Michael Cooley's Genealogy Pages

Notes for Pleasant C Cooley (1845-1922) m1 Mary Jane Strickland m2 Grace E Kelly

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Submitted by michael_95073 Noted added Sun Feb 18 12:02:25 2007 1870 > TEXAS > WISE > DECATUR P O Series: M593 Roll: 1609 Page: 495 Submitted by michael_95073 Noted added Thu Nov 6 12:58:34 2008 Here is something else on Pleasant Cooley that I recently found. Certainly goes along with the story from David Johnson about Pleasant Cooley killing an Indian. The Cast Iron Forest, A Natural and Cultural History of the North American Cross Timbers by Richard V. Francaviglia. Chapter 3, page 125 In 1872, Miner K. Kellogg described frontier life in the Texas Cross Timbers as under constant threat of Indian attacks. He observed that farmer Charley Marlett “always goes armed and never leaves his gun on the plough.” According to Kellogg, the farmer’s cabin was partially stockaded. After crossing rough stone roads through several poor grass prairies and parks of scrub oaks, Kellogg met a farmer named Pleasant Cooley, who had killed an Indian the previous fall. Submitted by michael_95073 Noted added Thu Nov 6 22:21:10 2008 Received from historian and author, David Johnson, Nov 2008: Kellogg's Journal June 27, 1872 Pleasant Cooley the young farmer here is now sitting by me and giving me notes. His father was killed last year by a white boy and he was killed by some men on the farm as revenge. Cooley opened this farm last winter and the corn crop is finer than anything he ever saw. Corn is worth $2 per bushel at his door. It was he who killed the Indian whose bones graced the tree we passed yesty. He Cooley had lost a mare & colt and in hunting the thieves came upon a body of Indians with the horses, among which he recognized his own. A fire commenced between the parties which resulted in the killing of two Indians and capture of two horses. Cooley scalped one the other was dragged off by his fellows. The scalp was of long black hair, the scalp lock braided in with the beautiful locks of a white woman reaching to the waist. He took the scalp to ----- as proof that Indians were really killed in this region, a thing doubted by legislators. The horses Cooley got were not his own and soon disappeared by theft or otherwise. So that he is left without a single horse or mule only the pig is capable of holding his own against the Indians . . . Submitted by michael_95073 Noted added Thu Nov 6 22:24:28 2008 Correction: The note dated Thu Nov 6 12:58:34 2008 came from Sandy Stanton. Submitted by michael_95073 Noted added Fri Nov 7 13:25:17 2008 Pleasasnt died 5 Feb 1922 in Comanche county OK. Submitted by michael_95073 Noted added Sun Nov 23 17:33:46 2008 1920 > OKLAHOMA > STEPHENS > MCPHERSON Series: T625 Roll: 1484 Page: 153 Submitted by michael_95073 Noted added Sun Dec 7 22:30:22 2008 1880 > TEXAS > WISE > 1-PCT Series: T9 Roll: 1333 Page: 95 Submitted by michael_95073 Noted added Sun Dec 7 22:41:45 2008 1900 > INDIAN TERRITORY > CHICKASAW > TWP 2 S RANGE 6 W Series: T623 Roll: 1849 Page: 44 Pleasant and wife Grace are found living next to son George. They've been mawrried 6 years and she is stated to not to have had any children. All of Pleasant's children prior to 1900, then, were by his first wife. He's listed as being born June 1845 in MO. Submitted by michael_95073 Noted added Sun Dec 7 22:47:12 2008 1910 > OKLAHOMA > STEPHENS > MCPHERSON TWP Series: T624 Roll: 1275 Page: 219 Indexed on Heritage Quest as "Blee C Cooley". He's 67, wife Grace is 48. Submitted by michael_95073 Noted added Wed Dec 10 00:03:11 2008 Pleasant Cooley's first wife... http://www.genealogy.com/users/h/o/l/Sharon-L-Holland/GENE14-0009.html 26. MARY JANE STRICKLAND (ISAAC O.7, DAVID6, JOHN5, DAVID4, DAVID3, JOHN2, THWAITE1) was born January 5, 1834 in Louisiana, and died April 4, 1891 in Comanche (now Duncan), Stephens County, Oklahoma Indian Territory. She married (1) REUBION KELLY July 2, 1854 in Navarro, Texas. He died Unknown. She married (2) PLEASANT COOLEY October 7, 1868 in Wise County, Texas. He died Unknown. Submitted by michael_95073 Noted added Wed Dec 10 00:06:58 2008 Same webpage... --quote-- Notes for GRACY E. KELLY: Reference Vickie Thomas Gracie was a spinster. She lived with Pleasant, her stepfather and her mother until her mother's death. When her mother died the people in the area told her step father, Pleas, that he had to make her move out. He asked why? She was his daughter. He had raised her since she was about seven years old, and he would not throw her out. They said he had no choice. So instead of him throwing her out, she became Grandmother Gracie. Pleas married her so she would not have to leave her home. Everybody that knew him said they still kept the father daughter relationship and not a husband and wife relationship. They say he was a good man that could not hurt anyone. --endquote-- Submitted by michael_95073 Note added Sun Jun 27 01:14:09 2010 A letter to the editor from "Wild West" magazine. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/LETTERS.-a063059179 THE COOLEY STORY On reading Casey Tefertiller's excellent article on John Ringo in the February 2000 issue, I knew he would mention my great-great uncle, William Scott Cooley. I was not disappointed! Scott's older brother, Pleasant Cooley, was my great-grandfather. In his later years, Pleasant maintained that Scott did not die in 1876 but was living in Stephens County, Okla., in the early 1900s under an assumed name. While I have not found evidence to support Pleasant's story, I lend it credence. On the other hand, an eyewitness account of Scott's death by poisoning in June 1876 is difficult to dispute because of its graphic detail. Like Ringo's death, it seems that Cooley's fate is also entwined with mystery. John W. Bell, Garden Ridge, Texas Submitted by michael_95073 Note added Mon Jul 25 20:39:57 2011 Birth: Mar. 3, 1842 Death: Feb. 5, 1922 Burial: Fairlawn Cemeteries Comanche Stephens County Oklahoma, USA Plot: Sec 2 Created by: Jean Record added: Jan 19, 2007 Find A Grave Memorial# 17565123 Submitted by michael_95073 Note added Mon Jul 25 20:53:48 2011 There's a Cooley grave in the same cemetery as Pleasant. No first name or birth date. Could it be one if his brothers? Birth: unknown Death: Jun. 10, 1899 Inscription: (no other info) Burial: Fairlawn Cemeteries Comanche Stephens County Oklahoma, USA Plot: Sec 2 Created by: Jean Record added: Jan 19, 2007 Find A Grave Memorial# 17565068