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Cooper, Isaac (about 1775 – about 1845). A son of Henry Cooper, Isaac is first attested in the List of Taxes and Taxable property in the bounds of Capt. (William) Bean's Company, returned by William Stone, Esquire, 1799. This was in Cherokee country along the Holston River and Clinch Mountain in Tennessee, later Grainger County, also known as the Watauga Settlement, or State of Franklin. William Bean Sr.'s was the first white cabin in those parts. 1800 May 20:  Grainger Deed from Elizabeth Bean and Robert Blair for one hundred acres proven in open court. Let it be registered for Isaac Cooper. (WPA) Grainger County Court Minutes 1796-1801, p. 170. The original indenture is dated Oct. 11, 1799 and was registered July 9, 1800 (Grainger Register of Deeds, Vol. A-B:  Sept. 1796-1811, Vol. A, p. 273). It conveyed 100 of an original parcel of 200 acres adjoining his land on German Creek to Isaac Cooper. This was near the second Bean's Station on the saddle of land leading over the ridge of Clinch Mountain called Copper Ridge (prob. after William Cooper, Isaac's grandfather). Two years later, Isaac resold the land to Stephen Brundige (Bunch?) at a handsome profit (Vol. A, p. 259). Elizabeth Bean was the widow of William Bean, Jr. who died in Grainger Co. in 1798. Her maiden name was Blair; she remarried to a Shaw. Capt. William Bean was a son of the famous Mrs. Lydia Russell Bean whose life was saved by the Beloved Woman of the Cherokee, Nancy Ward; his first marriage was with Rachel Ball. He married Elizabeth Blair in Tennessee in 1782. The Bean-Blair-Cooper deed was all "within the family," as these are related Sephardic Jewish and Melungeon lines. By 1810, Isaac had moved again. He is listed in the Wayne Co., Ky. 1810 census: COOPER, Isaac 21010-21010-00. In 1814, he was granted a certificate that later entitled him to 4x50 acres (200 total) of land in Wayne County, Ky., pursuant to the treaty with the Cherokee Indians at Tellico (Treaty of Oct. 25, 1805). The land was on the Little South Fork in Tellico Bounds, on Lonesome Creek. The survey for his tract was dated June 10, 1815. Beginning about the same time, he gradually bought parcels of land in Sumner Co., near Gallatin. In 1820, as the Cherokee continued to be squeezed south, he left Wayne County, Ky. for Jackson Co., Ala., and in 1830 he is found living on the Sumner Co. land. None of these stratagems worked out, possibly because of Nancy, his wife, a full-blood and the daughter of Chief Black Fox. The paper trail Isaac and Nancy chose over the Trail of Tears ends in Monongalia Co., Va./W.Va., 1834-45, where he was involved in a series of land transactions and then disappears from view.

Cooper, Isaac (about 1804-1847) was a mixed blood Cherokee-Choctaw and Jewish railroader from Kentucky who died during the Mexican War in Vera Cruz, Mexico. He is probably buried in or near the Church of San Francisco, built 1775, once part of a Franciscan convent, then used as a hospital by the American army during the 1847-1848 occupation of Vera Cruz. It is located in the port area, near the Plaza de la Reforma. He married Mahala Jane Blevins of the Long Hunter Blevins family, and she received a widow’s pension.

Isaac Cooper bought 50 acres of land on Beaver Creek in Wayne Co. around 1824. The survey was dated Jan. 29, 1824. He then bought land in Marion Co., Tennessee, in the 1830s. He had moved there about 1825. He is counted in the 1830 census on page 58. There were seven in his household: 3 males under 5, 1 male 5-10 years old (Jackson Cooper?), 1 female under 5 and his wife 20-30 years old (Jenny Blevins?). He is mentioned as a landholder on Sequatchie Creek, Marion Co. Deed Book, p. 319. In 1831, he sold land in district four to Mary Porter and her family for $100. About 1838, he settled in Deerhead Cove, Dade County, Ga., on the Alabama line (DeKalb Co.)

Isaac Cooper also evidently served in the Cherokee Wars during the latter part of the 1830s. There is a private by that name in Dossett's Company of 3rd Battalion of the Tennessee Infantry, also in Powell's Co. of Lindsay's Regiment of 1st Tennessee Mounted Volunteers. Many "friendly" Indians and halfbreeds joined the army and helped remove the Cherokees, often as scouts. Isaac would probably have been considered a Choctaw quarter-breed and not a Cherokee. See Index to Volunteer Soldiers in Indian Wars and Disturbances 1815-1858, by Virgil D. White (1994), based on NARA Microfilm M629 ("Cherokee War 1836-1839").

In 1833, while her husband Zack was away at war, Mrs. Cooper, said to be extremely beautiful, was raped while at her job by the railroad foreman, a McDaniel. Mariah Ann Cooper was born nine months later and raised as the Coopers’ own daughter. In the Civil War, Mariah Ann was sent for safety to Ashe Co., N.C. She never married. She died in 1927 and is buried in Bondtown Cemetery, Coeburn, Va.

In 1840, Isaac Cooper appears to have been in Muscogee Co., Ga., perhaps in Columbus, a railroad hub. The household consisted of 1 male 10-15 years old, and 4 females ranging from under 5 to 15-10 years old, together with a female 30-40 years old (=Linny Blevins Cooper). He is listed as part of a whole page of men engaged in manufactures and trades; three of his household apparently worked for the railroad, which must have included his wife, Mahala Jane.

Isaac Cooper bought land on cash sales from the Lebanon land office in Dekalb Co., Ala., Sec. 27, Tsp. 3S, Range 10E (next to James Blevins, apparently right across the state line from Deerhead Cove, Dade Co., Ga.) on two occasions:  June 1, 1845 and April 10, 1847 (80 and 40 acres). In August of 1847, he enlisted in the army.

According to Billie Groening, Isaac Cooper joined the army August 5, 1847, in Dade Co., and was a private in Calhoun's Battalion (D Company, Calhoun's Mounted Battalion, Georgia Infantry--his brother William was in the same outfit as a scout). He may also have served in Company J 1st Tennessee Mounted Infantry, enlisting in Alexandria and being discharged in New Orleans in 1847. Evidently, he was part of the gunnery, because of his metal-working and mechanical skills. He entered the hospital in Vera Cruz November 7, 1847 and died December 23, 1847. Gen. Winfield Scott, the conqueror of Mexico, was from Kentucky.

On the Mexican War, in an interview, an Isaac Cooper of DeKalb Co., Tenn., who was one of the survivors of Captain Goodner's company, said: "I joined Company I, First Tennessee Regiment of Mounted Infantry, for service in the Mexican War about the time I reached my majority. Our colonel was Jonas E. Thomas, while our company was organized at Alexandria and sworn in at Nashville. Our uniform was gray and was made at home. We went to Tampico and crossed the Gulf to Vera Cruz. A fourteen days' storm overtook us, and we had to throw overboard the horses of Colonel Thomas and Major Waterhouse. The other horses followed on transports. After the battle of Vera Cruz we fought at Cerro Gordo, then marched to Jalapa across the mountains, I being one of the guards of four wagonloads of gold and silver from Vera Cruz to Jalapa. On our return home we took ship at Vera Cruz for New Orleans, thence by boat to Nashville. The government bought our horses at Vera Cruz, and I received about $700 for my absence of twelve months and eight days from home."

According to Isaac’s grandson Peter Cooper, "My grandmother Jane Cooper always said that the Indian Chief Fox always claimed to be akin to Grandfather Isaac Cooper" (Peter Cooper ECA docket).  Peter Cooper also said, "They, Father and Grandfather, were recognized as white folks when they lived. They lived with white people. Never heard of them living with the Indian tribe except that they were in this state when the Indians left. They did not leave when the Indians left. I don't know why the Indians left." (Peter Cooper Testimony in care of George A. Cooper #41086 supplementing Application #19589, July 1, 1908). Isaac was called Zack by the family, and his wife, Linny. Peter Cooper’s ECA was rejected, appealed, and rejected again.

Cooper, Joel (1766-1858), married Elizabeth Jobe, January 20, 1788, Washington Co. (Watauga), Va./N.C.

Cooper, John, Capt. (about 1771-1839), plantation owner and captain of the Choctaw Indians. He lived in Perry, Davidson and Lincoln Co., Tenn. He also lived on Knappa Creek, Miss. (in 1831), on the north side, and frequently visited relatives in Tishomingo Co. In 1836, he lived in Perry County on the west side of the Buffalo River near Linden in Tennessee. His family went over the Trail of Tears several times.

“A man who cultivated his land, raising food for his family and livestock, Captain Cooper was surprised and shocked when the soldiers came in midwinter, January of 1836, and commanded an immediate removal of his family to the Indian Territory. They had only time to gather and pack a few necessities which the soldiers allowed to be tied on their horses' and mules' backs. They rode away toward their new home leaving behind their house, a structure of four rooms, a verandah separating the house from the smokehouse. They also left six cribs of corn and other important foods for their survival.

When they arrived at the Mississippi River the ship or boats which they had been promised in writing were not there to take them across this very cold water. The soldiers, who were driving them had not been told of this promise. They used their only means of crossing, riding their swimming animals across. Many of their party drowned and they also lost most of their food and other necessities.

“[Capt.] Cooper's wife [Nancy Ann Piles], who was ill when forced to start on the perilous journey, was physically unable to continue. A few miles from the Mississippi River in the state of Arkansas, the soldiers permitted the sick woman and their old mother [probably Molly Huston Cooper, wife of Henry Cooper] to be left in the wild and rugged country with her two daughters, Delitha and Narcissa. Gen. [sic] Cooper and his son and sons-in-law were made to continue their journey westward, driving their remaining cattle. There remains today a crossing in southeastern Oklahoma called Cooper's Landing, which was named for the courageous and faithful Choctaw husband and father. As soon as possible they escaped from the soldiers and made their way back to where the old mother and daughters were left. The mother had died two days after being abandoned. Delitha and Narcissa had survived by eating bark of trees and other plants and animals.

“John Cooper was an educated Indian - spoke and wrote the English language. He fought in the war of 1812 with Andrew Jackson. The two men made a gentlemen's agreement that the Choctaws of Perry and Maury County, Tenn. were not to be moved to the Indian Territory until the spring of 1836. The two men continued to correspond and Andrew Jackson verified ‘their promise in writing.’ Our grandfather, John Cooper was deceived by this Democrat. He asked [page torn:  that no one in the family would every vote for a Democrat again. They became staunch Republicans.]” (Pioneers of Oklahoma, Oklahoma Hist. Socy.).

Daughter Nancy J. Cooper (born about 1838 and died before 1909), Choctaw Dawes no. 1418, blind, never married, plaintiff in Nancy Cooper v. The Choctaw Nation, a case which under Indian law awarded citizenship and benefits to more than 100 surviving family members of Capt. John Cooper, but which was arbitrarily overturned by the Oklahoma Supreme Court in 1909.

Choctaw Enrollees, Dawes Commission Case Number 1418 

(Capt. John Cooper was enrolled posthumously, then “unenrolled.” He is the author’s 4^th-great-granduncle. The others are all cousins. Some are duplicates.)

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