Michael,
Yesterday at the State Archives, I pulled the microfilms of the (newly-acquired) original muster rolls and pay rolls of the Tennessee militia regiments in the War of 1812. Upon closer inspection, the death date for Cornelius Cooley is 10 Feb 1815, not 16 Feb 1815 as was widely reported, presumably through Byron Sistler's "Tennesseans in the War of 1812." Attached is that muster roll for your inspection.
The citation for this page is TSLA Microfilm Accession No. 1459 (War of 1812 Muster Rolls), Roll 1, Volume 3, page 161.
Jim
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Long [mailto:scaevolatn@comcast.net]
Sent: Saturday, December 14, 2013 6:10 PM
To: 'Michael Cooley'
Subject: RE: Cooleys in early Stewart county
Michael,
I don't know what the TN state laws were at the time about militia service, but my Stewart Co. ancestor Matthew Free was at least 34 when he died at New Orleans, in the same militia company as Cornelius Cooley, 7 days (23 Feb 1815) after Cornelius died.
My William W. Cherry line doesn't have a KY connection - they came from Martin Co. NC to Stewart Co. in 1809, as did the Wallaces and many of the folk who lived along Saline Creek. I don't know the ancestry of the 'other' William Cherry.
Jim
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Cooley [mailto:michael@newsummer.com]
Sent: Saturday, December 14, 2013 5:49 PM
To: Jim Long
Subject: RE: Cooleys in early Stewart county
Hi Jim,
This is a great help! Just seeing Wm M and Richard Cooley listed is encouraging.
The "typo" was really the result of my poor math skills. Thanks for pointing it out!
If Cornelius was born as early as 1781, he'd have been well in his 30s by the time he went to New Orleans. I rather doubt that. But I wonder if he and Lucinda had already been married by the time he went to Tennessee. Are you aware of any possibility of the Cherrys crossing paths with the Cooleys in Kentucky (near present day Casey County) or present-day southern Stokes County NC?
Thanks for all the great work you do! My own line comes down through William Matthews Cooley's brother, Edward Cooley, who went from NC to Indiana in 1811. I almost wish that I had a more direct tie to Stewart County so that I would have more need to bury myself in the great work you guys have done.
Best Regards,
Michael
> 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@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@newsummer.com]
>> Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2012 12:16 AM
>> To: scaevolatn@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