Nathan Cooper and Elizabeth
Oldham were the parents of Isaiah Cooper [1778-1849]. We know this
from the testimony of their great granddaughter, Charlotte Matheny
Kirkwood, in a 1903 letter to her nephew, Guy Matheny. "On Mother's
side we are descended from Nathan Cooper and Colonel Oldham of the
Revolution."
Nathan was probably born in what
is now Clarke County. Virginia, but was part of a larger Frederick
County in 1755. He was the son of the wanderlust Job Cooper
[abt.1732-1804] and an unknown mother. The supporting evidence for
this can be found in Job's biography. My belief is that Nathan's
mother was a member of the Younger family. My reason for saying this
is that Charlotte stated that her parents. Man" Cooper [1800-1856]
and Daniel Matheny [1793-1872] were second cousins. The only way I
can see that to be true is if Job Cooper were married to a Younger.
Elizabeth Oldham's father was Issac Oldham. There is a record
of an Issac Oldham marrying a Man" Younger. Daniel Matheny's mother
was Rachel Younger.
We know that Issac Oldham lived
in Frederick County, Virginia, at one time and that his first wife
was buried there. The residence of the Oldhams in the same county as
the Coopers would have given Nathan and Elizabeth a chance to meet.
I have no smoking gun, however.
In 1755 Nathan's father was
fighting in the French and Indian War. The Coopers had settled
further west, on the South Branch of the Potomac River in what is
now West Virginia. After French-allied Indians captured Nathan's
eleven-year old uncle in 1753, the family had moved eastward, across
the Shenandoah River to the west slope of the Blue Ridge. When the
war started, Job Cooper enlisted. It is believed that Nathan began
his life on the farm of his grandparents, Thomas and Mary Cooper on
the east bank of the Shenandoah River in present-day Clarke Count)*.
Life for Nathan in those early years would have been very
circumscribed due to the threat of being taken by Indians. Since the
Cooper farm was bordered on the west by the Shenandoah River. Nathan
probably fished and swam there. There were many Cooper uncles,
aunts, and cousins nearby, some of them right there on the large
Cooper farm.
Elizabeth was the daughter of
Issac Oldham and an unknown mother. [See my opinion of her identity
above.] She was born about 1760. She would have married Nathan about
1777. during the Revolution. Our ancestor, Isaiah Cooper, born in
1778. was probably her eldest child.
Our first documentary evidence of
Nathan's existence is when he served in Lord Dunmore's War in 1774.
Lord Dunmore was the Governor of Virginia. The war was precipitated
by the murder of all the family of the Indian who was called Logan.
He had taken the name of a governor to honor him. Logan had been a
friend of the whites, but he turned vengeful
after the massacre of his family. Many Indian tribes allied
themselves with Logan to punish the whites. The war climaxed at a
great battle at Point Pleasant, where the Great Kanawha River meets
the Ohio River in Mason Count)*, West Virginia. Nathan Cooper was in
the company of Captain William Linn and was paid out of Pittsburgh.
He was a resident of Virginia, [p.143. Virginia's Colonial Soldiers,
by Leonard D. Bockstruck. Genealogical Publishing Company,
Baltimore. 1988] We had Cowan. Walker, and Montour family members at
the Battle of Point Pleasant also.
The year following Lord Dunmore's War. the
Revolutionary War broke out with the shots fired at Lexington and
Concord. My source states above that many of the soldiers who fought
in Dunmore's War also fought in the Revolution, but the records of
Revolutionary War soldiers paid out of Pittsburgh were destroyed. So
Nathan probably fought in the Revolution as his great granddaughter
stated. We know that his father fought in the war. We just have no
documentary evidence that Nathan did.
In the 1790 Census a Nathan Cooper is shown
living in Washington County, Pennsylvania. Of all the Nathan Coopers
shown in that census in any state, this is the only logical one it
could have been. [There were two or three others.] What makes it
logical is that Elizabeth's family lived just over the border in
Ohio County, West Virginia [then Virginia]. The Oldhams lived so
close to the Pennsylvania border that the closest town lay in
Washington County, Pennsylvania, and they buried their dead there.
The census shows one male over 16 [Nathan]; two white males under 16
[Isaiah and Nathan Jr.]; and three white females [Elizabeth. Hannah,
and an unknown daughter].
In 1793 we find Nathan in Colonel Landon
Carter's Regiment. Captain Nathaniel Taylor's Company of Infantry.
Washinton County [Tennessee] Militia of the Southwrest Territory
[Tennessee]. Here Job Cooper had been living off and on since as
early as 1787. In Nathan's militia company were Joel Cooper [Junior,
no doubt], for whom Job would serve as surety during his 1788
marriage; Abraham Cooper. Edward Cooper, and James Cooper. The
Coopers lived in the Watauga Valley. At this time the eastern-most
part of the present-day state of Tennessee was engaged in a
rebellion against the state of North Carolina, of which they were a
part. They seceded from North Carolina and created the "State of
Franklin." For several years this rebellious "state" operated in the
area. Today it is called the "Lost State of Franklin." Finally the
entire western part of North Carolina was admitted to the Union as
the state of Tennessee in 1793. We find both Job and Nathan Cooper
on the 1796 and 1798 tax lists of Carter County, Tennessee. Carter
County had been created out of Washington County in 1796.
It appears that the parents of both Nathan and
Elizabeth moved their residences in late 1798 or early 1799. The
Oldhams moved from land they owned on Middle Island Creek in Ohio
County. Virginia [now WV] onto a 400 acre farm on Middle Wheeling
Creek east of Wheeling, West Virginia [then VA], near the
present-day Pennsylvania-West Virginia border. Job Cooper moved to
Hardin County. Kentucky, at about the same time.
In 1802 Nathan and Elizabeth were already
living on sixty-four acres fronting on the Ohio River in Ohio
County, Virginia [now WV], when they purchased it from Samuel and
Margery Caldwell for S314 [Deed Book 5 Page 148]. On June 3. 1803,
the Coopers traded the 64 acres for 100 acres on Middle Island Creek
in that portion of Ohio County that became Tyler County in 1814. The
same day the Coopers sold another 64 acre tract for S400.
The Cooper household in the 1810 Census
consisted of one male over 45 [Nathan]: one female over 45
[Elizabeth]; and
one female age 10-15. That woud be Aylee, who
married John Cook in 1814 in Ohio County, just before Tyler County
was created. [Ohio County Marriage Book 1 page 139]. Aylee was no
doubt named for Elizabeth's sister "Alley" mentioned in the will of
their father Issac Oldham in 1821. In other documents the sister is
referred to as Alline. Next door to the Coopers in the 1810 Census
was Nathan Cooper. Jr.. and his wife Pheby Phillips Cooper. They had
been married the previous year. [Marriage Book 1 Page 121].
In 1820 the two Cooper families still lived
next door to each other, but they were enumerated in the new Tyler
County, West Virginia, which had been created out of Ohio County.
The senior Nathan Coopers had a girl aged 10-15 living with them,
who probably was not their daughter because she would have shown up
in their home in the 1810 Census. If she had been born after the
census in 1810. Elizabeth would have been too old to bear a child
[fifty]. She may have been a granddaughter. The junior Nathan
Coopers had a son and two daughters under 10 years of age. By 1830
the Coopers had left the area.
We find both Nathan Cooper families in
Fountain County, Indiana, in the 1830 Census. Both Nathan Sr. and
Elizabeth were still alive. Nathan is shown as age 70-80 and
Elizabeth as age 60-70. She had to be very nearly 70. They lived
alone. Next door lived Nathan Cooper, Junior, age 40-50; one male
under 5; one male 10-15; two females 5-10; one female 15-20; and one
female 40-50 [Pheby]. Also in Fountain County were many Cooks,
including the family of John and Aylee Cook. They were both listed
in their thirties. Their children were one male under 5; one male
5-10; two females under 5; and three females 5-10.
On page 214 of History of Fountain County,
Indiana, 1881, by H. W. Beckwith. in the section on Richland
Township, it says Nathan Cooper settled there soon after the first
settlers of the township, who came in March of 1825.
By 1840 neither Nathan Cooper appears on the
census of Fountain County. Presumably the senior Nathan was dead. It
is likely that Nathan Junior moved west somewhere. If Elizabeth were
still alive, she probably went with him or with the family of her
daughter Aylee Cook.
[Nathan Cooper and Elizabeth Oldham >
Isaiah Cooper > Enoch S. Cooper > John Shepherd Cooper >
Rose Ella Cooper > Lois B. Hodgson > Mildred D. Serrano >
Donald L. Rivara > Rainie A. Rivara > Salman and Rehan
Saeed]
Source: Cooper/Oldham
Family Biography graciously submitted by Don Rivara. The above data
has been compiled by the submitter and has been provided for
research purposes only. It is the responsibility of the
researchers to verify all data to be used for personal
research.
Contact Information: Don
Rivara
