ISAIAH COOPER AND
ELIZABETH MONTIER
1778-1849 1779-c.1845

     Isaiah was a heavy drinker, a brawler, a man of great energy and 
abilities--in short a typical headstrong frontiersman who, although interesting, 
would probably not be welcome in our parlors today.   Isaiah Cooper grew up along 
the Ohio River in what is now West Virginia. By the late 1790s, he was living 
in Hardin County, KY. It's probable that he had many siblings. We know of a 
brother named Nathan Cooper, Jr. Like most frontier families, the Coopers began 
to move west in the 1790s. On August 11, 1799 in Bullitt Co., KY, Isaiah 
married Elizabeth Montour. She was from a famous French/Indian family, the 
Montours. Her ancestors were famous chieftains who often mediated between colonialists 
and the various Indian tribes they encountered. It is not hard to conceive 
that a dispute probably arose between Isaiah and his family over Isaiah's 
intentions toward the Indian girl. this would explain why none of Isaiah's sons were 
named for his father as was the custom. This would also explain why, in 
August of 1799, Isaiah and the pregnant Elizabeth suddenly appeared in Hardin 
County, Kentucky (where Job Cooper, his grandfather, had settled). The Two were 
married in adjacent Bullitt County, probably because they had been passing 
themselves off as husband and wife among the relatives in Kentucky. Two days later, 
back in Hardin County, Isaiah served as a witness to the marriage of Thomas 
Carr to Elizabeth Enlous.   About 1801, Isaiah and Elizabeth moved across the 
Ohio River to Clark Co. Indiana Territory. They probably lived in a settlement, 
because of the many dangerous Indian raids of that period. Six more children 
joined the one born earlier in KY.  The War of 1812 greatly affected settlers 
in Indiana. British agents from Canada encouraged Indians to kill American 
settlers in the region. Records show that Isaiah Cooper joined Captain James 
Biggers' company of mounted rangers on May 29, 1813 for a year. He was AWOL at 
least twice--once probably because of Elizabeth having another baby.  In the 
spring of 1817, Isaiah moved his family from Clark Co. to what would soon become 
Owen Co., Indiana. About that time, the Coopers assumed the care of two 
motherless girls belonging to John Cowan, a family friend. In June 1817, Elizabeth 
gave birth to their last child, Isaiah, Jr. Their family of eight children and 
two foster daughters was complete.  Early records indicate that Isaiah cleared 
his land in 1817, but that an early frost spoiled his corn crop. Nevertheless, 
the Coopers decided to stay put for awhile. Isaiah was one of the founders of 
what was called the Dunn Settlement in Washington township in Owen County. He 
was one of the first county commissioners and helped put up the bond of 
$20,000 for the first county treasurer, John Bartholemew. In 1819, Isaiah was 
appointed to the county grand jury.  In December 1819, a group of citizens met to 
determine the location of the new county seat. The site was eventually 
determined by the willingness of landowners to donate portions of their property. 
Isaiah Cooper donated 21 1/2 acres of waterfront property on the White River 
towards the 100 acres needed for the new town of Spencer. Cooper's land eventually 
became a park in Spencer.  (Cooper's Park) Isaiah shrewdly reserved the right 
to operate a ferry from this land. He established a ferry with his son-in-law 
about 1820 and operated it until 1826 when it was sold. The Cooper ferry lasted 
until 1872 when a bridge was finally constructed in Spencer across the White 
River.  Isaiah Cooper seems to have been a typical frontiersman, often prone 
to fighting. The Owen County Tribune of July 6, 1876, printed an article about 
the 4th of July celebration held in Spencer in 1818:  "The Fourth of July 1818 
was celebrated on the premises of Daniel Beem, within the present corporate 
limits of the town of Spencer, in a manner peculiar to the times. Fifteen or 
twenty citizens participated in the exercises which consisted of jumping and 
shooting at a mark. During the day, a controversy having arisen between John 
McNaught and Isaiah Cooper as to whether Neely Beem or Daniel Matheny was the best 
shot, they got up a bet of $20, John McNaught betting on Beem and Cooper on 
Matheny. Not having the money to put up, each drew his note for the amount. A 
man named Richard Morris, not liking the betting between neighbors, got hold of 
the notes and tore them to pieces. Cooper then said it was a very mean man 
who would do such a thing. Morris was about to throw his shot pouch in 
preparation for a fight, when he was seized by friends and hurried out of the crowd, 
thus preventing violence on that glorious 4th of July. The circumstances, 
however, terminated the bet."  A more serious incident affected Isaiah Cooper a few 
years later. He had been commissioned Justice of the Peace for Washington 
township on August 7, 1824. The 1825/26 session of the Indiana House of 
Representatives, removed Isaiah from office for "willful neglect of duty". The charges 
against Isaiah were numerous. He was accused of stirring up dissension among 
his neighbors, thereby creating more fees and cases for his court. Evidence was 
produced to show that he allowed his deputy to change official papers which 
made a citizen liable for additional court costs which had already been paid to 
Cooper. He was accused of reversing judgments without the knowledge of the 
innocent or guilty. The most damaging charge, however, seems to have been that 
Isaiah was drunk "during all of the time of each and every session of the Board 
of Justices." It was on this charge that he was convicted and removed from 
office.   Having worn out his welcome, Isaiah and Elizabeth left Owen County in 
1827, moving to the extreme edge of American settlement in what later became 
Pike County, Illinois, on the banks of the Mississippi River. Isaiah was one of 
the first settlers in what later became Derry Township. All of Isaiah and 
Elizabeth's children, except the two eldest daughters, Mary and Rachel, appear to 
have moved with him to Pike County. Mary and her husband, Daniel Matheny, 
appear to have settled in Edgar and later Shuyler Co., IL, while daughter Rachel 
and her husband, Henry Matheny, appear to have remained in Owen Co., IN, for 
several years.  Pike County records indicate that Isaiah led a relatively sedate 
life compared to his years in Indiana. By the early 1840s, word was reaching 
Illinois about the free and bountiful lands of Oregon's Willamette Valley. By 
1837, his sons-in-law, the Mathenys, had moved to Platte County, Missouri. In 
1843, the Mathenys left for Oregon in the first large wagon train to that 
region. Word of their safe arrival reached Isaiah and Elizabeth and their sons in 
Illinois the following spring. Plans were readied to join Rachel and Mary in 
Oregon. Such a journey could not be arranged quickly.  Isaiah Cooper had little 
time to plan his trip to Oregon, however. His granddaughter, Charlotte 
Matheny Kirkwood, wrote about the circumstances which took Isaiah to Oregon a year 
earlier than planned.  "Grandfather Cooper lived in Kentucky (actually Pike 
Co., IL). Charlotte Johnson was a little girl, whose father and stepmother lived 
on a neighboring farm. The stepmother hated this little four-year-old girl and 
was cruel to her--beat her and starved her. Grandmother Cooper was very kind 
and it hurt her to think of the suffering of a child. Charlotte was too small 
to be of any service about the house, so when grandmother asked for her, they 
gave her up readily enough. My grandparents kept her for five or six years. 
When she was about ten years old, the stepmother saw that she was large for her 
age, and strong, and she needed help at home. There were many half-brothers 
and sisters to be washed for and tended, and there were many cows to be milked, 
and many other things that a healthy, young stepdaughter could attend to just 
as well as not.  Grandmother Cooper had died a short time before, and Uncle 
John and Aunt Jane (Cooper) had gone to live with grandfather. Grandfather loved 
Charlotte as well as he had loved his own children, so when they came for 
her, he begged to be allowed to keep her. The stepmother, who was ugly about it, 
insisted upon taking her at once, but finally consented to his bringing her 
over not later than the next day. Daylight of the next day found the old 
Southern gentleman, a very tired girl and a jaded horse, sixty or seventy miles away. 
They were on their way to Oregon. They waited for a time at Westport till an 
emigration was ready to start and joined it. They finally reached us in the 
Willamette Valley."  Twenty-two year old Francis Parkman, a Boston Brahmin, was 
on a post-graduate (of Harvard) adventure on the Oregon Trail in 1846 and was 
in Westport in the spring. He may well have been describing the Coopers in his 
The Oregon Trail (p.16) when he states "....While I was in town, a train of 
emigrant wagons from Illinois passed through, to join the camp on the prairie, 
and stopped on the principal street. A multitude of healthy children's faces 
were peeping out from under the covers of the wagons. Here and there a buxom 
damsel was seated on horseback, holding over her sunburnt face an old umbrella 
or a parasol, once gaudy enough, but now miserably faded. The men, very 
sober-looking countrymen, stood about their oxen; and as I passed I noticed three old 
fellows, who, with their whips in their hands, were zealously discussing the 
doctrine of regeneration...."   Isaiah and Charlotte arrived in the Willamette 
Valley in the fall of 1845. They immediately travelled to Wheatland in 
Yamhill Co., to be near the Matheny families. A year later, Isaiah's sons, Enoch, 
William, John and Isaiah Jr., joined him in Oregon. Only one child, Charlotte 
Cooper Shinn, had chosen to remain behind in Pike Co.  We have the reminiscences 
of a person who traveled west with the Coopers, a Philander C. Davis. His 
notes were written October 16, 1916, when he was a very old man, close to ninety. 
His memory caused him to forget some of the people who crossed the plains 
with him. During the processing of writing, he would add names as he remembered 
them. It is probable that he forgot the names of Enoch and Isaiah Cooper, Jr. 
It is unlikely that these two sons of Isaiah's crossed the plains in 1846 in a 
different wagon train than their father and brothers. Mr. Davis's manuscript 
can be found in the Oregon Historical Society Library in Portland: ....I 
traveled with my Brother In law James Brown and my sister his wife who was the 
eldest of my fathers family of ten, four daughters and six sons also my brother 
Leander Sylvanus 4 years my senior and my brother Albert Gallatin 2 years my 
senior also Nicholas Schrum and his good wife and three grown sons and a nephew 
whose christian name I have forgotten his surname was Wimberlie I believe also 
Wm Elliot and wife and 3 children I forgot to mention Mr Schrums three 
daughters, two full grown, one between girlhood and womanhood Jack Schrum youngest of 
family lived near Mitchell in 1894 There was also another notable family or 
two Mr Wingfield who settled on the Molalla near where good old Harrison Wright 
lived and died. Also the Coopers Wm and John and their families They were 
brothers of the wives of Daniel and Henry Matheny who came to Oregon in 1843 
Isaiah and Daniel Junior came out to meet the Coopers and met the train in Tygh 
Valley I have seen the hill often that we climbed out of Tyghe and could hardly 
believe that we had done the job with worn oxen but our loads were light having 
been nearly all been eaten on the long journey. There was one more family in 
our company, Mr. Ish and wife and one child also two or three single men. Mr. 
Williams was one of them. From the Blue mountains we traveled down the 
Umatilla river to some point and from there to Willow creek and from there to some 
point on the Columbia below Willow creek and from there camped on the river 
nearly every night until we reached Deschutes river being compelled to climb the 
bluff in the morning and descend in the evening in order to get water and grass 
for the stock A few years later there was a better route found and traveled 
further south back from the breaks and gorges next to the river We did not see 
a bridge or ferry after we left the Missouri state line near the town of 
Independence on 10th of May 1846. We forded every stream that we crossed beginning 
with the Kansas called Kaw at that time. 2nd South Platte nearly two miles 
wide shallow but swift and boiling full of moving sand Woe to the team that did 
not keep moving at a good pace. 3rd the Laramie near Fort Laramie narrow clear 
but swift and deep. 4th North Platte wift clear and narrow. On the deep fords 
the wagons beds were raised on the bolsters by blocks to keep the force of 
water from striking them and forcing them down stream and wetting the loads. 5th 
Green River broad clear shallow and beautiful. 6th Portneuf near Fort Hall the 
most beautiful broad green lovely valley and stream that I saw on the long 
trip. 7th Snake River crossing and Three Islands so called there was three 
channels but two islands. They were deep swift and frightfully dangerous. 8th 
second crossing of the Snake at old Fort Boise three quarters of a mile wide deep 
but a gentle slow moving current. 9th the Deschutes. I think we crossed near 
where what was called the Miller bridge or below for I know I had fearful 
feelings of being swept into the Columbia not more than 2 or three hundred yards 
below. I drove a team across both crossings of Snake But cannot remember whether 
I drove at Deschutes or not. From Deschutes we went to where the town of Dufur 
is now remaining there two or three days resting the teams giving the women 
time to wash clothes, &c. From there we went to Tygh [Valley] and from there to 
Barlows gate Before starting into and over the Cascade range I must mention 
some others of the Co whom I had forgotten old Grandfather Cooper [Isaiah 
Cooper] father of the Coopers and two before mentioned Mrs Matheneys The Matheneys 
having come over in 1843. Also Frank McClintic [McClintock] brother of Mrs. 
John Cooper there may have been one or more others whom I have forgotten. Isaiah 
Matheney Frank McClintic and I were detailed at the entrance of the mountain 
to go ahead with the loose cattle so as to hurry them through the laurel 
thickets and prevent their beconing poisoned thereby. We drove them to the home of 
Daniel Matheney Senior ten miles below Salem on west side of the Willamette 
forded the river just below his ferry his place was on west side of river 
opposite Jason Lees old first mission where his Indians died faster than he could 
convert them.....I will now return to the Barlow Gate on the east side of 
Cascades but what I know of the trains crossing is limited gotten from those who 
were with it in passing I was too busy keeping the cattle out of the dense 
thickets and especially one plump little yearling heifer belonging to Grand Father 
Cooper which had a habit of dropping out and hiding I did not have time to note 
the conformation of the country streams &c I remember Zig Zag and Huckleberry 
camp at foot of Mt Hood. Also Laurel Hill where Mr. Wingfield's family wagon 
ended over on top of the team and frightened Mrs Wingfield almost into fits I 
knew the wagon had driven it often on the way over front wheels too low for 
rear wheels.....   The Oregon Spectator, a newspaper already operating in Oregon 
City, heralded the progress of the 1846 immigrants as they began to trickle 
in to town:  September 3, 1846-Immigrants Arrive at Oregon City; Bring News of 
Wagon Trains  September 17, 1846-Families Arrive at Oregon City Via Barlow 
Road [These were the first to use the newly-opened road.]  October 29, 1846-145 
Wagons Arrive; 7 Enroute Via Barlow Road   Now most of the Cooper sons and 
daughters were with their father with the exception of Charlotte Shinn, who 
remained in Pike County, Illinois, and possibly Jane, about whom nothing is known. 
It appears from early census records as if Isaiah resumed living with his 
youngest son John. We know that John later operated a liquor store in California; 
his views toward alcohol were probably compatible with Isaiah's own. The 
religious Mathenys were probably not as accommodating.   For the next two years, 
Isaiah was surrounded by his family in Oregon's pristine setting. But 
California's gold rush was to end all that. When gold was discovered, everyone left his 
young farm for a try at the yellow lucre, but Isaiah and his party were not 
among the vanguard, arriving in California in June of 1849. The journey south was 
almost as eventful as crossing the plains. Isaiah Cooper (not sure whether 
the father or the son), was hit by an Indian's arrow--the arrow passing clear 
through his body, according to one family member who wrote about the trip many 
years. later. Later in the summer forty-niners from the East arrived, bringing 
disease with them. A miner's work was hard labor in cold streams; it was the 
streams that were worked at first. Fruits and vegetables were hard to come by, 
so the gold-seekers were easy prey for the flux and the fevers that had 
arrived. Disease hit the camp where the Coopers were entrenched.   The diary of 
A.R.Burbank, later of Lafayette, Oregon, gives us a brief sketch of the camp:  
September 21, 1849 'Johnsons' Crossed River here, 59 ft. wide, a gravel bed 100 
yards, road forks. We taken right hand past shanty's, one hospital, several 
sick, doctor sick. Family in adobe with Liquor shop. Man is Cooper from Pike Co. 
Ill--to Oregon in l846 and here in June 1849. He don't like Oregon and 
California. Intends to return to Illinois. This canyon where the Coopers searched for 
gold has a creek that feeds into the North Branch of the American River a 
mile or two west of the El Dorado County hamlet of Pilot Hill. It is named for 
them: Cooper Canyon. It was here that "camp fever," probably typhoid, claimed 
the lives of Isaiah, his son John, his son-in-law Henry Matheny, Rachel's 
daughter Sarah Jane Layson, and perhaps others in the family. All died in the fall 
of l849. Those who died in Cooper Canyon were buried at what is now Coloma, 
California, but then was the site of Capt. John Sutter's sawmill. It had been 
there that the California gold was first discovered. Visitors will not discover 
any family tombstones there, probably because anyone who happened to be a 
stonecutter by trade was not in California to cut stones, but rather to look for 
gold. The site is now Gold Discovery State Park. There are a museum, a 
reconstruction of Sutter's mill, and mining exhibits.

Submitted by Diane Hitchcock-Owens
Original Source Material By- Don Rivara and 
Charlotte Kirkwood through Gary Burlingame