to fight in the Civil War, did fight in the Spanish-American War at the age of 50 years old! His wife Carrie Miles and he had three children. The youngest daughter, Jessie, would marry noted athlete Leslie Mann of the Miracle Braves of 1914.

As of my last research, Jennie had been working as a seamstress in a factory in 1910 and then, in 1912, had died. Since then, I discovered she had married Claude A Conklin, had a baby, and twelve days after her daughter's birth, died at the home of her parents in Lincoln, Nebraska. The daughter, Enid "Connie" Conklin, was born on 31 Jul 1912 in Lincoln, at the home of her grandparents. She lived to be 88 years old and died at Miller's Merry Manor nursing home in Syracuse, Indiana on 25 Apr 2001.

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.

Joseph L Cooper: Spanish-American War Soldier

WILLIAM COOPER > AMOS COOPER > CHALKLEY JARED COOPER > JOSEPH L COOPER

Joseph

m Carrie Miles

Joseph L Cooper had a pioneering spirit like many of the Coopers. His daughter, Jessie, married a member of the Miracle Braves of 1914, Leslie Mann.  His parents, Chalkley Jared Cooper and Margaret Thompson had nine children and Joseph came along smack dab in the middle on 17 Mar 1849 in Rock Grove, Stephenson County, Illinois.

The Civil War was raging and many of his family had enlisted in the Army when at 13, Joseph attempted to fake his way into the Army himself. He failed, but would make up for it later. In 1874, he went to Nebraska and went into business with his brother Capt Robert T Cooper in the milling business at Seward. Joe was a tinner by trade and engaged in this business for several years at Seward, David City, Bloomington, Kearney, and Grand Island.

He married Carrie Miles, who had been born in Marengo, Iowa, on 31 Aug 1866 in Buffalo, Nebraska on 26 Dec 1881. They had three children: Fred Harmon, who died at age 30 in 1914 in Lincoln, Nebraska; Jennie L., who was born in Jul 1889 and died prior to 1920 in Nebraska, and Jessie L, who was born 02 Mar 1894 in Norfolk, Nebraska and died in 1969 in Los Angeles County, California.

The family moved to Lincoln in 1894. A couple years later, Joseph finally got his chance to serve when he joined up with Company E, 1st Nebraska Volunteer Infantry Regiment in 1898. He was issued a pension and his wife Carrie received his pension after his death. He started out at the Lancaster County fairgrounds which had become Camp Alvin Saunders before being sent by sea to the Philippines. He was nearly 50 years old.

"Camp Alvin Saunders was the muster in camp for the 1st and 2nd Nebraska Volunteer Infantry regiments for the Spanish American War. The camp was at the state fairgrounds in Lincoln, Nebraska. The camp was named after Alvin Saunders who was governor of Nebraska Territory during the Civil War. The camp had a short-life, primarily from April 26-May 19, 1898. The 1st Nebraska left Camp Saunders on May 16, 1898 for San Francisco and the 2nd Nebraska departed on May 19, 1898 for Camp Thomas, Chickamauga, Georgia. William Jennings Bryan, who became the Colonel and regimental commander of the 3rd Nebraska regiment, was reported being at Camp Saunders with “[a] corporals guard of volunteers” when the 2nd Nebraska departed on May 19. No recruits had been accepted yet for the 3rd regiment as of May 19, but these men were temporarily used to maintain order and guard the state’s property at the camp. The 3rd Nebraska assembled and mustered in at Fort Omaha beginning about June 12, 1898 so the stay of the regimental “cadre” at Camp Saunders was also very short."
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/topic/military/SpanishAmericanWar/camp.htm

I recommend reading this very informative article on the 1st Nebraska Infantry here for details on the war and the unit where Joseph L. Cooper served.

The men of Company E enjoy Christmas dinner at
Camp Santa Mesa, December 25, 1898

The camp of Company E near the pumping station. 

Joseph returned to Lincoln after the war and worked as a day laborer. In 1920, he and Carrie were empty-nesters and he was running a second hand shop. I believe Jennie died between 1910-1920. In 1910 she was working in a factory. She is not listed as surviving on the obits of either Joseph or Carrie.

Carrie was greatly involved in the United Spanish War Veterans (USWV) Auxiliary and was a past president of the Lincoln Chapter. The couple lived at 1934 N 30th St in Lincoln for many years.

1934 N 30th St Lincoln

Joseph lived until 13 Dec 1930 and siblings Susie Cooper Jones, Chalkley Jared "Jay" Cooper, Jr., and Barton Gourley Cooper survived him. His wife Carried died 18 Dec 1944 in Lincoln.

See for update on Jennie L. Cooper Conklin go here.

Captain Robert T Cooper

WILLIAM COOPER > AMOS COOPER > CHALKELY JARED COOPER > CAPT ROBERT T COOPER m Emma Brenizer

Robert T Cooper was the first-born child of Chalkely Jared Cooper, Sr and Margaret Ann Thompson, in Clark County, Illinois on 24 May 1841. The family removed to Rock Grove, Stephenson Co., Ill., in 1844. As a youth he worked on the family farm in the summer months and attended school during the winter.

He was sworn into the US Army on Sept. 10, 1861. He was mustered into the service as Sergeant of Co. "B," 46th Regiment Illinois Infantry, on Sept. 14, 1861, at Springfield, Illinois, and did camp and drill duty. He fought in the battle of Fort Donelson, Kentucky on Feb. 16, 1862, where his uncle, John A. “Jack” Thompson (son of Susannah Gourley and Robert Thompson) also served.

During the battle of Shiloh, Tenn., on April 6, 1862, he was severely wounded in the left arm and was furloughed home. He returned to his company and regiment at La Grange, Tenn., July 7, 1862. He fought with his company until the close of the war. He received his final promotion to Captain on Dec 23, 1864. He was mustered out at Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Jan. 20, 1866, and was discharged at Springfield, Illinois, Feb. 2, 1866.

When he arrived back in Stephenson County, the attended college in Peoria, Ill., and graduated in 1866. He went into the mercantile and grain business in Rock City, Illinois until 1869, when he was elected county treasurer. After he served 4 years, he moved to Seward, Nebraska and purchased the Blue Valley flour mill in Holmesville. Brother Joseph L Cooper worked with him in his business interests there.

He ran for and was elected as County Treasurer in 1881 and was considered for State Treasurer at one
point. He served two terms and then served as County Clerk for two years before returning to business pursuits.

He was married to Emma J. Brenizer in 1887. They had two children; the first died in infancy in 1888, their second, Emma, died at age 5 years in 1894. He engaged in farming and stock raising until 1890 when his wife died, three months after Emma’s birth. He then retired from active business at Seward, where he died 12 Sep 1916.

CASE SOLVED: Susan L Cooper

Amos Cooper > Chalkley Jared Cooper > Susan L Cooper

Bellingham, WA 1910

I complained recently about how difficult it is to trace women "back in the olden days" because of marriages and the loss of their original identity. In hunting down the children of Chalkley Jared Cooper, this really impacted my work.

Chalkley "Charley" Cooper and his wife Margaret Ann Thompson married in 1840 in Crawford County, Illinois and had nine children. They are, in order:

Capt Robert T Cooper > Emma Brenizer

Mary Ellen Cooper > Jacob M Fisher

Barton Gourley Cooper > (1) Mary Magdaline Bollinger (2) Alice Bollinger

Joseph L Cooper > Carrie L Miles

Margaret Anna "Annie" Cooper > George Emrick 

Amy/Ann Cooper (mystery to be solved)

Susan Lavica Cooper > William May "May" Jones

Chalkley Jared "Jay" Cooper, Jr. > Minnie Janet Kaup

Harlin Cooper (year of birth unknown, died young before 1880)

I found very little to support Susan's existence until I found an obit for Joseph L Cooper. It said he was survived by "a sister, Susie Jones Bellingham of Washington." Hmm. 

Then, I found the Washington Death Records. They list an incorrect first name for her father, but the last name was correct. A person who put a family tree on Ancestry had the wrong first name for her husband which sent me down a road to futility. Doing some tricky backwards detecting, I finally found, and definitely confirmed Susan's story and her later lineage. The gap in information from 1881 to 1899 due to the infamous missing 1890 US Census could be overcome! If she hadn't lived in Washington during those missing years, where was she? She wasn't back home in Stephenson County. Several of her brothers went to Nebraska. Maybe they were close by. 

Susan was born in 1853 in Stephenson County, Illinois. She moved west sometime prior to 1900 when she was both married to W. May Jones and living in Hiawatha, Nebraska. I also found reference they had also lived in Jewell County, Kansas in the 1880s - her brother Barton had also lived there in the late 1870s/early 1880s. They had three children in Jewell: 

Lyman Llewellyn Jones

Edward James Jones

Ira Truman "Casey" Jones

In about 1904, the family arrived in the wild west mining, lumber, fishing/canning town of Bellingham, Washington, where they settled, with the exception of their brief stint in Chilliwack New Westminster, British Columbia. Susan was a piano tuner and lived until 1934, when she died at the age of 81. Her husband May either sold or built sewing machines and farmed during his time in Canada and died prior to Susan on 15 Aug 1931 in Bellingham. Her children survived her. She died 16 Sep 1934.

Ira T. Jones was the fire chief of Bellingham under two administrations and served as assistant chief between political appointments. He retired in 1943. He had a giant cacti collection, which he began selling off in 1943. In 1946, he and his wife bought a beautiful new home. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 1970. Ira died in 1978 in Bellingham, and Iona, his Icelandic wife, died in 1990 in Seattle.

Ira named his oldest child Clayton Cooper Jones, further reinforcing the theory that Susan had been found. Ira died in 1978.

I have more items to provide as proof, but will be posting these privately. I'm happy to answer any questions about this research. Fill out the contact form on this page and I'll get back to you!

The Miracle Braves of 1914: Leslie Mann

William Cooper > Amos Cooper > Chalkley Jared Cooper, Sr > Joseph L Cooper > Jessie Cooper

Young Les Mann

and Leslie Mann

The great extended Cooper clan of Pennsylvania was everywhere in the Stephenson/Winnebago counties area by the late 1800s. Amos, the first pioneer, who had settled in Clark County, Illinois had a large family which included Chalkley Jared Cooper and his wife Margaret Ann Thompson who had found roots in Stephenson County. They were successful and very well-regarded citizens of Rock Grove.They had nine children, the fourth being Joseph L Cooper, who headed west to Nebraska.

Joseph married his wife, Carrie Miles, born in Marengo, Iowa, on 26 Dec 1881 in Buffalo, Nebraska. He lived in Norfolk, and was later a day laborer in Lincoln and eventually ended up in Omaha, owning a second-hand shop. They had three children: Fred Harmon, who died at age 30 in 1914, Jennie, and Jessie. Jennie is not listed as a surviving child in her parents' obituaries, so I would guess she too died young.

Jessie met Leslie Mann, a star 4-letter man who attended Lincoln High in Lincoln, and married him immediately after his graduation, on 04 Mar 1911 across the river from Omaha in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Leslie was the son of Samuel and Minnie Mann of Lincoln. Leslie and his brother Chauncey (Channing) R Mann, both stood out on the athletic field. Both would make athletics/education/service their life's calling. Les looked back later in life on his greatest sports moment and he said it was the football game between Lincoln High and Omaha Central in 1909 or 1910. Football would remain the game he loved best.

Miracle Braves of 1914

Leslie attended Springfield YMCA college in Springfield, Mass, where he also 4-lettered. In 1913, he joined the Boston Braves and played in the World Series as an outfielder on the "Miracle Braves of 1914." The team had moved from dead last in the rankings in the last two months of the year and ended up taking it all in four games straight (you can read more about that here).

Les Mann as a Cub

In 1915, he moved on to play with the Chicago Cubs and played in the 1918 World Series between the Cubs and Boston Red Sox. It was while in Chicago that their only child, Leslie Mann, Jr., was born in 1918. Mann would have an RBI single off of the famous Babe Ruth in Game 4 of the 1918 World Series. He would later also play for the St Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, and New York Giants.

Baseball wasn't the million dollar contract game then that it is now, so Les coached between seasons. He taught basketball at Amherst from 1915-1917, and Phys Ed at Rice Institute from 1919-1924. During the first World War, he worked at Camp Logan in Texas for two years. He was the head basketball coach for Indiana University in the 1922-23 and 1923-24 seasons and at Springfield College in the 1924-25 and 1925-26 seasons.

Once he retired as a player and coach, Mann became an advocate for baseball as an international sport. He founded the USA Baseball Congress and organized a 20-game tour of Japan in 1935. He was also largely responsible for baseball being selected as a demonstration sport for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. He went on to found the International Baseball Federation, which organized an international championship in England in 1938, Cuba in 1939, and Puerto Rico in 1941.

Spalding Official Base Ball Guide

During World War II, he worked for the USO, first as director of the federal USO building in Tampa,
Florida, and later as director of the mobile division of the USO for the West Coast area.The family, after a life on the road, settled in the Pomona/Pasadena area of California and Les remained mostly retired after the War. Les wrote many books on various sports.

Coach Mann, Indiana University Basketball, 1922-23

Tragically, Leslie's California retirement was cut short. Despite his athletic background and good health, Les and Jessie were driving in Pasadena on 14 Jan 1962 when Les complained of feeling faint. Moments later, he had a massive heart attack, lost control of his vehicle, and hit two parked cars. Mrs. Mann survived the crash, but Les died of the heart attack that day at the age of 67. Jessie died 08 Jul 1969.

Jessie & Leslie's son Leslie grew up to serve in the US Navy during World War II as an Ensign. After the War, he attended Stanford Law School. He married and was a successful attorney in Pomona who later resided in Scottsdale, Arizona. They had a son, Leslie Mann III.