Families

The Lewis Jordan Cooper Family
of Baldwin County

     Lewis Jordan Cooper was born 8 June 1798 in Orangeburg District, South Carolina, one of several sons of Elizabeth Cooper and her husband, whose name is currently unknown. About age 30, Lewis moved to Georgia with several of his brothers, settling in the Thomas County area. On 24 March 1829, he married Jane Cumbaa, who was born January 9, 1811 in South Carolina to Uriah and Elizabeth Cumbaa.

     In Thomas County the first nine of their eleven known children were born. Lewis and Jane may have lived in Florida a short while, but by 1850 they had settled in Dale County, Alabama. From there, Lewis and his brothers went different directions; some family members remained in South Alabama, some settled in the Florida panhandle, and others eventually left for Louisiana and Texas. By 1860, the last of t heir children born, Lewis and Jane had finally moved to Baldwin County. Along with Lewis came Thomas Jefferson Cooper, born 30 March 1825 in Laurens County, Georgia. He might have been a younger brother of Lewis, but whatever their kinship, the two remained close. Many Coopers currently living in Baldwin County descend from one of these two families.

     Lewis lived in Baldwin County until his death, probably in the early 1870s. Jane died several years later and both of them are buried in unmarked graves in the Old Cooper Cemetery in Rosinton. Their children lived out their lives in Baldwin or surrounding counties. Most of these children also are buried in the Old Cooper Cemetery.

     Lewis and Jane's eldest was John Jordan Cooper, born 16 July 1830. His first wife's name was Sarah Elizabeth, but little is known about this union. He married about 1857 to Araminta Alice McKenzie (although his Baldwin Times obituary reports her name as Amanda Stevens, her surname from a previous marriage). The couple settled near Rosinton, and had 14 children. At the time of "Grandpa" Cooper's death 2 April 1909, ten of the children were living. These children married into the Givens, Penton, Gulledge, Maygarden, Kendrick, Draper, Strickrodt, Levins, and Bonifay families.

     Elizaan (or "Eliza") Cooper was born 7 December 1831. She married Robert S. Thomley, son of Josiah Thomley, and they had at least eight children born before, during, and after Robert Thomley's Civil War service. The couple moved from the Cooper home place, but remained in the region. At Eliza's death on 17 April 1902, six children were living. They married into the McKenzie, Allen, Wilson, Frost, Havard, and Bryars families. Robert Thomley died 9 April 1911, and was buried near his wife at Sullivan Station Cemetery near Nokomis in Escambia County, Alabama.

     Little is known of Lewis and Jane's third child, Vandy V. Cooper, born 29 November 1833. He married Saphronia Cooper on May 15, 1860 in Butler County, Alabama. Cooper history holds that he died a Confederate soldier, but he possibly lived and settled elsewhere after 1860.

     Harriet Mahaley Cooper was born 10 February 1836, and married John Joseph Thomley, the younger brother of her sister's husband. They had eleven children, at least nine living to adulthood. This couple settled and farmed near Raybun. John Thomley died 29 July 1894, but Harriet Mahaley lived at least 16 more years.

     Lewis and Jane's fifth child was Lewis Jernigan Cooper, born 18 May 1838. On 29 November 1860 Lewis married Elizabeth E.A. Walker, who died in 1866, and they had three children. Two of their children were raised in Baldwin County, where Lewis Jernigan Cooper married Elizabeth "Jane" Wynn on 17 December 1866. Together, "Old Man Lou" and his wife Jane had several daughters and one son.

Cooper's Landing on Bon Secour River

     After Confederate service, Lewis built the white house at Cooper's Landing on Bon Secour River. Two of the daughters married brothers John and Charles English, and others married into the Wenzel, Clarke, and Fell families. Old Man Lou died 29 January 1902 and is buried in the Wynn Cemetery near Summerdale. His wife, Jane Wynn Cooper is buried in St. Michael's Cemetery in Coden, where she died during the 1906 hurricane.

     The sixth child of Lewis Jordan and Jane Cooper was Marshall Columbus Cooper, born 18 April 1840. After Confederate service he married Frances Jane McKenzie on 3 May 1869 in Baldwin County, where they raised at least eight children. Their children married into the Bush, Oglesby, Nelson, Stabler, and Gulledge families. Marshall Columbus was a Mason and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He died 9 June 1912 but his wife lived another 23 years. Both are buried in the Old Cooper Cemetery.

     Elizabeth D. Cooper was born 30 May 1842, and married William H. Buzbee, Jr., on 9 November 1860 in Baldwin County. Many of the Buzbees in South Alabama and the Florida panhandle descend from this couple's eleven children, who married into the Brown, Callaway, Jones, Boggan, Lovelace, Miles, and Shipp families.

     Lewis and Jane's eighth child was Joseph Uriah Cooper, born 24 May 1844. Whereas the two older Cooper girls married Thomleys, two of the younger brothers married Wynn sisters. Joseph Cooper married Weltha Ann Wynn on 17 August 1870 in Baldwin County and they had ten children. After Weltha's death on 26 April 1891, Joseph later remarried, to Lucreacy Sanders, and they had seven children. In May 1916, both Joseph and Lucreacy died, leaving their youngest children orphans.

Henry Harrison Cooper Home

     Henry Harrison Cooper, born 14 May 1846, married Matilda Carmella McKenzie on 25 February 1868, and they had at least 13 children. Henry built the Cooper home standing in Rosinton, but later he moved to Daphne and Bay Minette, serving as Baldwin County's tax collector during the early 1900s . He retired to Mobile, where he died 12 May 1909. His descendants founded and currently own the Mobile stevedoring firm Cooper/T. Smith.

     Little is known about the two youngest sons of Lewis and Jane. Michael Washington Cooper was born 26 January 1850, interestingly, in Florida. He died at 25 and is buried in the Old Cooper Cemetery. William Jefferson Cooper was born 9 December 1852 in Alabama. He may not have survived to adulthood.

     Written 2001 for The Baldwin County Heritage Book.

Submitted by: Lance B. Young, Two Fountain Abbey, Pensacola, FL