The Coopers of Long Hill

Document J.151 · transcription: verbatim

Obituary of Mrs. Henry Seward (= Beulah Ann Cooper) — newspaper unidentified, c. 11-14 November 1885

Cite this page "Obituary of Mrs. Henry Seward (= Beulah Ann Cooper) — newspaper unidentified, c. 11-14 November 1885", document J.151, The Coopers of Long Hill, njcoopers.com/e/J.151/

Transcription and notes

Filename: image-only supplied by maintainer 2026-05-27 (no on-disk PDF yet; should be saved to cooper-genealogy-catalog/Search Results/ or Death/Obituaries/ when archived).

Identification

Newspaper obituary clipping for Mrs. Henry Seward née Beulah Ann Cooper. Source newspaper not identified in the clipping; "OBITUARY" header above + adjacent "OBITUARY NOTES" column showing "The Rev. Father Lonergan, of Montreal, died yesterday from typhoid fever" = newspaper-of-record style suggesting NJ or NY area mid-1880s.

Date of publication: likely between Tuesday 10 November 1885 and Saturday 14 November 1885 (= 1-5 days after Beulah's "Monday evening" death). Calculation: 9 November 1885 was a Monday; obit refers to her death as "Monday evening" implying same-week publication.

Data from the document [verbatim]

OBITUARY.

MRS. HENRY SEWARD.

Mrs. Henry Seward died at Chester, N. J., on Monday evening. Her maiden name was Beulah Ann Cooper. She was a sister of the late Gen. Nathan A. Cooper, and a relative of the late Peter Cooper. Her husband was the late Henry Seward, for many years Cashier of the Orange County Bank, and a near relative of the Hon. William H. Seward. A. S. Murray, who also died on Monday last, succeeded him as Cashier. Mrs. Seward was born in Chester on June 27, 1800, and, except for a few years during which she resided in Goshen, had always lived in her native place. She was a woman of keen intelligence and extraordinary memory. In December last she had an attack of paralysis, which confined her to her room, and from which she never recovered. She leaves two sons, Henry C. and William H. Seward.

(Adjacent column begins: "OBITUARY NOTES. The Rev. Father Lonergan, of Montreal, died yesterday from typhoid fever…")

Catalog-defining attestations

1. Death date primary-source-confirmed = 9 November 1885 Monday

2. "Relative of the late Peter Cooper"

"She was a sister of the late Gen. Nathan A. Cooper, and a relative of the late Peter Cooper."

Peter Cooper = the famous American industrialist, philanthropist, founder of Cooper Union (1791–1883). Per I.132 Perry Cooper Family Records page 25 (= the Obadiah Cooper Fishkill NY → Peter Cooper line):

OBADIAH COOPER, from Eng., ca. 1662, settled at Fishkill, N. Y. OBADIAH COOPER. OBADIAH COOPER (1720-76), m. 2d, in 1749, Hester Terbos (1726-89). JOHN COOPER (1755-1838), soldier Am. Rev., m. 1779, Margaret, dau. John Campbell, soldier Am. Rev., alderman, New York. PETER COOPER (1791-1883), distinguished philanthropist, m. Sarah Bedell.

The Beulah Ann Cooper Seward obit's "relative of the late Peter Cooper" attestation = primary-source-EVIDENCE of a kinship between [fam.2 Roxbury/Chester/Long-Island-derived Cooper line] AND the [Fishkill NY → Peter Cooper philanthropist line]. The two lines were previously treated as SEPARATE in catalog. Possible geometries: - Peter Cooper b. 1791 + Beulah Ann b. 1800 = ~9-year age gap = same generation - "Relative" (= obit phrasing) implies family-of-origin connection NOT spouse-line connection (= not Sarah Bedell side) - Peter's grandfather Obadiah Cooper d. 1776 (Fishkill NY) overlaps temporally with Nathan I (~1696-1788) of fam.2 = possible cousin connection at Long-Island-origin level - Both lines descend from Long Island Cooper-name families (= fam.1 Southampton + Obadiah of Fishkill NY) — = possible shared ancestor among NY Cooper-name immigrant generation

NEW project pr.71 fam.2 ↔ Peter Cooper kinship created to track this hypothesis.

3. "Near relative of the Hon. William H. Seward"

"Her husband was the late Henry Seward, for many years Cashier of the Orange County Bank, and a near relative of the Hon. William H. Seward"

William H. Seward (1801–1872) = U.S. Senator from NY 1849-1861, Lincoln's + Andrew Johnson's Secretary of State 1861-1869, famous for "Seward's Folly" Alaska purchase 1867. NY governor 1839-1842. Born Florida (Orange Co.) NY.

Henry Seward (Beulah's husband, b. 1793) was a "near relative" of William H. Seward (= probably 1st or 2nd cousin given the chronology). Both Seward families trace to Brookhaven LI per I.139 Seward 1948, so a documented kinship is plausible. NEW name-roster entry warranted for William H. Seward as a Cooper-by-marriage relative.

4. Residence pattern primary-source-confirmed

"Mrs. Seward was born in Chester on June 27, 1800, and, except for a few years during which she resided in Goshen, had always lived in her native place."

5. Cause of death

"In December last she had an attack of paralysis, which confined her to her room, and from which she never recovered."

= December 1884 stroke / paralysis-attack. ~11 months bedridden before death 9 Nov 1885 age 85. NEW health-history datum.

6. Two surviving sons + 2 predeceased children confirmed

"She leaves two sons, Henry C. and William H. Seward."

= confirms Seward 1948's 4-child enumeration: - Henry Clay Seward 1824-1896 ← named in obit as Henry C. (= surviving) - Nathan A. C. Seward 1825-1856 ← NOT in obit (= predeceased; matches Seward 1948 "d. 1856 no children") - Anna Elizabeth Seward 1827-1834 ← NOT in obit (= predeceased age 7; matches Seward 1948) - William Henry Seward 1840-1925 ← named in obit as William H. (= surviving)

William H. Seward (son) was named after his famous father's-relative (the U.S. statesman) — = explicit honorific naming pattern within Cooper-Seward family.

7. Henry Seward's cashier-successor A. S. Murray

"A. S. Murray, who also died on Monday last, succeeded him as Cashier."

A. S. Murray of the Orange County Bank Goshen NY died on the same Monday 9 Nov 1885 as Beulah Ann. = local Goshen banking-community context, not catalog-relevant to fam.2 directly.

Source-newspaper identification follow-up

The newspaper this obit appeared in is NOT identified in the clipping. Candidates: - Goshen NY local paper (= Independent Republican of Goshen, where I.139 Seward 1948 was published; Henry's banking-career location) - Chester NJ / Morris County NJ paper (= Beulah's residence) - NYC or Brooklyn paper (= regional reach; e.g. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, New York Tribune)

Common boilerplate style ("She was a woman of keen intelligence and extraordinary memory" + "She leaves two sons") matches mid-1880s NJ/NY local-obit style.

Follow-up: identify newspaper-of-record via Newspapers.com search for "Beulah Ann Cooper Seward" or "Mrs. Henry Seward Chester" Nov 1885.

Cross-references

Follow-ups

Catalog significance

Two major-historical-figure kinship attestations in a single obit: 1. Peter Cooper philanthropist + Cooper Union founder 2. William H. Seward U.S. Sec. of State + Lincoln cabinet

Both are tantalizing leads. Peter Cooper kinship is more directly Cooper-line-relevant (= via Beulah's Cooper-side). William H. Seward kinship is via marriage (= via Beulah's Seward-husband-side, not Cooper-side proper).

The Peter Cooper kinship in particular suggests that fam.2 may be more closely related to the Hudson Valley Cooper line (= fam.13 Kuyper-Cooper-Coriell sweep target per pr.64) than previously understood — = possible cross-thread between fam.2 + fam.13 + Daniel-Sr-line research.