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Note: tial “W”? Eli W. Cooper is shown in the US GA Census on June 26, 1860 but 2 days later Eli Cooper who married Martha was recorded in the 1860 US Census in Jasper, Hamilton, Florida with his correct family. This is not likely.
Not sure which one of the next two census's are for Eli and Martha
?
1850 US Census Benton County, Benton, Alabama
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MHPR-8RB
Eli Coopper M abt 1827 23 Alabama
Martha Coopper F abt 1828 22 Georgia
Sarah Coopper F abt 1845 5 Georgia
Jasper Coopper M abt 1848 2 Georgia
?
1850 US Census Benton county, Benton, Alabama
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MHP5-2X5
E Cooper M abt 1826 24 Alabama
M E Cooper F abt 1827 23 Georgia
S C Cooper F abt 1846 4 Georgia
J T Cooper M abt 1849 1 Georgia
1860 US Census Holmesville P.O., Appling County, Georgia
June 26th 1860 page 25
Eli W. Cooper 29 Male Timber Cutter
This is the correct Eli Cooper who married Martha with the right children counted in the Florida US Census just 2 days later than the Eli W Cooper in the GA Census.
1860 US CENSUS Jasper, Hamilton, Florida June 28, 1860
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M6CM-XN4
Eli Cooper M abt 1830 30 Alabama
Martha Cooper F abt 1830 30 Georgia
Elizabeth Cooper F abt 1847 13 Georgia
Thomas Cooper M abt 1849 11 Georgia
Wm Cooper M abt 1851 9 Georgia
Robt Cooper M abt 1854 6 Georgia
Francis Cooper F abt 1856 4 Georgia
James Cooper M abt 1858 2 Georgia
1880 US CENSUS No Twp listed, Precinct 1, Orange, Florida
June 16, 1880
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MNZH-MXX
Head Eli W Cooper M 55 1825 Married AL NC SC Orange Planter
Wife Martha E Cooper F 54 1826 Married GA NC GA
Dau Annie Cooper F 18 1862 Single FL AL GA
Son Miles Cooper M 17 1863 Single FL AL GA
Son Isaiah Cooper M 16 1864 Single FL AL GA
Dau Mary Cooper F 12 1868 Single FL AL GA
Dau Elmira Cooper F 10 1870 Single FL AL GA
1900 US Census Seneca, Lake Co., Florida
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/M367-FZP
R W Patterson Head M Nov 1848 52 Married 3yrs GA GA GA
Georgie S Patterson Wife F Dec 1861 39 Married 3yrs 10 7 FL GA GA
Aldon C Patterson Son M Aug 1898 2 Single FL GA FL
Walter A Patterson Son M Nov 1899 6m Single FL GA FL
Guy O Tucker Stepson M Mar 1882 18 Single FL GA FL
Effie E Tucker Stepdau F Apr 1888 12 Single FL GA FL
Eva L Tucker Stepdau F Jul 1890 10 Single FL GA FL
May E Tucker Stapdau F May 1891 8 Single FL GA FL
Joseph R Tucker Stepdau M Jul 1894 6 Single FL GA FL
Next door
1900 US Census Seneca, Lake Co., Florida
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M367-F89
Eli F Cooper Head M Feb 1859 41 Married 8yrs GA AL GA
T E. Cooper Wife F Jul 1873 20 Married 8yrs GA GA AL
James E Cooper Son M Aug 1883 16 Single FL GA GA
Thomas J Cooper Son M Dec 1888 11 Single FL GA GA
Mentie Cooper Dau F Jun 1893 6 Single FL GA GA
Next door
1900 US Census Seneca, Lake Co., Florida
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M367-F84
Eli Cooper Head M Aug 1826 73 Married 54yrs AL SC SC
Elizabeth Cooper Wife F Jun 1828 71 Married 54yrs GA GA NC
Frank A Lowry Boarder M Apr 1865 35 Single NC NC NC
Eli Cooper found in Confederate 19 Battalion Georgia Cavalry.,
Company D
Rank in: Private
Rank out: Private
Misc: 10 Confed Cav.
Roll-Box: 000226
Roll-Exct: 0014
Roll-Rec: 00000129
ELI COOPER
Information from his son, Eli Franklin Cooper
recorded by Nellie Cooper Rogers
Life on the Frontier
By Libbie E. Cooper Olsen
In frontier living their nearest neighbor often lived miles away. People
in the frontier lived far from cities or even towns.
At that time, there was no electricity. There was no light except from the
fireplace and candles. The family made their own candles. They made their
own soap, both for washing their clothes and themselves. The family also
made their own shoes and clothing. It seemed that there always was thread
or yarn to be spun, cloth to be woven, because only then could clothes be
made. Living in Alabama and Georgia in the early 1800's was very different
than now. Most of the land was full of trees and brush. Ifa person bought
land or claimed it under the homestead program, he would have to cut the
trees down, pull out the stumps left after the tree was cut, then dig up the
bushes and brush that grew under the trees. The first year, most men would
clear just enough ground to put a house, maybe a barn for the animals, and a
place for their gardens. Then they would begin with a small plot to plant
crops for food. Almost every man learned to hunt the woods for wild animals
for their family to eat. This was how they provided enough meat for the
family, and that meat also had to be cut, cured, smoked, or dried.
We do not know many specific things of Eli's life as a child in Alabama.
We do know it was a pioneer life with lots of fishing, hunting, trapping,
building of log cabins and working in fields, caring for animals and helping his
father and mother with many tasks.
They raised their own food, so there was gardening to be done, as well as
working in the fields. There were chickens to be cared for, cows to milk, and
then the milk had to be cared for, and butter to be churned. When they could
spare a cow or pig for meat, then they had meat to cut up, to cure or to smoke
or to dry. They had no refrigeration, so all meat had to be specially prepared
so they could eat the meat for a period of time after slaughtering the animal.
If the family was to be comfortable and provided for, all members took the
responsibility of keeping prepared and ready. Always there seemed to be
candles to be made, or hides to help tan, sheds that needed mending or adding
to and then the ever present weeds that continually tried to take over the good
soil.
Everyone in the family worked because every person was needed and was
important to the family. As the family did their chores, they talked to each
other. They made plans for the next day and the next month. Each person
shared their ideas and hopes with each other.
The children worked along with their parents. The family raised their own
food and made their own shoes and cloth. Each night the children were required
to fill their shoes tightly packed with seeded cotton, picking the seeds from the
cotton by hand. As they had no gins, this is the way they got seeds from the
cotton. Martha spun this into cloth and made their clothes by hand.
Eli, The Man
A Cooper by name and A Cooper by trade
By Nellie Cooper Rogers
Cooper means "barrel maker". My grandfather was a Cooper by name and
a Cooper by trade. He made barrels, tubs, and wash basins, milk pans, buckets,
foot tubs, and so on.
Eli was also a millwright, a wagon maker, and he make all their furniture
including the chairs. He also made almost all the chairs in the settlements around.
They were leather bottomed. The skins of the animals were tanned into leather,
and then made into chair bottoms. The wood for them was hickory and was
secured from the swamps.
He made all his family's shoes and also his neighbors. All the leather was
tanned and prepared by Eli, before it was ready to make shoes. Hickory (peds)
were used instead of nails, and hog bristles were used as a needle.
He was also a blacksmith. His plows were made from steel bars ordered
from Savanna, Ga. After moving to Florida, he was the only shoemaker and
blacksmith for twenty miles around.
Eli also made Martha's looms, spinning wheel and a small hand gin. Eli also
made and repaired guns. You have often seen old pictures of water mills. Eli
made the water wheels to many of these old mills. They were called "tub wheels".
Lots of the dippers which they drank out of were made out of water gourds.
I have had a drink out of these myself but the water does not taste very good.
I guess they got used to that though. They also had gourds made into wash pans
and hand gourds (to carry water to the field just as we would use a canteen)
until Eli made them of wood.
Frontier Life
By Nellie Cooper Rogers
Like all the other frontier families, they raised their own food. Eli Franklin,
their son, remembers that their food consisted of corn pone made from home
ground corn. Corn pone is kind of like the cornbread we eat now, only it was
made with more coarsely ground corn flour and therefore the bread was heavier.
The family raised their own corn.
They also grew turnips, cabbage, beans, carrots, sweet potatoes, "cow peas"
(black eyed peas), turnips and other vegetables that were the main things they ate.
They also found that the heart of the small palms that grew thick at the edge of the
swamp made a delectable vegetable. It was called wild palm. The tender leaves, or
the center of the palm was a white color. This was gathered and made into a
delicious dish of what they called "Swamp Cabbage". It was fixed as we fix cabbage
now with a nice piece of pork to season it. There also were wild berries from the
woods and swamps that they gathered.
The family often found wild honey in the woods, and they also made molasses
or syrup from the juice of the sugar cane that they raised. For meat, they raised
their own pigs and cows and chickens.
They had whatever wild game the woods provide such as deer and bear and also
wild turkey. Deer and bear could be found almost anywhere and were hunted most
of the year. Hunting was one of the favorite pastimes of the men and everyman had
his hunting hounds.
The land that Eli and Martha lived on in Orange County, Florida was partly
cultivated and part of it was open forest and scrub. Scrub was land upon which grew
an undergrowth sometimes as high as a man's head. It was beautiful country with
forest on every side, with cultivated spots here and there, but most of it was
primitive forest. Eli's property was said to be near a lake, and there are so many
lakes in Orange County, (now named Lake County) it is very probably true.
Educating the Family
By Nellie N. Olsen Ostler
Almost all of the families taught their children to read from the Bible.
While working with their parents and with each other. Eli and his brothers
and sisters were taught by their parents how do many things. Eli learned how
to farm. He learned how to plant and care for the crops that would supply the
food for his children.
His father taught Eli how to make tools that were necessary for them to do
their chores. In this way he learned to make tools and items for the household.
Often the father would make just about all the furniture in the home like the
beds, the chairs, the work benches, the tables.
Eli's father, Robert Cooper, taught his children about the weather, the clouds,
etc. Eli learned much about the stars in the heavens. All his life, he planted crops
according to the phases of the moon. He was a very knowledgeable farmer and
his crops grew plentifully.
Eli's father, Robert, also taught him how to track animals and to hunt. Eli
became a very proficient hunter. In the woods there were bears, deer and wild
turkeys. Around the lakes there were ducks, and other water fowl. Eli learned
a lot about hunting, like the fact that it was necessary to kill an animal in a
place where all the meat could be carried out and saved. With food so scarce,
they learned it was wise not to waste anything.
Almost every man and boy learned to fish. Fish could also be smokes, salted,
or dried to be eaten later.
Eli's parents also taught their children how to take care of their animals.
Animals were important to those frontier people. Horses did much of the tasks
we use cars, tractors, and trucks for to haul loads as well as to transport people.
Eli's father was also very skilled as a blacksmith, a millwright, a barrel maker,
a shoemaker, a wagon maker, and many other things. Eli's father carefully taught
these things to his children as they helped him.
Eli would often make things for others. He would trade his work for their
specialized work, or maybe they might even pay cash once in awhile.
Fiddlin'
Information by Libbie E. Cooper Olsen
Eli was a proficient fiddler. Most fiddlers learn to play the fiddle by
watching other and then imitating them and often could not read music. We
don't know if Eli learned to fiddle from his father, Robert, or whether it was
an uncle or someone else. But then, he didn't need to read notes because he
didn't need to. Playing the fiddle was fun and natural to him (of course it still
took a lot of practice). Eli was the fiddler of the settlement for the dances.
They came from miles around for these dances. He was the best musician in
the country and my, "how he made that fiddle sing." Eli played often in
community functions, and church functions
Note: What proof is there that shows Eli Franklin's father Eli had a middle ini
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