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From: "Sephard Manager" <>
Subject: [SEPHARDIM] FW: Portrait of Capt. John Cooper, a Choctaw Jew
Date: Sun, 07 Dec 2003 16:47:35 +0000


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Subject: Portrait of Capt. John Cooper, a Choctaw Jew
Date: Wed, 3 Dec 2003 19:10:01 -0700

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.

Surnames: Cooper, Labon, Campbell, Boen, Nichols, Nicholas, Pyles/Piles,
Moshulatubbee
Classification: Query

Message Board URL:

http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/CtB.2ACIAE/135

Message Board Post:

According to family tradition John Cooper was a 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. In 1836, he lived in Perry
County on the west side of the Buffalo River near Lindon in Tennessee.
Apparently his family went over the Trail of Tears several times. --Pamela
Kahler
"The following is an account of the Choctaw Indian Records in Washington,
D.C." (from an article in Ohoyohoma, a publication by the Ohohohoma Club at
McAlester, Oklahoma and probably written by two sisters, Juanita and Jewel
Nichols): General John Cooper was born in northern Mississippi in 1771. He
was a Choctaw Indian. When he was a very young man he migrated with his
family into Maury County, Tenn. He served in the American Army for several
years, but here is no record of how he earned the title of General. He was
the father of three children, two girls and a boy. He was known as a man who
cultivated his land, raising food for his family and livestock.

He was suprised 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.
General Cooper's wife (Nancy Ann Pile--dpy), 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? her?) old mother [probably Molly Huston
Cooper, wife of Henry Cooper--dpy] to be left in the wild and rugged country
with her two daughters, Delitha and Narcissa.

General 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.)
Information on Capt. John Cooper from Dr. Ronald C. Martin,
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/m/a/r/Ronald-C-Martin-CA/

In the case Nancy Cooper v. Choctaw Nation, William Cooper's widow,
Barthenia Parilla Cooper, 90, testified in 1894 that her husband William
Huston Cooper was a nephew of an Isaac Cooper who lived and died in North
Carolina. So Isaac and John were brothers. The affadavit of Hyram E.
Livingston on August 8, 1895, also mentions a brother Isaac who married an
Indian woman and whom he saw alive in 1829 in Perry Co., Tenn. He also
mentions a William Cooper, who "married a quadroon Indian." According to
witnesses, all these brothers spoke the Choctaw language, were called and
were Choctaw Indians. According to descendants, the Coopers moved to
Arkansas in 1838, at the time of the Trail of Tears, after spending some
time in Illinois and about two years in Missouri.

John Cooper paid tax for one poll in Sumner Co. in 1794 (Record of the Taxes
for the Year 1794 Contributed and Compiled by Linda Carpenter). Looneys were
also present at the time.
John and James Cooper with large households are listed in the territorial
census of Tishomingo Co., Miss. in 1837 and 1845.

Testimony of William Thompson age 60. Lived in Ark. 51 years. I lived in
Davidson Co., Tenn. until one years before my father left for Ark. and that
year I lived in Williamson Co., Tenn. just across Harpeth River. I knew a
man named William Cooper and Berry Cooper said to be his brother. They said
their father was named John Cooper. I knew a man named Houston Cooper, who
looked like he was sixty-five or seventy years old, when I was about nine
years old; he was said by my father and William Cooper to be John Cooper's
brother. I did not know any of these parties in Tenn. except Houston Cooper.
I knew the others of whom I have spoken in this, Pope Co., Arkansas... I
know Billy and his family and Mrs. Taylor and her family well as close
neighbors. Well, now they were different in general appearance as between
Billy Cooper's and the Taylor family and Mrs. Nichols and her family...
Narcissa Taylor was dark-skinned and jet black eyes and hair; and Mrs.
Nichols was even darker in s!
kin that the others, and she was very dark indeed. She looked like if she
had been in the Choctaw and Cherokee and Chickasaw Nations, that she might
have been taken as one of those tribes." --Nancy J. Cooper v. The Choctaw
Nation, 1895.
A John Cooper was issued a passport by the governor of Georgia in 1808 (Mary
G. Bryan, Passports issued by governors of Georgia, 1785 to 1809, National
Genealogical Society, 1962). At this time, Alabama and Mississippi were
territories of Georgia.

Also, in "Passports of Southeastern Pioneers 1779-1823" by Dorothy
Williams Potter on page 331 the following was listed:
Tennessee Passports
Passports issued 9th April 1798 for removing property from the
Indian lands also to take
care of grain now growing---
John Cooper
George Tedford
James Houston
Thomas cooper
John Tedford
Robert Tedford

"A list of claims allowed under the treaty in Greenwood Leflore's district"
(1831) lists John Cooper along with others who migrated or met up with the
family in Arkansas, e.g., Isaac Perry. (Choctaw Claims, 1831). Isaac Perry
later gave testimony in the Nancy Cooper v. Choctaw Nation case.

RG 75 RECORDS OF THE BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS

Land reserve C130/131

Choctaw Muster Roll:
Capt. John Cooper with 4 males
and 2 females
arrival, Red
River Dist. 2-11-1832
Capt. John Cooper with 4 males
and 7 females
arrival, Red
River Dist. 12-12-1833

"Capt. John Cooper's" name appears as a Choctaw Indian who relinquished his
land in Natachacha District in "Document 512, Correspondence on the Subject
of the Emigration of Indians between the 30th November, 1831 and 27th
December, 1833 With Abstracts of Expenditures by Disbursing Agents, in the
Removal and Subsistence of Indians. Furnished in answer to a resolution of
the Senate of 27th December, 1833, by the Commissary General of
Subsistence., Vol. III, printed in Washington by Duff Green, 1835" There is
also a "John Cooper" in Greenwood Leflore's district.

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