Clarissa Wells

F, #15074, b. 28 March 1804, d. 11 July 1895
ChartsBoone (paternal side) - John David "Jack" Boone
Birth*28 March 1804 Clarissa Wells was born on 28 March 1804 at Pennsylvania; age 45 in 1850, age 54 in 1860, & 64 in 1870. Helen Sills say 28 Mar 1806 possibly Lancaster Co. PA but news article says Mar 1804 in "the mountains of Pennsylvania" and "now in her 88th year". It also says she was age 11 when the Battle of Waterloo was fought, and that was 18 June 1815 making her born in 1804, agreeing with the article and placing the year of the article as 1892.1,2 
Marriage*12 July 1825 She married John Cooper on 12 July 1825 at Guernsey Co., Ohio; bk A pg 244 #828. 
Newspaper*circa 1892 Clarissa Wells was newspaper AGED AND HONORED.
The Grandmother of Congressman Cooper - a Pioneer of Indiana.
COLUMBUS, April 4. - [Special] - Mrs. Clarissa Cooper is in the city visiting her grandson, the Hon. George W. Cooper. She is quite active and apparently in good health. She is attending the series of meetings now in progress at the methodist church and takes a lively interest in the exercises. She has two sons and one grandson who are ministers of this denomination.
     'Grandma Cooper,' as everybody calls her, was born in March, 1804, and is now in her eighty-ninth year. She has living and can name ninety-eight descendants and thinks, perhaps, she has many more for she has married grandchildren in Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Louisiana and Texas, and she thinks later returns from these states will swell the number above 100 'by a large majority'. She gave three sons to the Union army and numbers among her descendants farmers, lawyers, railroaders, mechanics, merchants, teachers and preachers. She began her life in the mountains of Pennsylvania, and was twice a pioneer, first in Ohio and afterward in Indiana. She has always been an earnest, industrious, patient and loving Christian woman. Not having made any great demonstration a few lines will tell her life's story, and these probably upon the headstone only, but who knows that in the final accounting her page may not be among the brightest in earth's history? Some history has been made in her lifetime. When she was born George III was king of England and Pitt was his prime minister. In France, the awful storm of the revolution had just passed by and its lurid glare still fitfully flashed athwart the horizon while Napoleon as fist consul was paving the way for the empire. Thomas Jefferson was serving his first term as president of the United States and Franz II was emperor of Germany. Byron was a schoolboy at Harrow and Carlyle was only nine years old. Southey, Coleridge,Wordsworth, Walter Scott, Tom Moore and Goethe were the living literati, Daniel Webster had just begun the study of law in Boston and Henry Clay was beginning the practice at Lexington, Ky. Neither Lincoln, Grant, Sherman nor Sheridan was yet born. She was eleven years old when the battle of Waterloo was fought and was middle-aged when the first railroad was built. circa 1892 at Columbus, Bartholomew Co., Indiana.2 
Death*11 July 1895 She died on 11 July 1895 at Harrison Twnshp, Bartholomew Co., Indiana, at age 91; Vol. 4, pg 30, certificate #135. 
Obituary11 July 1895 Her obituary was on 11 July 1895 at The Evening Republican "Grandma Cooper, mother of Rev. Benjamin Cooper of Indianapolis, and grandmother of Hon. G. W. Cooper, died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Sarah Wright, two miles west of the city, this morning at 4 o'clock. The deceased was 89 years old. The funeral will occur tomorrow at 3 P.M., Rev. Dr. Curtiss officiating. The daughter, Mrs. Wright, is critically ill with an attack of flux, and but little hope is entertained for her recovery." 

Family

John Cooper b. 4 Sep 1805
Child
Last Edited20 Jul 2016

Citations

  1. [S209] per a tree on Ancestry or FamilySearch so needs independent verification.
  2. [S218] Newspaper clipping from unknown paper, Apr 4 but doesn't say what year.