LAY Family: And the work begins

John David "Big Valley"
Dave Lay (Nancy Lay's big brother)

Nancy Lay (abt. 1768-abt. 1860) is the daughter of Jesse Lay, Sr., who is one of several children of John Lay, who died when young leaving his wife Elizabeth alone. There is so much to the Lay family story and for the genealogists among us, trying to sort through the Lay family as various parts made their way through Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky. There is an extemely short list of names each successive generation used, causing lots of confusion and consternation is sorting them all out. 

Then, I discovered the Lay Family Genealogical Association, Inc., a group who has been operating for many, many years and have several very serious genealogists who have unraveled much of the tree. Unfortunately, and this impression may not be 100% correct, it looks like the active pubhlished work of the organization died out in 2016. The leader of the group, a woman of great skill, died in 2017. Much of this research was published in Lay of the Land, a publication of the group. These are no longer in print. I got a copy from a very generous Wikiteer who also guided me to other sources, including some of his own scholarship.

I am sorting this Lay family information now, but I believe it will take some time to do so.  I also got a couple of resource names that are also out of print: Gilbert Lay's Lay Family Geneaology and Arlie Lay's Lay Family History.

If you have copies of any of these or know where to get them, please let me know by leaving a comment.

Mystery Murder Muddle: Truth, Legend, or Something In Between?

JAMES BEAMS m NANCY LAY > JANE BEAMS m Henry Wilson Hand

The stuff family legends are made of - the possibility that my 3rd Great Grandmother Elizabeth Beams Cooper's sister Jane was a murderess.

All of what I've learned is anecdotal, but rather than ignore it, I'm going to discuss the three pieces of information that are posted on Ancestry.

Elizabeth (my 3GG), Jane, and two married sisters came to Crawford County, Illinois from Whitley County, Kentucky together and resided near one another. Elizabeth married William Lloyd Cooper in 1831 and Jane married Henry Wilson Hand in 1830. The Hands lived about seven miles from the town of West York in a cabin just north of the Crawford-Clark County line.

1.  According to Rmillis on Ancestry, Jane discovered that Wilson was having an affair with a woman from West York and began to poison him with arsenic. Wilson died 11 Sep 1850. This source states that "She knew she had cancer so apparently didn't worry about any consequences from her actions."

2. According to Crates99, the following tale is told: "James Hoskinson's Uncle Otis became curious about the early demise of both his maternal grandparents and decided to try to find out what had caused their deaths. He was concerned that some hereditary factor might be present that his children should be aware of. To that end, he contacted the doctor who had attended both Wilson and his wife, Jane, who died soon after him. The doctor was very reluctant to discuss the matter which merely made my uncle more curious until finally the doctor told him that he need not worry that they had any passed on any health conditions and that he could expect to live a long and healthy life. Upon further pressing, the doctor gave his opinion that very likely arsenic figured in Wilson's death but that no examination had been made to prove it. In response to Otis' "Why wasn't justice done?", The doctor explained that Jane was also dying (cancer, which does have some hereditary features) and that it was better to let well enough alone and spare the children the embarrassment. The children were raised by their uncle and the property was sold to settle the estate. The property was acquired by Mae Spraker's family (the Coxes) and was passed on to her and Jesse."

Typical cabin, Crawford County
photo by Warren Jennings, 1999

3. Finally, according to dmdough7, "According to a letter dated, July 27, 1937, Mrs. Margaret
Lucretia [Shepherd] Mitchell - a cousin of Arthur Hand, "My Mother's younger brother Wilson, lived east of your Grandfather. He and his wife both died of Milk Sickness, which was prevalent in that district at that time, they left 3 children, Martha, Isaac, and Bet-Ann. Uncle Jimmie took them home and raised them. Martha married Elias Hoskinson, lived one fourth mile west . . . " Hand Family Scrapbook, page 93.  Will we ever know what really happened?  Could this have been an attempt to maintain a family secret or she just did not know?"

For #3, the idea that the couple both died of milk sickness, yet died nearly two years apart (Jane died 15 Sep 1852), seems implausible. Did Jane murder her husband? We'll never know. It's a mystery for the ages and will remain in the family lore of the Hand and Beams families in perpetuity.

Some of the children were nearly grown at the time of their parents' deaths. The "Uncle Jimmie" referred to is James Fleming Hand, who not only took in one of Wilson's kids, but two of his youngest brother Lorenzo Dow Hand's two boys, Jasper and Clinton D. Hand, who had also been orphaned. 

William Lloyd Cooper and Elizabeth Beams

WILLIAM COOPER > AMOS COOPER > WILLIAM LLOYD COOPER m Elizabeth Beams

William  Lloyd Cooper & Elizabeth Beams
about 1865

Sometimes, I wonder just how some of the old relatives met one another. In the case of my 3rd great grandparents, William and Elizabeth, I finally found the solution. This story took a while to unfold.

Let's go back for a moment to the Quaker couple Amos Cooper and his wife Hannah Lloyd who were living in Pennsylvania and then decided to move west to Illinois in the mid-1820s. The arrived in Crawford County, the county where a very large settlement of Quakers had started settling. Many of the residents were from Kentucky and Pennsylvania. The family remained there and then moved to neighboring Clark County for some time, but several of the family moved on to Stephenson County over the course of time.

William Lloyd Cooper was born the middle child on 11 Apr 1807 in Delaware. The birthplace is listed in the 1850 and 1870 census, so is probably accurate, but he is the only child in the family born there; the rest being born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. According to The History of Stephenson County, Illinois, his parents had removed briefly to Delaware and returned to Pennsylvania a year or two later.

Elizabeth Beams was born to James Beams and Nancy Lay on 19 Nov 1810 in Whitley, Kentucky. The Beams had many children and lived primarily in Whitley, Kentucky, though both hailed from elsewhere. They were early settlers along the Cumberland River. 

Four Beams sisters; two married, two unmarried (Elizabeth being one), removed to Crawford county in Illinois. They all lived near one another in this heavily Quaker area. Many of the Beams extended family were Quaker, including sister Anna's family, the Michael Cox's. Most of the Beams family remained in Whitley County. I have an interesting story about her other unmarried sister, Jane, and what happened after her marriage, which I'll save for another time and add to the Mystery Muddles file. We can surmise that the Beams were Quaker, though I haven't located any Quaker documents on the Beams family specifically so far.

Elizabeth and William Lloyd married on 10 May 1831 in Crawford County. Ten months later, the first of eight children arrived, Ann, whose progeny cross the Smull family lines in several places. My 2nd great grandmother, Mary Jane Cooper, landed about right in the middle of the group of eight kids. The Coopers lived in Clark, then moved on to Will County about 9 miles from Joliet for a year. He came to Stephenson County the following year (1841) and started working an uncultivated farm he entered with the government. He farmed for a dozen years, then retired, selling the farm and moving to the village of Rock Grove.

Of their eight children, seven survived them both. Son George Washington Cooper, born about 1838, died in 1856 at Rock Grove in Stephenson County at age 18.

Older Elizabeth Beams Cooper

In April of 1883, the news reported that William Cooper had recovered enough from injuries to be out and about:

We are pleased to find William Cooper out again. Sometime ago he fell and broke a rib and fractured some more.
Freeport Daily Bulletin
Wednesday, April 18, 1883, Freeport, Illinois

Just a month later, he had a severe stroke, from which he never fully recovered:

Last week our friend William Cooper had an apopletic stroke. We understand he is convalescent.
Freeport Daily Bulletin
Wednesday, May 30, 1883, Freeport, Illinois
===
William Cooper is still confined to his room. His recovery is slow and painful.
Freeport Daily Bulletin
Wednesday, June 6, 1883, Freeport, Illinois

W.L. Cooper died 08 Oct 1886 in Rock Grove. His wife Elizabeth moved to Bremer County, Iowa and spent the rest of her days living with her daughter, my 2nd great grandmother, Mary Jane Cooper Smull. After Mary Jane's husband Johnathan's death in 1885 from a stomach ailment (probably cancer), the family moved into the town of Plainfield from their farm. Mrs Cooper died in June of 1897 in Plainfield and was buried near her husband in Union Cemetery in Rock Grove, Stephenson County, Illinois.