Clan William: Scandal Sheet: My Father, My Husband, My Sister, My Daughter

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson > Samuel II Munson > Freeman Munson >  Henrietta Munson > Virginia Woodington m Albert Harper > Gladys Harper 

Virginia "Jennie" Woodington married Albert E Harper after the death of his first wife, Lillie Belle.

Albert and Lillie Belle had four children. Those children were grown or mostly grown by the time of Jennie's marriage to Albert in 1913 in Grant County, Wisconsin.

Gladys Harper was the third of the children, born 28 Sep 1893. Gladys Harper briefly married Robert Walter Van Riper of Franklin County, Iowa at about age 15. What was probably a shotgun wedding was not so rare, even in those days, so that in itself wasn't necessarily so scandalous. Their daughter Grace was born on 14 Jul 1909. By 1910, Gladys was living back with her family.The Van Riper’s divorced. 

Gladys married Charles Dewey Hansell in 1916 in Brown County, South Dakota while both residing in Aberdeen. Charles was also from Franklin County, Iowa. In 1920, Gladys and Charles resided in Marmath, Slope County, North Dakota. Gladys gave birth to Lorraine Hansell in about 1922 after their return from The Dakotas to Franklin County. Gladys died on 24 May 1924 in Hampton, Iowa. Charles, acting as father, continued raising his now 15-year-old step-daughter and his thee year old daughter.

On 12 Jul 1927, Charles married his step-daughter Lillian Grace Van Riper in Mason City, Iowa, In what I'm sure was a shocking move to the families. I wonder if they felt the need to leave the area because of the scandal of it all and not return.

They moved with Lorraine to Chicago, where Charles worked in a foundry and later as a waiter.

Charles and Grace had three children while living in Chicago: Betty Lou (1930-1940), George Charles (1932-1948), and Jacqueline Jean (1937-1942). 

The Hansell’s lived in Jefferson County, Wisconsin beginning in the mid-1940s and remained there until their deaths. Their son George was the last surviving child and died at age 16 after an auto accident in Jefferson.

Lorraine, Grace’s half-sister and step-daughter, left home and was boarding in Chicago by the time she was 18. She was married, at least once, to Wallace Craig, whom she married in 1957. No other information is available on what became of her.

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.

Micro-Memory: Moderntone Dishes

My mother, who is from the other side of my family and unrelated to all the people I've discussed

here so far, visited me yesterday as she had various errands to run in town. She lives way out - having retired to an idyllic rural setting about 70 minutes from here about 20 years ago.

She had called me the night before she left to see if I was interested in some things she was going to be clearing out. Included in those things were some beloved small specialty dishes, like a relish tray, that my grandmother had always used on special occasions. I was interested.

Then, she mentioned she had her grandmother's Moderntone dishes made by Hazel Atlas in the 1930s. I leaped all over that. My great grandmother had used those depression-era plates and bowls every day, though I have no memory of her using them. I do remember that my grandmother used them all the time. I adored them. It was all part of the "going to Grandma's" experience. She always saved the blue set for me.

This morning, I will be washing those up and putting them into my buffet, excited that I will be able to use them come Thanksgiving. I care naught for fancy china and silver, but will be using my grandparents silver-plated flatware and Modertone dishes for all of my special occasions.

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.

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!

LINSEY-MILLER-LISK-HOLLER