Very nice work both Jim and Michael. I am honored to be in your genetic lineage.
Sincerely,
Bradley Gibson, 5th Ggrandson of William Mathews Cooley
> Date: Sat, 14 Dec 2013 16:50:12 -0700
> From: ancestr2_at_host187.hostmonster.com
> To: undisclosed.recipients_at_johncooley.net
> Subject: [Fwd: RE: Cooleys in early Stewart county]
>
> ---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
> Subject: RE: Cooleys in early Stewart county
> From: "Jim Long"
> Date: Sat, December 14, 2013 3:22 pm
> To: "'Michael Cooley'"
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Michael,
>
> I have attached the will book pages of the estate sale of Cornelius Cooley,
> so that you can see who made purchases. Had you seen this yet? The
> microfilmed will book images for Stewart County (and most of Tennessee) are
> free online at familysearch.org. Unfortunately, since the will book for
> this time period is so heavily fragmented (I still haven't figured out why),
> there is unlikely to be any additional information forthcoming regarding the
> settlement of the estate. The estate settlement would only have been
> referenced in the County Court Minutes: the detail of the settlement, if
> any, would have been entered in the (fragmented) Settlements and Bonds book.
>
> The original County Court Minutes, which include that reference to the final
> estate settlement, were microfilmed by TSLA, probably in the 1960s (not
> online!), but the whereabouts of the original minute book is unknown.
>
> I have searched the inventory of the Circuit Court Loose Records for Stewart
> County, housed at the County Archives, and don't find any evidence that the
> estate was contested in Court, which would have been a good means by which
> to know the relatives and heirs. Based on the estate sale, I'd agree that
> Lucinda was most likely the widow.
>
> I am intrigued by the fact that, according to that 1814 deed, Cornelius
> Cooley lived on land that William Wallace (my ancestor) gave to his son
> Etheldred Wallace (also my ancestor). This same land, a few years earlier,
> had been owned by William W. Cherry (also my ancestor), who is NOT the
> William Cherry who died in 1826. My William died in 1849 and left a will,
> but it did not mention a daughter Lucinda or granddaughter Burnetta. From
> the available evidence, I think that it's unclear which William Cherry was
> the guardian of Burnetta. Was one of them the father of Lucinda? I can't
> find any evidence, but there are quite a few Circuit Court cases involving
> the William Cherrys. Fortunately, I have ready access to those original
> case files at the Archives!
>
> There's another deed, from 6 Dec 1813, in which one of the William Cherrys
> purchases 800 acres on Dyers Creek from James Gray, with Henry Gibson as one
> of the witnesses (the same Henry Gibson who was an administrator of
> Cornelius - thank goodness there was only one Henry Gibson running around).
> I'm not sure what became of that 800-acre parcel, as the land along Dyers
> Creek was tied up in court for years due to there having been two surveying
> parties and overlapping Rev. War grants. The tax records from 1813-1826
> don't survive, which would have been most handy.
>
> I do see what I believe to be a typo in your draft - you state that, based
> on the 1808 tax list, that Cornelius must have been born by 1789. Shouldn't
> it be that he was born by 1787, since he would have been at least 21 in
> 1808?
>
> Hope this helps,
> Jim
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Cooley [mailto:michael_at_newsummer.com]
> Sent: Saturday, December 14, 2013 1:42 PM
> To: Jim Long
> Subject: RE: Cooleys in early Stewart county
>
> Hi Jim,
>
> We exchanged a couple of emails about the Cooleys of Stewart County--William
> Matthews Cooley from Stokes County, NC and Kentucky--more than a year ago.
>
> I've started writing a manuscript for the Cooleys of Stokes County. There
> will be at least two sections on Stewart Cooleys--William and his presumed
> brother Cornelius who appears to arrived in Stewart County from Casey
> County, KY in about 1812. He died at New Orleans in February, 1815.
>
> I have the first draft for the Cornelius section, which I'm attaching. The
> online records for Stewart County has an entry for the final settlement of
> Cornelius's estate. Have you see the original document? We're hoping, of
> course, that there will be some information relative to his wife and
> daughter as well as a stronger indication of the relationship to William and
> his heirs. ("Stewart County Court Minutes, Aug. 1821 - May 1824," page 10, 7
> August 1821, http://www.rootsweb.com/~tnstewar/minutes1821.htm.
>
> Thanks for any help you can provide.
>
> Best Regards,
> Michael Cooley
>
> > Michael,
> >
> >
> >
> > What a great study - my compliments go out to you. I wish I could
> > tell you that I've stumbled across a gold mine of new Cooley info
> > while processing the loose records of the Stewart County Archives, but
> > I haven't yet. We are a long ways from finishing the processing of
> > those records, though. I can tell you that the Cooleys were
> > 'regulars' in the courthouse at Dover, based on the sheer volume of
> > court cases involving them through the 1820s-1840s. Some of those
> > Cooley cases have many pages to them, so there's a chance that there
> > is new information in them. But when we process the loose records to
> > make them available for research, we don't comb through every page to
> > glean the info - we read enough of the case to determine the reason for
> the case, and when the case concluded in court.
> > If we happen to see a lot of genealogical information in the case
> > file, we will put 'genealogy info' in the online description of the case
> file.
> >
> >
> >
> > I may be able to add a few more items to your timeline, however, that
> > get William into Stewart County a little earlier perhaps:
> >
> >
> >
> > Minutes of the Stewart County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions
> > (County
> > Court):
> >
> >
> >
> > 11 June 1805, Hezekiah Boyce vs. Isaac Brunson - "This day comes into
> > court, by their consent their suit is taken out of court, and let to
> > the award of William Cooley, Thomas French, William Haggard and Aaron
> > Fletcher as arbitrators, to settle and adjust all the accounts and
> > disputes between the said Boyce and Brunson now depending in said
> > court. And the said arbitrators come into court and are sworn as such
> proceeds."
> >
> >
> >
> > 10 March 1806 - "William Cooley records his ear mark, a crop and a
> > hole in each ear."
> >
> >
> >
> > William didn't buy his first Stewart Co. land until November 1806, so
> > he must have been living on Gray land until then. Since he purchased
> > that first land from his father-in-law Joseph Gray, one might assume
> > he was living on that land until he could afford to buy it out-right.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Jim
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Michael Cooley [mailto:michael_at_newsummer.com]
> > Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2012 12:16 AM
> > To: scaevolatn_at_comcast.net
> > Subject: Cooleys in early Stewart county
> >
> >
> >
> > Hi Jim,
> >
> >
> >
> > I've gleaned a number of things about Cooleys from the Stewart county
> > Genweb page over the last several years. Thank you.
> >
> >
> >
> > In 2006, I guessed that William M Cooley of Stewart county might be
> > the William Matthews Cooley of the 1780s in Stokes county NC. I slowly
> > found records that tracked him from NC to Lincoln and Washington
> > counties KY, and finally to Stewart county in about 1805/6. Last year,
> > a descendant of William's tested his YDNA, which was found to be a
> > match to several descendants of John Cooley of Stokes county NC. We
> > now believe that William was John's eldest son.
> >
> >
> >
> > Here's my timeline for William, as well a lot more data, much of it
> > taken from your pages:
> >
> >
> >
> > <http://ancestraldata.com/ahnentafel/256/StewartCoTN.html>
> > http://ancestraldata.com/ahnentafel/256/StewartCoTN.html
> >
> >
> >
> > William's father-in-law was Col Joseph Gray, also of Washington Co KY
> > and Stewart county. He recorded his will in 1812. We've lost track of
> > the Gray descendants.
> >
> >
> >
> > Cornelius Cooley also lived in Stewart county. He died at New Orleans
> > in 1815. It had long been assumed that he was a son of John's, but I
> > now believe it's just as likely that he was a son of William's. It's
> > probable that that question will remain open for a very long time.
> >
> >
> >
> > The John Cooley genealogy had been seriously mucked up for decades.
> > DNA and a fresh look at the genealogical record has straightened a lot
> > of it out. Although the middle part of John's life are well documented
> > in North Carolina, we still do not know the most basic information
> > genealogists
> >
> > want: his parents, his wife, his place and date of birth and death,
> > although it seems very likely that he died in Casey county KY in 1811.
> >
> >
> >
> > We have recently found one clue regarding John's wife. A book written
> > about the Matthews family states that William Matthews Cooley was a
> > son of a Sarah Matthews. It's more than reasonable considering
> > William's middle name, that the name Mathias and Mathis is found among
> > his descendants and that of his brother James, and that there was a
> > Matthews family in Surry and Stokes counties NC. Furthermore,
> > Cornelius had a daughter named Burnetta Mathews Cooley. But the author
> > of the Matthews book has no idea where she found that information. She
> > thought it came from a book called Maury County (TN) Cousins, but I
> > have looked at it and found no mention of this. So, I guess my request is
> that you keep an open for a mention of it.
> >
> > :)
> >
> >
> >
> > In regards to William, we believe that he was the William Cooley who
> > served with Captain James Downing's Company of militia in Lincoln
> > County, Kentucky in 1782. We have found no corroborating information,
> however.
> >
> >
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Michael Cooley
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> >
> > Second VP, the Cooley Family Association of America President, the
> > Genealogy Club of Humboldt State University Administrator, the
> > Eldridge Family DNA Project Administrator, the Ashenhurst Family DNA
> > Project (in the works) Administrator, the alt-McDowell DNA Project
> > Co-Administrator, the Cooley Family DNA Project Instructor (upcoming
> > this fall), "Genealogy and Family History" at
> >
> > the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) through HSU
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> Second VP, the Cooley Family Association of America Administrator, the Akins
> DNA Project Administrator, the Ashenhurst DNA Project Administrator, the
> Bishop DNA Project Administrator, the Eldridge DNA Project Administrator,
> the alt-McDowell DNA Project Co-Administrator, the Cooley DNA Project
> Co-Administrator, the McDougall DNA Project Instructor "Genealogy and Family
> History," the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) B.A. Humboldt State
> University, History
>
>
> --
> Second VP, the Cooley Family Association of America
> Administrator, the Akins DNA Project
> Administrator, the Ashenhurst DNA Project
> Administrator, the Bishop DNA Project
> Administrator, the Eldridge DNA Project
> Administrator, the alt-McDowell DNA Project
> Co-Administrator, the Cooley DNA Project
> Co-Administrator, the McDougall DNA Project
> Instructor "Genealogy and Family History," the Osher Lifelong Learning
> Institute (OLLI)
> B.A. Humboldt State University, History
Received on Sat Dec 14 2013 - 18:56:43 MST