Guide to the William Cooper Diaries and Photograph MSS.0357
Cooper, William
- Publication:
W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, The University of Alabama
Mary Harmon Bryant Hall
June 2012
500 Hackberry Lane
Box 870266
Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 35487-0266
205.348.0500
archives@ua.edu
- Creation:
This finding aid was produced using the Archivists' Toolkit 2013-02-08T11:13-0600
- Language Usage:
English
- Description Rules:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
William Cooper Diaries and Photograph
- Unit ID:
MSS.0357
- Repository:
W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, The University of Alabama
- Quantity:
0.4 Linear feet
- Dates:
1864-1887
- Abstract:
The collection consists of six diaries for 1864, 1867, 1876, 1882, 1884, and 1887, and a photograph of Cooper, an attorney from Tuscumbia, Alabama. The diaries contain daily entries made by Cooper and, in his absence from home, his wife, and give a great deal of information about the community, his activities, and his family.
- creator
Cooper, WIlliam, 1802-1887
Related Archival Materials note
Additional Cooper diaries for the years 1862, 1865, 1872, and 1886 are located at The Southern Historical Collection, Manuscripts Department, Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Scope and Contents note
The collection consists of six diaries for 1864, 1867, 1876, 1882, 1884, and 1887, and a photograph of Cooper in his later years. The diaries contain daily entries made by Cooper and, in his absence from home, his wife, and give a great deal of information about the community, his activities, and his family. Many entries include small drawings, some in color. The diaries chiefly record weather conditions, but include accounts of travels to Mississippi and Memphis, Tennessee, neighborhood news, births, deaths, and plantings in Cooper's garden. The diary for 1864 was primarily kept by his wife, who made pencil entries from mid-January until August. The remainder of the diary has few entries. A slip of paper laid in says “All the pencil entries in diary 1864 made by our grand mother -- Papa in Miss valley looking after plantations and negroes.” The entry for August 15, 1887, includes a notice (incorrect) of his death in his own hand. The entry is corrected the next day in his wife’s hand.
- Acquisition Information:
Provenance
Purchased from Ms. Ann Campbell, 1989
- Preferred Citation:
Preferred Citation note
William Cooper Diaries and Photograph, W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, The University of Alabama
- Access Restrictions:
Conditions Governing Access note
none
Biographical/Historical note
William Cooper, lawyer, of Tuscumbia, Colbert County, Alabama, was born January 11, 1802, in Brunswick County, Virginia. His family moved to Nashville from Virginia in 1807 and later to Alabama. He was admitted to the bar in 1823 and practiced first at Russellville. In 1828 he moved to Tuscumbia. He represented the Choctaws in negotiating the Treaty of Pontotoc with the Federal government, served as bank commissioner from 1845-1847, and was a member of the Alabama Secession Convention. He married, first, on November 12, 1824, Susan Henderson McCullock (died 1834). They had three children: Langston, died young; James Parks; and Jane Foster (married James Pettit). He and his second wife, Elizabeth Blocker, whom he married in 1836, had five children: John William; Susan Henderson (married W. A. Nelson); Sarah A. (married John Goodwin); Mollie R.(married Ben Winter); and Julie Francis (married E. R. Rather). Cooper married his third wife, Mrs. Julia Plummber Blocker, December 27, 1869. They had no children. William Cooper died August 16, 1887 in Tuscumbia, Alabama.
- Usage Restrictions:
Conditions Governing Use note
None
- Processing Information:
Processed by
unknown; updated by Martha Bace, 2013
Source(s)
Birth records (aat)
Community and Place (localbroad)
Daily Life and Family (localbroad)
Death records (aat)
Diaries (aat)
Drawings (visual works) (aat)
Farming and Agriculture (localbroad)
Photographs (aat)
Plantation owners (lcsh)
Travel and Tourism (localbroad)
Diary Box 3058 Folder 1
Diary Box 3058 Folder 2
Diary Box 3058 Folder 3
Diary Box 3058 Folder 4
Diary Box 3058 Folder 5
Diary Box 3058 Folder 6
Photograph of William Cooper in his later years. Box 3058 Folder 7