Dear Members of the Greenup County, Kentucky Discussion Group, William Cooper (my third-great grandfather) was born about 1821 or 1822 in Massachusetts or Connecticut, according to various conflicting records. He obtained a good education in Connecticut and became a teacher in Connecticut, according to the memoirs of a grandson of William Cooper. William Cooper claimed that his mother was descended from a Mayflower passenger. He could name the members of each generation back from his mother, but this information was not recorded or has not been preserved. William Cooper was described as an excellent reader and teacher, who could read a passage so well that understanding would result in the hearer, just from the manner of reading. William Cooper migrated from Connecticut to Greenup County, Kentucky by 1846. How long it took him, where he stopped along the way, what residences he had along the way, what route he took and with whom he traveled, all are unknown. He became a tobacconist after he arrived in Kentucky. William Cooper never owned land after 1848. William Cooper married Martha Ann Barney on May 6, 1846 in the Tygart Creek village of Liberty, Greenup County, Kentucky, which later was renamed Lynn. He purchased fifty acres and a Liberty town lot in 1847 (two separate pieces of property) but sold them in 1848. William and Martha had three children: Adoniram (my great great grandfather), Artemas and Valentine. Valentine died in 1852 at age three. Adoniram (1846-1875) married Martha Ann Messer on January 18, 1870 in Scioto County, Ohio although they were lifelong residents of Greenup County, and Artemas (1847-1908) married Sarah Susanna Rake/Raike in Greenup County in 1873. William Cooper moved to Lewis County about 1852, then back to Greenup County by 1860. He served in the Union Army's Twenty-second Regiment of Kentucky Volunteer Infantry, Company "E", a Company which was composed of mostly Lewis County men. He was wounded in the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou, Mississippi, December 29, 1862. A mini-ball struck him in the forehead an inch above his right eye. The wound affected his mind. After the Civil War, William Cooper lived in Lewis and Greenup Counties in various people's homes. He was described as a feeble-minded man who lived day to day by the charity of the families of the neighborhood, who watched after him. He was a resident of the National Union Soldiers' Home near Dayton, Ohio for a few months. About 1885 or so, William Cooper moved to Jackson County, West Virginia and made his home with his son Artemas Cooper. William Cooper died November 23, 1903 in Jackson County and is buried in Meadowdale Cemetery, adjacent to Meadowdale Baptist Church in the small community of Duncan, in Eastern Jackson County, West Virginia. Query: Who were the parents of William Cooper? Sincerely, Randal W. Cooper

Here is another Spriggs lady in Pa Resource: Ancestry.com Volume 1 Marriage Record of Christ Church, Philadelphia 1709-1806 1734, July 3, Spriggs, Elizabeth, and John Carter. [p.241] Record of Pennsylvania Marriages Prior to 1810 Kay Grosncickle