Job Cooper

Job Cooper, son of Job Cooper and Elizabeth Charley, was born 1800 in Tennessee, probably Bedford County. Elizabeth C. Landrum, daughter of Merriman Landrum and Delilah Jackson, was born 1807, also in Tennessee, Rutherford or Williamson County. They married 25 May 1821 in Bedford County, Tennessee with George C. Cooper, Job's brother, as bondsman. 

Job and Elizabeth removed to Shelby County, Texas about 1841. Their children, born in Tennessee (probably Bedford County), were Lavinia B., Ellender C., Elizabeth, Merriman Landrum, Jose D., Jackie Ann and John B. Born in Texas were Elisha F., Mary Tennessee, Jobe, Jr. and Sarah Z. T. Four of Job and Elizabeth's sons died in the Civil War; Merriman L. Jose D., John B., and Elisha. Merriman, John B., and Elisha were captured at Arkansas Post and Merriman and Elisha died as prisoners of war at Camp Douglas in Illinois. John B. was furloughed from there and killed in 1864, probably in the Atlanta Campaign. 

Job and Elizabeth lived to their 90s, according to a 1941 letter written by one of their grandsons, James Hemphill Walker. He states they were buried in Hamilton County, and this is consistent with their last appearance on a federal census--in 1880 they are enumerated in son-in-law Cornelius Estes, married to Mary T. Cooper, in Callahan COunty, Texas, Job is listed as aged 80 and Elizabethnas 73.

Grandson James Hemphill Walker is buried in the Texas State Cemetery as he was the Land Commissioner 1929-1936. His parents, Philip Walker, another early Texan, and Elizabeth Cooper Walker, daughter of Job and Elizabeth, are also buried there. John B. and Mary Mitchell Cooper's son George C. taught school and farmed, living in Johnson County, Tom Green County, and ultimately, Lubbock County. The Lubbock-Cooper school is named for him, based on his work to unite rural schools in Lubbock County. The Ballenger School in the Lubbock school system is named for his daughter Josephine Cooper Ballinger.

 

Job Cooper family in Texas before statehood: 

Marion Day Mullins, "Republic of Texas Poll Lists for 1846" (Baltimore, MA: Genealogical Publishing Co.,1974).

Session records of Bethel Presbyterian Church, San Augustine, Texas 1838-1913: photocopy of a handcopied transcript of the original. "Republic of Texas San Augustine City AD 1839" 1842, no pagination: members received on certificate: Mr. Job Cooper, Eleanor C. Cooper, Lavinia B. Cooper, Elizabeth Cooper 1844, p. 16: Job Cooper elected elder 8 May 1846, p. 18: members dismissed by letter: Job Cooper, Elizabeth and Eleanor Cooper, Lavinia [Cooper] Bryant. These records are also in the published history of the church: Winnie and Thelma Nicholson, comp., "History of Memorial Presbyterian Church" (San Augustine, Texas: Business Office Services Class, San Augustine High School, 1988).

Nacogdoches Land District, 4th class file no. 000110/to Job Cooper, 16 Dec 1841 Shelby-000110 /unconditional grant. This grant file also classifies it as 3rd class, but it was ultimately issued as 4th class.

Margaret Cooper Crabtree. "Just A Speech Therapist," (MS: Privately held by TX000082, 2019).

Roberta Pipes Bowman, "From Flour Sacks to Satin: The Story of a Sharecropper Family (Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2008).

Documentation for the deaths of John B. Cooper and his wife Mary E. Mitchell and the subsequent lives of their two children is undoubtedly disjointed due partially to the time--the upheaval of the Civil War. It was also a series of painful events--early deaths of parents and the tug of war that ensued over guardianshipianship of the children. It was recounted to TX000082 by George C.'s children, George M. Cooper, Rachel Cooper Osborne, and Margaret Cooper Crabtree. Margaret's unpublished memoir, in possession of TX000082, tells this story. In addition, another granddaughter of John B. Cooper, Roberta Pipes Bowman, published an account in her "From Flour Sacks to Satin: The Story of a Sharecropper Family."