Coopers in the military from the first emigrant - Joseph Thomas Cooper

The first member of our Cooper family who lived in America was Joseph Thomas Cooper (b. before 03 Jul 1757, with his baptism recorded at Warmfield Parish, St. Peter, in England, on o4 Jul 1757; d. 16 Jan 1825).

He is listed in the U.S. and Canada Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s, p. 23, as arriving in the year of 1776 at Pennsylvania. 

He is listed in the Pennsylvania Archives under Some German-American Participants in the American Revolution: The Rattermann Lists (German-American Genealogical Research, Monograph No. 27) McNeal, AZ: Westland Publications, 1990, p. 47. Joseph would have been 21 years of age at this time. 

The family story is that this ancestor came to America to fight against the English king in the American Revolution. (Gives you a clue as to how some Englishmen thought of their king...)

I have no other documentation as to how he fared in the Revolutionary war, but on the 2nd of December, 1776, Joseph T. Cooper and Martha Warren were parents of a baby boy, Joseph R. Cooper. Joseph R. was born in Lancaster, Lancaster Co., PA, USA. 

Joseph R. Cooper was married to Mary Ackerman in 1810. 

He was a soldier in the War of 1812 with the 71st Regiment (Hutter's), in the Pennsylvania Military, where he served as a Private. (Taken from Microfilm Publication M602, Roll Box 46.)

Joseph R. helped to organize the Baptist Church in Griggsville, Illinois on August 4, 1834. He was a leader in the Ripley Church of God - Abrahamic Faith in Ripley, Illinois. The following excerpt is from a print-out in that church's records:

Joseph Cooper

"Of great interest  to descendants of members of the Ripley Church of God is the family of Joseph R. Cooper, a soldier of the War of 1812. He was born in 1776 and died in 1880, age 103. After the war, he migrated to Illinois and settled in Ripley, where many of his descendants still live and serve in the Ripley Church of God. He had a daughter, Mary, and also a son, Philander, who married Mary Robins, thus connecting them with that family. They had six children among whom were Lola (Clark), John Wesley (1874-1953) and Edwin (1862-1893).

      Edwin married Emma Clark. Their two children were Mary Myrtle Fey and Harvey. Edwin's daughter, Myrtle, married Wm. Fey and they had four daughters: Lucille, who married Herman Lewis and had five sons - Lyle, John, Dale, Arlen, and one deceased; Helen married Thomas Lewis and had one son, Harold Lee; Hildreth (now Webber) married Clarence Maddock and had a son, Darrell - Sometime later, Hildreth married Frank Wiorley and had another son, Richard; Mildred married Alfred Hetrick and they had two daughters, Reva Ingels Moore and Joan Mixer.

     John Wesley Cooper married Myrtilla O'Neal and had four children: Mary (married Loren Burnett), Edna (Hughes), Margaret (Ward), and Gerald L. Cooper. 

      This brings this family down to the living generation whom we all know (referring to the members of the present Ripley Church of God). Of particular interest are those who entered the ministry of the Church of God - Gerald Cooper (deceased), Francis Burnett, John Lewis (deceased), Darrell Maddock, and Richard Worley.

       Many of the descendants of Joseph Cooper are dedicated members of the Ripley Church of God and Churches of God in other areas of the U.S.

       *Myrtle Fey died on Christmas Eve in 1918 during the flu epidemic. She was only 34, leaving 4 young children. Their father, Wm. Fey, was a faithful man and raised these 4 girls active in the Church of God."

According to my records, Joseph R. Cooper and Mary Ackerman had 8 children - Sarah (b. 1812; d. 1875), Lieut. John Wesley (b. 17 Nov 1813; m. Sarah 'Sally' Jane Outcalt; d. 05 May 1883), Anthony Taylor (b. 1815; m. Polly Hartwick 29 Dec 1847; d. 1873), Joseph R. Jr. (b. 1819; m. Rebecca Walton, 1840; d. 12 Apr 1857), Mary Jane (b. Jun 1829 in Ohio), Philander A. (b. 23 Aug 1831; m. Mary Robbins; d. 24 Jan 1887), Francena (b. 1836 in Ohio), and Cynthia Ann (b. 28 Aug 1841; m. McNeil [?]; d. 14 Jan 1898). [Note: These children and their place of birth seems confusing, so more research needs to be done to verify the facts listed.]

Joseph R. Cooper died on March 10, 1880, and is buried in the Ripley Cemetery, Ripley, Brown Co., Illinois. 

On our recent trip (Fall of 2014) to Pittsfield, IL, we traveled to Ripley, Illinois. I was not able to locate the grave of Joseph R. Cooper, as it was nearly dark when we arrived at the cemetery there. Here are two stones on the grave of his son, John Wesley, and John's wife, Myrtilla.