Abraham Cooper

Compiled by Fred T. Kimbrell, Jr.
31 July 1999

    Who was Abraham Cooper, killed by Indians in southwest Virginia at Cowan's Fort with his son in 1779?  What were the details of his life and death?  Who were his sons and later descendants?
   Unfortunately, the only historical records that exist do not truly document this ancestor of ours.  Most of the references that mention Abraham Cooper and his descendants are property transfers, deeds, court records, militia rosters, estates, and other sterile archives.  There is no real way to definitely know that our Abraham, or any of the names mentioned in these sources are the precise individuals reported.  However, when dates, ages, locations, and other details are consistent, it is likely that our ancestors are the ones documented by the source.  I have therefore chosen to try to limit qualifying my account by words such as "probably" or "apparently," and hope that professional genealogists will forgive this liberty.

 In December 1886 when he was 79 years old, John Linzapher Cooper, Abraham's great-grandson, related his knowledge of the Cooper family genealogy to his daughter Temperance Elizabeth Cooper.  John Linzapher qualified his reminiscences, noting "these statements are all made from memory, and may be inaccurate in some respects."  Tempie wrote down this remarkable account and her brother, Dr. John S. Cooper, copied the badly fading manuscript 09 May 1917.  One edition of this document was eventually published in Ansearchin' News, the genealogical magazine of the Tennessee Genealogical Society.  John Linzapher said that Abraham "…came from England and settled in Culpeper County, Virginia, most probably between the dates 1750 and 1760. "^[1] 
   The records of Culpeper County, formed from Orange County in 1749, support many of John Linzapher's recollections and further characterize the Cooper story.  Abraham, who may have been born about 1725, was indeed found in Culpeper County 17 May 1750.  He bought 400 acres of property on the north side of the North Branch of the Gourd Vine River, northwest of the present town of Culpeper.^[2],[3]  His occupation was listed as carpenter in this deed.  Sometime before 1754, Abraham married Frances Scott, born about 1725.  Frances was the daughter of Anthony Scott and Jane Hawe.  Anthony's will,^[4] written 07 Jan 1754 and probated 17 May 1764 in Culpeper County, Virginia, names his wife Jane, son Samuel, daughter Frances who married Abraham Cooper, daughter Elizabeth who married Rawley Corbin, and daughter Ann, who married ? Bank.  Rawley Corbin, Francis Cooper, and Isaac Wall witnessed the will.  In a later Culpeper County deed,^[5] the marital relationship of Abraham and Frances is confirmed and John Cooper, who may have been Abraham's brother, is mentioned again.
   Abraham must have had some type of legal problem with one Thomas Howell, because on 23 Jul 1763 in the Culpeper County Court he was listed as defendant and an "Alias Capias" or arrest warrant was issued against him.^[6]  The outcome was favorable, however, because the case was dismissed about four weeks later.^[7]  Several other property transactions involving Abraham were recorded in Culpeper Co.  In 1764 he sold two horses^[8] and in 1765 he sold the slave "Tom" and a "felt hatt" that he had inherited from his father-in-law Anthony Scott.^[9]  He must have been a diligent worker and skilled craftsman, as recorded in the will of William Johnston, because he was paid "for rebuilding the mill…for iron work on the mill," and "for smith's work."^[10]
   He apparently saved his money, because he and John Cooper bought eleven acres of land and the right to build a water grist mill from John Barricle 17 Aug 1768.^[11]  His name was recorded as "Abram" in this document, but later was listed as "Abraham" and "Abram" when he sold the property to John.  The two men had built the mill, but Abraham and his wife Frances sold the land and mill to John 20 Jul 1772.^[12]  The deed is recorded as follows:  "…between Abraham Cooper and Frances his wife of Culpeper County, Parish of Brumfield in the Colony of Virginia, and John Cooper of the same county and colony, for £100 current money of Virginia, covering all rights in the above described 11 acres and one water grist mill located and standing thereon which was built by the aforesaid Abram Cooper and John Cooper in equal partnership and one of them having and holding an equal part in the said mill and land which was purchased of John Barricle, in equal partnership to build the aforesaid mill on and by the said John Barricle was conveyed unto the said John Cooper and Abram Cooper by Deed dated 17 August 1768."
    The next documentation of Abraham is found in the turbulent times before the Revolutionary War.   This period of history was one of change and exploration for the Colonies.  New, land-hungry settlers were spreading out from the eastern seaboard and moving into the fertile valleys of Middle America, displacing the Native Americans.  There was constant conflict and warfare, not only with the Indians, but also with the Crown and England.  To protect the settlers against Indian attacks, troops of Captain William Russell's militia command constructed a string of seven forts along the southwest Virginia frontier.^[13]  Abraham was recorded as joining Captain Daniel Smith's Company 29 Oct 1774 at the garrison of the Glade Hollow Fort (Fort Christian), leaving 18 Nov 1774.^[14]  Francis Cooper, whose relationship to Abraham has not been determined, was also listed in the garrison of Glade Hollow.  This occurred during Lord Dunmore's War, which was basically a campaign to displace the Indians from the southwest Virginia frontier.
    Even with the protection of the forts, life on the frontier was precarious and brutal:  Indians attacked Cowan's Fort in 1779 and Abraham and his son (? Francis) were killed.  Another son, Christopher, documented this event in his application for a Revolutionary War pension and declared that "two young women was taken prisoner and he was one of the party that pursued & retook them again." ^[15]  Cowan's Fort, also know as Fort Preston, Russell's Fort, Bickley's Fort, or Blackmore's Fort, was located behind the present day Masonic Lodge Hall in Castlewood, Russell County, Virginia.^[16]
   After his death, Abraham's son, Christopher, was granted bond to have the estate inventoried and appraised.^[17]  The meager possessions consisted of the following:

Gray horse £360-bay mare £28-bay horse £240-black mare £210-sorrel horse £440                               £1438
Bay mare £290-cow £70-bull £30-cow & calf £50-ditto £60-heifer £55-do £55-cow £50-calf £12.10          £672 10
Large iron pot £12.10-do damaged £5-narrow ax £5-broad ditto £4-fourteen sides dressed leather £45    £101 10
Side of sole leather £12-piece of sole leather £5-thirty pounds goose feathers £75-pair of spoon molds £8    £100
Small spice mortar £5-five head of sheep & bell £52-Foot-(adze?) £2.10-box iron £3.10                             £63
A quantity of pewter £18-pair of blankets £8-a quantity of hemp £8-pole ax £6-dutch plough £5                 £45
Hunting saddle £3-part of Smith tools £23-old saw and old iron £4.10-lead £15-saddle £5                        £33 10
Bags £18-three raw hodes £18-rifle gun £50-hone £2-[?] £2-plow & 2 lb old iron £2-2 lb salt petre £7.10     £90
                                                                                                                                 £2566[18]

            John Linzapher said that Abraham and Frances had five sons and that these sons ended up in five different states:  Virginia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Georgia.  Some of the sons and their locations are documented fairly well, others incompletely.  An unnamed son, maybe Francis, Frank, or Franke, was killed with Abraham at Cowan's Fort.  Caleb has not been documented.  Benjamin A. ended up in Missouri.  Christopher and son Abraham settled in Tennessee, the latter's descendants enumerated by John Linzapher.