4-24-44 (note: handwritten date on typed document. Typed here as originally typed. May be missing one page.)

THE LIFE OF JAMES LEE COOPER

Son of John and Margaret Youngblood Cooper

JAMES LEE COOPER, date of birth, August 2, 1854, was born in Marshall County, Mississippi. Following are his brothers and sisters:

	Mary, passed away in infancy (first child)
	(James Lee Cooper was second child.)
	Green		Brother
	Henrietta	Sister
	Sashel		Brother
	Willie		Brother
	Johnnie		Brother
	Lillian		Sister
	Lannie		Brother

The parents of James Lee Cooper resided in Mississippi, Marshall County, near Holly Springs. They left Mississippi, accompanied by their children in 1859 on a steamboat on the Missisippi River and were transferred to one of the Arkansas rivers and stopped in Jacksonport, Arkansas, now known as Newport. "My father placed us in a house there, leaving us to go North to Carroll County, Arkansas, where my paternal grandparents resided. There, he secured a wagon and team and returned to us. We were in Arkansas about six months. He took us back to Carroll County. An Uncle and Aunt of mine, William and Marilla Youngblood Cooper came up to Carroll County and finding us there took us to Texas with them. William Cooper was a brother of my Father and Marilla Youngblood Cooper was a sister of my Mother, two brothers married sisters. We used one two-horse wagon to travel in to Texas with Uncle William and Aunt Marilla. The older members of the two families walked and the small children and my Aunt rode in the wagon. There were apple trees, corn and grain in Arkansas, it was too far north for cotton to grow. We arrived in Red River County, Texas on February 5th, 1860, the year before the Civil War began. We remained there until the second year of the Civil war, when my Father entered the Army. His Colonel was Charles D. Morse, his Captain was William Hooks, Company I (the letter .) My father served through the remaining time of the war. We spent the balance of 1865 and year of 1866 in the country in which we first located in Texas. In 1867 we removed to the "prairie" on Colonel W. B. Aikin's plantation. We remained there three years and on January 1, 1870 we moved into Sivley Grove, about six miles east of Clarksville, Red River County, Texas. We remained in Sivley Grove three years. Then we migrated to the P. H. Senter farm and remained there two years. On August 2, 1875 I became twenty-one years of age. We lived on Red River during that year, and on October 14, 1875 I married Miss Anna Blanche Quarles, daughter of William R. and Sarah Hinton Quarles. To this marriage were born nine children, seven Sons and two Daughters.

All the above-named children are living at the present time, this April 24, 1944. I am now nearing ninety years of age. My wife, Anna Blanche Quarles, passed away on April 18, 1895. In 1898 I married Mrs. Julia Daniels. No children were born to this union. Politically, I am a Democat; religiously, a Baptist. My first wife was a member of the Baptist Church. She was hightly educated and from a very cultured family who owned a number of slaves. The loss of her was one that has been difficult to accept.

My second wife is a member of the Methodist Church, she has been long with me, and a sustaining inspiration through sorrows, as well as through pleasures. My adversities have been numerous, but a sense of humor and sincere gratitude accompanied by her assistance has given me much, much

my ninetieth year. She has been indeed, a Mother to my children and an inspiration to "carry on". My children, also, have inspired me and aided in making "life worthwhile." They have become members of different Christian denominations.

All degrees in Masonery have been received by me. Both York and Scottish including the 33rd Degree Mason, and I am a member of the Shrine and the Eastern Star Chapter.

Though not highly educated by attending school, I was born with a determination and an iron will not to fail. My knowledge was derived from the school of experience, observation, and association with intelligent people. My Brother, Green, and I attended a writing school, taught by Mr. Lanem. When I entered school he inquired of me if I was graduated. I realized that I was not. Had only learned to write a very poor hand at that time, but practiced from copies which had been set for me. John Gardner, Governor of Choctaw Nation, after this tribe moved from Mississippi into Oklahoma, also set copies for me. He spent several nights in our home. I attended school two months in my life, six years apart. My parents were uneducated and could not assist me. The books I studied were Webster's Blue Back Speller, McGuffey Reader and Davies' Arithmetic. Sufficient education was acquired, somehow, to enable me to assess and collect taxes and take the United States Census. I was associated, about fifty years ago, about 1894, with H. A. Davidson, Census Enumerator of Greenville, Texas. Mr. Davidson was Republican, but a gentleman. I must have been born with an intuition and a clear insight for solving problems for other, because I have always been surrounded with who seek assistance and advice.

At the time we came to Red River County, land was inexpensive, there was a wide, free range, no restriction in hunting or fishing. There was some wild bear, plenty of deer, wild turkey, squirrel, coon, fox, o'possum, a milk cow selling for $12.50 and up to $15, a good work horse sold for $40.00 and $50.00. There were numerous wild hogs in the country. They grew fat on the Mast and the acorns. Labor was inexpensive. My Father worked by the day, splitting rails at 75c and $1.00 a hundred.

During the war the women carded rows, spun the thread and wove it into cloth. This cloth was used to make our clothes. The women tanned the hide of cattle for shoes. They removed the hair, then tanned it with Red Oak Sap ooz and then it was made into shoes. We used the ash hopper for making soap. We ran the lye off and with the grease made lye soap.

There were no railroads in the State when we came to Texas, no telephones, no telegraph system. There was the stage coach line which carried mail every week or so. We had a small post office where we received and posted our mail. The schools were pay (subscription) schools, no free schools, no newspapers.

At that time one could look in a field and see the wild deer grazing, while one deer ate the wheat the other would watch to see if they were safe, to see if a person was near. It was no violation of the law to hunt with fire caps, or to kill the deer. The young deer was very much similar to young colts and about the same height.

At the time of my first marriage, I rented land for about ten years. To cover the rent, I paid one-third of the grain crop and one-fourth of the cotton crop. At the end of that period I purchased a farm of fifty acres, paying $20.00 an acre for forty acres and $4.00 an acre for the remaining ten. We resided on that farm for a period of fifty years. During that time I purchased sixty more acres of land adjoining the home-place. About the year of 1929 (fifteen years ago) I moved from the above-mentioned farm home into the Sivley Grove (where my Father's family, with me, first settled. We resided there four years on the Joe M. Sivley farm home, which is located on the highway between Fort Worth and Texarkana. Then I bought twenty acres of land just west of the Sivley place for $75.00 an acre. At this place we now reside."

"On the 23rd day of July 1873, L. C. Stiles, Bailey Hutcheson, Jessie Giddens, Dick Ward, William White, and I left Red River County with four saddle horses, a wagon, and a pair of mules. We went over-land to Fort Concho, Texas, which was as far as it was safe for white people to venture. We spent a week on Pecan Bayou with some merchants who lived there. We atttended Church while there. Comanche Indians were found in that section; so, the preacher always carried a gun. Just before we passed through that country, a family, named Johnson, was scalped and killed by the Indians. The mountain where these people were massacred was named Johnson's Peak. After we had spent one week in Brown County, on Pecan Bayou, we then turned back toward home. We passed through the City of Dallas about September 1, 1873, and the lot on which the Scottish Rite Cathedral now stands, was a farm. The railroad had not yet been brought to Dallas. There was no railroad west of Waco, Texas. Lumber was hauled from Brownwood, Texas on wagons pulled by oxen. Four or five oxen were hitched to the wagon, pulling several thousand feet of lumber. The drivers would bell the oxen at night by neck yoke to keep the pair together while grazing. The next morning they would "yoke them to the wagon, travel on about ten, or twelve miles a day. On the above-mentioned trip, bothways, we camped in tents, slept on pallets and cots. Giddens and I were the cooks. We also slept together because we enjoyed confiding in each other. We were exactly the same age, both birthdays being August 2, 1854. He passed away about thirty years ago. Jessie Giddens left one son who is now living in Plainview, Texas. His name is Joe Dick Giddens and he was born on his Fathers' birthday, causing the three of our birthdays to be on the same date. Joe Dick is a Mason but it almost kill him to tell the truth. I am the only living member of the group who made the trip to Fort Conco and Pecan Bayou. Serving as cook on that journey, as well as the inconvenience of traveling, constituted the hardest period of labor I ever experienced. The first night on the above journey, we elected a forage master and a bookkeeper. Each member for the group was assessed $2.50 to be placed in the treasury. The bookkeeper charged the forage master with the amount that we had turned over to him. He accounted for the money spent. Each time the treasury was depleted of funds we re-assessed ourselves in the same amount of $2.50. As well as I remember, it did not cost us more than $20.00 from July 23rd until about September 10th."

My nineteenth birthday was spent in the City of Waco, Texas. There, I crossed over the suspension bridge, which still spans the Brazos River. We were required to pay a toll fee of 10c, or 25c for the privilege of crossing. The number of people, or horses crossing the bridge in one group regulated the price of a group passing. I well remember the toll Collector and his small greasy purse and how rapidly he was filling it with gold and silver.

"The year of 1875 I spent batching with two friends, John Anderson, and Frank Jackson. The style of the "firm" was known as Cooper, Jackson, and Company. (Anderson being the "Company"). This man, Anderson, was born a Gentleman, but by association he became a drunkard."

"Before the railroads came to Texas the steamboats came up to Old Roland, on Red River, north of Clarksville, some fourteen miles. Dances and parties were given on these steamboats. We danced the square dance only. Boiled custard was served. I had never tasted it, or had never heard of it. So, the first time it was served to me, thinking it was gravey, I poured it into my plate and began eating it in the manner we ate gravy in those days. That was really the beginning of my becoming a closer observer, of etiquette. The music at these parties was furnished by a yellow negro, Jim McLeary. We paid him $10.00 to play the "fiddle all night."

"After my Father went to the war, as I was the oldest boy of the family, it was my duty to go to the mill for our family, as well as for some of the "war widows" who had no boys to go to mill for them each week. Some of the women were left without means of support. A horse was furnished me by one of the widows to make the trip to the mill. When I made the trips to mill I passed through dangerous, unsettled sections where panthers passed through from Red River to Sulphur River. One morning, just before daylight, a panther sprang at Mr. Jack Thompson, an elderly Gentleman who was riding a mule. When the panther sprang at the back of Mr. Thompson the mule threw him off onto the ground. Mr. Thompson yelled so that the panther was frightened away. Usually, panthers are not so easily frightened away. That was probably the last panther that ever passed through that country. Upon going to the mill I would return with one peck of meal for each woman and one child for each week. A widow with two, or three children would receive one-half bushel. My Mother had four children; she received one bushel. My load back home consisted of enough for ten persons. There was very little fruit in the country, only a small amount of cut and dried peaches and apples. The wheat was thrashed with a wooden thrasher. When I arrived at the mill, the wealthiest man, Colonel Aikins, the one who owned the greater number of negroes, would always have me go to his home for dinner. His turnip crop consisted of two or three acres in turnips, and he raised many hogs. He paid me the first $1.50 I ever earned. This was for clearing off some brush on the gulley that ran through his field. He also gave me a cotton patch, two or three acres. It made $15.00 worth of seed cotton. He, then, bought it from me and paid me a $10.00 gold piece and $5.00 in silver, more money than I ever owned."

"While we were living on the Colonel Aikin farm, a cousin, George Cooper, and I went to John Coleman's mill, several miles away. We carried several sacks of corn and had it ground into meal and we didn't arrive home before night came on, so we camped by the side of the road, fed our stock, etc, and made pallets under the wagon, spending the entire night. The next day we arrived home. There were very few mills and we had to be ready to leave very early to be able to make the trip and return the next day. The effort now to go to the mill is very slight compared with those days."

"When I was a small boy, I had a little friend named Ervin Lanie. He had a very cross, stingy grandmother. One day, to keep from sharing pie with me, she placed the boy in a barrel (when I was not looking) and gave him all of the pie. All the time I was running around looking for him, he was in the barrel eating pie. Such treatment a small child never forgets.

"I remember, in coming to Texas, we spent one night in Hot Springs, Arkansas. There, people were killing hogs and scalding the hogs in the hot water running from the hot springs. It was a clear bright morning, the sun was shinning. The air was rolling in heat and vapor. Also, I remember on my trip to Texas, it was sometime around the early part of the night that the boat arrived. Our belongings were piled up in a little stack together, and we children were lying and sitting on the boxes, and when the boat came up and the "plank" was out, the stars above were so bright and pretty I thought I was surely coming into a new world. It was, up to that time, the greatest thrill I had ever experienced."

"Nannie Laney was my first sweetheart. We had a swing with a rope. It was fastened to two trees and another thrill was when I could catch her by the arm, run back and forth under her, giving her a big swing. Just to touch her arm was the thrill, because that was loving her. She had brown eyes but she grew up before I did. The first time I ever saw Anna Blanche Quarles, my first wife, was in the Sivley Grove. My brother was first in love with her. We exchanged notes and hers were the sweetest I have ever read. There were always violets, or some sort of flowers attached, another thrill.

"Just after the Civil War my Father bought a cow and calf from a Mr. Dowdy, five miles from our home. I was sent to get the cow and calf; so, I asked a neighbor boy, John Netherly, a Christian Minister's son to go with me. In order to be there when the cattle were turned out on the range we spent the night at the Dowdy home. Upon retiring, Mrs. Dowdy put her Son and John in the guest room on a comfortable feather bed. She had me sleep on a pallet which she made. It consisted of any old black riding skirt placed on the bare floor, with no pillows and no cover. When Mrs. Dowdy passed away, the Pastor said that she wasn't dead just asleep. If she didn't go to "Hell", I do not know what the Lord made Hell for. The Netherly boy, was later placed in the "poor" house at Bagwell, Texas. The Dowdy boy broke into a saloon at Dekalb, Bowie County, Texas and was sent to the penitentiary."

Mr. W. H. Dowdy owned a Stage Stand. The price to ride was 10c a mile. I later in life, befriended the Netherly boy, John, by securing a release for him from the "poorhouse" and transferring him to the soldiers home. He wanted me to secure a pension for him, but, because he and I agreed that he would spend the pension for liquor he was placed in the soldiers' home instead."

Submitted by: Linda Mabry