Bunch
The first
Bunch in Melungeon territory (various spellings) was
apparently “Trader” John Benge, born about 1735 in Albemarle
Co., Va., died about 1800 probably in Georgia. Benge had
both a Cherokee and white family, like many of the Coopers,
Gists, Beans, Blevinses, Wallings, Wards, Stuarts, Martins
and other Jewish merchants of the time. His son by Wurteh
(Gurty, a nickname for Margaret), the daughter of Great
Eagle, or Willenewah, of Tasagi Town, was the outlaw
Chickamauga chief Bob Benge, who probably was responsible
for the entry of the word “binge” into the English language.
Also known as Captain Bench, and The Bench, he was born in
Toqua Town and died on April 9, 1794 in Stone Gap, Va.,
after being tracked down by a local posse. Wurteh went on to
marry Nathaniel Gist, the father of George Guest (Sequoyah,
born about 1771 near Fort Loudon). Benges married into the
Brown, Lowrey, and Watts families around Chattanooga.
Bundren
The
original form of the name was Bondurant, from a southern
French family documented in the area about Narbonne and
Avignon back to the 1400s. Claibourne Peter Bundren
(1774-after 1850) was the first to change the spelling to
Bundren. All persons in the United States with these names
trace back to a single emigrant founder, Jean Pierre
Bondurant (1677-1734). Born in a small village in the south
of France, Jean Pierre was a Protestant who escaped to
Switzerland at age 20 in 1697. He reached Jamestown with
about 100 other Huguenot refugees on the "Peter and Anthony"
from London in 1700 and settled in Manakin Town, a deserted
Indian village on the James River just west of Richmond. He
had been trained as an apothecary and practiced medicine in
Virginia. He is said to have received 400 acres of land from
King George I of England, confirmed in 1725. He and his wife
Ann were members of the King William Parish church and had
five children. His grave site is located on Birdsong Lane,
Spencerwood West, Midlothian, Virginia. It is surrounded by
an iron fence and has a marker placed there by the Bondurant
Family Association in 1990.
The
Bundrens of Sand Mountain raised several large families near
Henegar before packing up, lock, stock and barrel, and
moving to Kansas in the 1880s. Their original land purchase
goes back to Claiborne’s purchase in DeKalb Co., Ala. Aug.
19, 1842 (Section 14, Twp. 9, Range 10E; see Lebanon Land
Office Receipt SG 4535). Before leaving Tennessee for
Alabama, James Bundren, born 1810 on the James River in
Virginia, married Sarah Redwine in the McMinnville home of
the Coopers – a clue to religious practices. They are the
author’s great-great-grandparents. Because of their dark
complexions, the Bundrens were accused by many on Sand
Mountain of being black.
Burke
The
Burkes were French Sephardic Jews who settled in Virginia,
North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Kentucky. John Burke
emigrated from Cork, Ireland, to Pennsylvania and his
descendants proceeded south to Virginia and North Carolina
and west to Kentucky. Their name may come from Burgos, the
city in Portugal. The Burke coat of arms shows a French name
DeBurque with a knight and a panther with a chain around its
neck. A Benjamin Burges is mentioned in trade
documents of S.C. in 1751, and a James Burges appears
in Hawkins around 1797. James Burke, born in County
Limerick, Ireland, about 1705, discovered Burke’s Garden
located in Tazwell Co, Va. in 1753, and is frequently
mentioned in local histories of that region. John
Burke signed a petition from North of Holston against
the so-called Fincastle Petition in 1777. Benjamin Burke
(1765-1828) married Elizabeth Troxell (1752-1851), the
sister of trader/spy George Jacob Troxell (1758-1843, DeKalb
Co., Ala.), and they are buried in the Smith-Kidd Cemetery,
Great Meadow Community, Rock Creek, McCreary Co., Ky.
Surnames of favorite marriage partners include:
Anderson, Bane, Brown, Blevins, Byatt, Coil (Coyle), Davis,
Gregory, Hatfield, Lewellan, Millican, Orr, Smith and
Steele.
Cooper
The
annals of this Melungeon family would fill volumes, and it
is one of the most common surnames today in the Tri-State
Region surrounding Sand Mountain. Though Coopers are
generally aware of their “Indian blood” – one living male
Cooper with no other Indian bloodlines tested seven percent
American Indian in the original studies undertaken for
WSWJ, which would place the generation of full-bloods in
his ancestry approximately in the early 18th
century – few know the whole story. It begins in
medieval Norman France and becomes linked with the fortunes
of Anthony Ashley-Cooper, earl of Shaftesbury, and Lord High
Chancellor of Britain, in the 17th century.
Before that, the Coopers were country gentry in
Herefordshire closely allied with the Ross (Rowse, Rose)
family and known for their cattle breeding and exemplary
public life (Ross, 1932). After Shaftesbury’s fall from
grace and exile in the Netherlands, Cooper cousins
concentrated on commercial and mercantile activities in
London, Sussex, Amsterdam, Long Island, Philadelphia,
Barbados, and Norfolk. The Cooper line of the author’s
mother, Bessie Louise Yates (born on Sand Mountain, October
22, 1917 in Langston, Jackson Co., Ala.), descends from
William Cooper, the guide and scout for Daniel Boone, and
has been tentatively traced to Robert Cooper, a London
goldsmith and ship’s surgeon, who died at sea in 1691.
Cooper
R1b DNA matches Stewart, Ramey and other lines identified as
French Levites (WSWJ).
As the
list below demonstrates, Coopers were well connected and
active constantly in the frontier movement, sometimes
becoming quite wealthy, other times forced to abandon their
trading posts and land holdings and move on to regroup. A
rather high proportion of them appear to have been murdered.
The last earl of Shaftesbury, a very visible member of the
British aristocracy, disappeared in the south of France in
November 2004. French authorities are investigating his
estranged Tunisian wife and her brother. The body has not
yet been found.
Cooper, Benjamin (about 1755-1814), married Sarah Esther
Burton and lived in Kentucky. Son Cooper, John (born
1784, Loudon Co., Va., died 1841, Nelson Co., Ky.), married
Mary (Pollie-Mollie) Duncan.
Cooper, Benjamin (born about 1772 in Granville Co.,
N.C.), first justice of the inferior court, and organizer of
a Cherokee school, Gilmer Co., Ga. Married Temperance Simon
Lemar of Anjou, France (died about 1809 in the Cherokee
Nation East), and later a Cherokee woman called Pretty Girl
(U-Wo’-du-a-ge-yu’-tsa). The family received reservation #92
in 1817, reaffirmed in 1819, subsequently canceled. They
then emigrated west, arriving in Indian Territory on May 30,
1834, with seven slaves. Died June 26, 1852, Flint District,
Cherokee Nation West.
Cooper, Cornelius (born about 1774, Granville Co.,
N.C.). Married Jane Wood of Maryland. Died October 01, 1855,
Slidale, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana (outside New Orleans)
and was buried in the Cooper Cemetery in Sun. First settler
of Bogue Chitto, La., with Henry and William Cooper
neighbors. The family was long involved in manufacturing
stakes and wagon poles.
Cooper, Cornelius Benjamin (1801-1886), Georgia state
senator (GEORGIA by John Ward; Papers of Senator
Cooper). He and his family came to Texas about 1840 and
settled in Rusk County near Henderson, Texas. He was eight
or nine years old when his mother, Temperance Lamar, died.
The area they lived in was part of the Cherokee Nation in
what is now Gilmer County, Georgia. Many of the Cherokees
moved to Rusk County, Texas between 1840 and 1865, in order
to get away from the fighting going on among the Indians
favoring moving to the Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and those
who wanted to stay in Georgia, led by Chief John Ross. After
the move west, many of the opposing “Treaty Party” were
killed by the Ross group. The ones who moved to Rusk County,
Texas, were mostly Treaty Party supporters that were facing
great danger in Indian Territory (Oklahoma) than in Texas.
Most of them returned to Oklahoma after the Civil War.
(Based on notes by Paul Sarrett.)
Cornelius Benjamin Cooper
(1801-1886) and his wife Rutha Ann Weems Cooper
(1804-1890). The son of Benjamin and Temperance Simon Lemar
Cooper, he was one-eighth American Indian through his Cooper
line, a combination of Choctaw and Nansemond, or Saponi, for
he was the great-grandson of William and Malea Labon Cooper
of the Watauga Country. From a family photo.
Cooper, Cornelius C. (about 1740-1808), planter and
merchant, labeled Free Person of Color in the Fishing Creek
District, Granville Co., N.C. tax list taken by Zacharias
Higgs, 1786. Lord Granville Land Grant. Rev. Book C., pg
77-79, mentions “sundries furnished & cash to the Militia of
N.C., Va., and S.C” during the Revolution. Listed as a
Patriot of the American Revolution. See ACCOUNTS OF THE
UNITED STATES WITH NORTH CAROLINA, WAR OF THE REVOLUTION,
book C, Pages 77-79. Died and left a will in Franklin Co.,
Ga. Son William Cooper was born in Granville County,
N.C. between 1770 and 1775. His children were Solomon, June,
Sarah, Benjamin, and Joseph, all born in Franklin Co. Ga.
between 1801-1811. Son John Cooper was born about
1761 in Granville Co., N.C. and married Abigail White, Dec.
1, 1784.
Cooper, Gaines (1833-1870), railroader, another son of
Isaac and Jane Cooper, bought land in Fractional Township in
DeKalb Co. on Sand Mountain, Sec. 10, Twp. 5S, Range 9E,
July 15, 1854. Gaines comes from the Blevins family and is a
form of Goins (from Hebrew goyin “impure, Christian,
convert”).
Cooper, George Frederick, R. S. (1758-1841), son or
foster son of Jacob and Lydia (Chase) Cooper of New York,
said to come from Holland. Went to Kentucky with Daniel
Boone and became founder of Cooperstown, near Monticello,
Wayne Co. Married Dorothy Call (Kahl).
Cooper, Harmon S(olomon) (1811-1886). Harmon Cooper
lived next door to his sister Nancy and brother-in-law
Jonathan Burke on the Little South Fork of the Cumberland
River, near Nobusiness Creek. Later, this area was cut out
of Kentucky and made part of Tennessee. Thus, in later
years, he was counted in Fentriss Co., Tenn. Without moving,
Harmon Cooper lived in four different counties and two
states (Harmons Cooper & Moses Slagle of Wayne County,
Kentucky & Iowa & Their Descendants, by Rosalie L Cooper
Leavelle, 1983). Harmon is buried in the Cooper Adkins
Cemetery in the Mt. Pisgah area. It is a small cemetery in a
pine woods. A sign says that it is maintained by descendants
of Benjamin Adkins and Harmons Cooper. "Harmon Cooper
dressed like a southern gentleman of the 1800's. His dress
was usually of dark material and his waistcoat was cut just
below the hips with trousers to match with narrow cut legs.
His hat was wide brimmed and he wore boots almost to his
knees. Harmon married his first wife and they had 15
children. Wayne Co., Ky. was of Union persuasion during the
Civil War and was surrounded by Confederate sympathy.
Confederate soldiers hanged Harmon, and after they left, his
women cut him down. He survived to marry a second time and
sire 6 more children." His three wives were Mary Ann Atkins,
Mahala Jackson, and Martha Pile. The names of his children
were: Meecie, Talitha Leanne, Luida, Catherine, Isaac,
Lucinda Jane, John Granville, Benjamin Turner, William H.,
George Washington, Artemellia (Artie), Milly, James,
Cansada, Alvin, Alfred, Victoria, Silas, Rosa, and
(youngest) Joseph.
Cooper, Harmon (1830-1879), railroader, married Maliah
(Delia) Francis, the great-great-great-granddaughter of
trader David Francis and Isaqueena, sometimes called the
Carolina Pocahontas. Malea is a Hebrew name meaning “ripe,
sweet.” Died of scrofula at the age of 49, in Shellmound,
Marion County, Tenn., whereupon Malilah and family moved to
East Texas. Harmon is a form of Hiram, the name of the
Levite builder of the Temple in Jerusalem.
Cooper, Henry Labon (about 1745 – after 1830),
wainswright, planter and land developer. During the
Revolution, Henry served as a private in the 2nd
Corps D’Elite of Green’s Virginia Militia from the Watauga
Country, under the name Henry Laban. Afterwards, listed as
Enrico Labon Cooper (p. 26) his name appears in the "Mobile
Names" of San Esteban de Tombecbe (Tombigbe, St. Stephens),
and he was one of the North Carolinians on the surrender
list of 1781 when the Spanish established control of the
hinterlands of Mobile (Enrico Cooper), along with a William
(Guilielmo) Cooper: Archivo General de Indias in
Seville, previously Havana Cuba (Papelas de Cuba) 2359:
417-18. He took an oath of allegiance and served as corporal
together with another Enrico, probably Houston Cooper, his
son, and Samuel and William (Guilielmo), brothers, all
appearing on a 1787 Spanish census of Second Creek (p. 105,
Anglo Americans in Spanish Archives. Lists of Anglo-American
Settlers in the Spanish Colonies of America. A Finding Aid,
by Lawrence H. Feldman, Baltimore: Genealogical
Publishing Co., 1991). In 1789, Henry, Samuel & William
Cooper were tobacco growers in Second and Sandy Creek, now
TN/AL/MS tri-state area (List of Tobacco Growers, Spanish
Natchez District, 1790). In one season alone, they grew
21,200 pounds. This became the Tri-state Mussel Shoals area
between Corinth, Miss., Florence, Ala. and Waynesboro, Tenn.
It is interesting that the Coopers seemed to choose
ambiguous areas on state lines to settle; another such area
favored by them was the Chattanooga area, and yet another
was the Little South Fork area in Tenn./Ky. Before this he
lived in Bute Co., where he was a member of the Masonic
Temple, and Caswell Co., N.C., where he was overseer of
roads and a wheelwright.
Henry
Cooper is listed in Davidson Co., Tenn. Register of Deeds
1798-1802 Vol. E (A-G): he was a resident of Sumner Co. and
bought 640 acres on the west side of the Harpeth River at
the mouth of the South Harpeth from John Nichols.
Henry's granddaughter Delitha Cooper later married Wilson
Nichols. Henry paid John Nichols $900 cash; the deed
included "all advantages, ways, water courses, mines and
minerals." Henry's daughter Nancy married a Nicholas,
perhaps the same surname. Both Nichols and Nicholas are
Sephardic Jewish and Melungeon surnames. There is a Nicholas
Springs on Copper Ridge near Clinch Mountain. Grants
south of Green River, DEED BOOK 1 p. 324, 325 Francis WYATTE
to Henry COOPER 1795 Agreement. Later in life he moved to
Wayne Co., Ky. where he patented 80 acres on Buffalo Creek.
Still later, he hid with his grandson James in Rutherford
Co., Tenn., near Black Fox's camp. He may have managed to
flee with other family members to St. Tammany Parish near
New Orleans.
Cooper, Huston (about 1767-1833), plantation owner on
the Harpeth River in Davidson Co., Tenn. Married to “a
quarteroon Indian woman” (Nancy Cooper v. The Choctaw
Nation, 1902). He died shortly before the Trail of Tears.
Son Huston Cooper (about 1790- 1860) continued to
hold the plantation, which owed its origins to grandfather
William Cooper’s service to the Cumberland Settlement (state
of Tennessee).
Cooper, Isaac (born about 1700 in Norfolk, Va., area),
Quaker, married Tabitha Millay. Son Isaac Cooper
married Prudence Dunn and they were members of the
Wrightsboro Monthly Meeting near Augusta, Ga. (land grant in
1774 at Wrightsborough Twp., Parish of St. Paul, Province of
Georgia). Sons moved to Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana.
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