COOPER"S    OF    McNAIRY    Co.,    TN


On Saturday of Labor Day weekend in 1980, grandchildren, Elma Louise Skidgel Smith & Joe Frank Cooper, organized the first SANFORD JOSEPH COOPER family reunion at Piney Bay on the back waters of the Arkansas River west of Russellville, AR.
For several years the reunion alternated between Piney Bay and Old Post Road Park in Russellville, AR .

Since 1990, Sanford's grandson, William Wade and his wife Vivian Wade have been in charge of organizing the yearly family reunion.
They have been tireless in thier efforts and everyone apreciates the sucess of these reunions.

Everyone starts showing up around 8 a.m. to visit and catch up on family news before a covered dish dinner is served at 12:oo noon.
We record new marriages, births, deaths, divorces, catch up on family news and take family group pictures before eating.

Our first project was to compile genealogy records of all the descendants of Sanford & Harriet Cooper.
Julia Tackett Cooper recorded the records into her computer and submitted these records to the LDS library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Julia has also donated the Coopers and all related families to Family Tree Maker and Kindred Kousins.
This year, 1999, we are trying a new place for the Cooper Reunion. It will be held at the Booger Hollow Community Building, northwest of Dover, AR at the intersection of Hwy 123 & Long Pool Rd. The Bull Frog Masonic Lodge,owns the community building. Sanford Joseph Cooper belonged to this lodge. This is in the area where Sanford & Harriet lived and raised their children.

In 1997, the Cooper Descendants started a family project of putting tombstones on the graves of their ancestors while there were older cousins that knew where the graves were.
In 1998, a stone was purchased for Sanford's mother-in-law, Adelaine Nicklason, whose is buried next to her grandson, Charles Rufus Cooper in Pollard Cemetery, north of Dover, Pope County, AR.
In 1999, small foot stones were purchased for Rena, Lela & Alvey Joe Cooper, infant children of Sanford & Harriet Cooper. Rena & Lela are buried near their parents in Mt. Airy Cemetery outside of Lamar, Johnson County, AR. A stone for Alvey Joe was placed next to his sisters with the inscribtion, "In Memory of" because we do not know for sure where Alvey is buried. Mt. Airy Cemetery has many Morgan relatives of Harriet N. Morgan Cooper buried there.

Each year many Cooper descendants come as far away as Oklahoma, Texas & California to join the Arkansas relatives in a day of renewing family ties.

From sixty to eighty people show up for the Annual Reunion.
Sanford Joseph has 1 living child, Jefferson Morgan Cooper, b. 1907, who lives in California.
Jeff hasn’t been able to come to any of the reunions.

In January of 1997, Julia A. Cooper who has been keeping the family tree records of Sanford’s descendants started researching backwards.
She was having trouble finding the family in Tennessee until she found Sanford's brother, George’s records at the LDS library in Hurst, TX.
With the information submitted by RAMONA DUFF, that the family came from McNairy, Co.,TN, Julia was able to find all of the family in the census records and TN State Archives.
Her goal is to contact any & all of the descendants of the McNairy Co., TN COOPERs and hopefully find out where in Virginia they came from and any personal history of this family.
In 1997, Julia & Charles H, Cooper Sr., found descendants of George Monroe Cooper in Sevier County, AR. It has been wonderful to meet these "new" cousins. They are interested in genealogy also. With their information handed down from George, we found Rufus K. Cooper's UNION Military Civil War Records.
In 1998, Madison Bell Cooper's death certificate was found and from there, his gr-granddaughter's FAMILY TREE MAKER Web PAGE on the Balls, Wrights and McCallisters.
The following data is what Julia A. Cooper has researched and found at the National Archives in Ft.Worth, TX, the TN State Archives in Nashville, TN and visiting Selmer, McNairy Co. Tn.


To See The Genealogy of James Cooper Click Here
Click Here To See Some Cooper Pictures


HERE ARE MY FAVORITE LINKS


McNairy County, TN

Johnson County, AR

Sevier County, AR

Family Tree Maker Homepage

Madison Bell Cooper Descendants

Loyal Nethery's Page

MARK'S GENEALOGY PAGE

Tackett Family Association

Valentine Mallory/Mooney

Feel free to send me your comments, suggestions or questions.

Julia A. Cooper
6708 McClure
Van Buren, Ar 72956

jcooper799@aol.com

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