Scott Co. KY Deed Book 16, p.345 (16 Nov 1878) — Power of Attorney: Stephen Cooper & Julia V. (Madden) Emison [p.1047] of Saline Co. MO appoint William Quarles Emison to collect land + legacies from the Estates of Daniel Cooper, Decd. [p.737?] & Mrs. Elizabeth Gaines, Decd., in Scott + Fayette Counties, KY. [not yet uploaded — abstract only, via I.188]

Transcription and notes

Status: the actual deed image is not yet in Docs/. What we have is the abstract published in The Emison Families, Revised ([I.188], book p.129), which cites it precisely enough to pull.

Abstract (as given by I.188) [desc]

• Citation: Scott Co., Kentucky — Deed Book 16, p. 345, dated 16 November 1878.
• Grantors / principals: Stephen Cooper Emison [p.1047] & wife Julia V. (Madden) Emison, of Saline Co., Missouri.
• Attorney-in-fact appointed: William Quarles Emison (his KY half-brother, [p.1048]).
• Purpose: to take possession of "land and legacies particularly from Estates of Daniel Cooper, Decd; Mrs. Elizabeth Gaines, Decd., in Counties of Scott and Fayette, Ky."

Why it matters (→ [p.737] / pr.14; not verbatim)

• Documents that Stephen Cooper Emison [p.1047] inherited from a "Daniel Cooper" estate in Scott/Fayette Co. KY — consistent with Daniel Cooper III [p.737] (his maternal grandfather, via deceased mother Mary Ann [p.849]).
• "Mrs. Elizabeth Gaines, Decd." is very likely Elizabeth Cooper, a daughter of Daniel III (listed among his daughters on [p.737]) who married a Gaines and left legacies to her Emison nephews/nieces → gives that daughter a married surname.
• Pull target (high value for the descendant-tree goal): the underlying Daniel Cooper estate settlement/probate in Scott and/or Fayette Co. KY would name the heirs + shares = a primary-source enumeration of Daniel III's children. The 1878 POA itself (Deed Bk 16 p.345) is the first document to grab; it may recite the heirship.

2026-07-12 — the COMPANION SALE DEED was pulled → [K.59] (Deed Bk 16 p.316)

The maintainer imaged Deed Bk 16 p.316 (the substantive sale, dated 6 Nov 1878) — filed [K.59]. It carries the heir list this POA (p.345) merely authorized: the Cooper + Emison heirs of "Elizabeth Gaines dec'd (formerly Cooper)" convey her 57 acres to William B. Gaines, the land being "allotted to her in the division of her father's estate (the late Daniel Cooper dec'd)." ⇒ [K.59] is now the key document; this p.345 POA is its companion authorization (still un-imaged, lower priority). The remaining unpulled prize is Daniel Cooper's estate DIVISION itself (Scott Co. Court records — see below).

Turnkey pull plan (scoped 2026-07-12 — image-pull needs an authenticated login, which Claude lacks)

Claude confirmed it cannot self-pull: FamilySearch now forces login even for the catalog, and no logged-in Chrome session was available. So the maintainer executes; the citations below are exact.

A. The 1878 POA deed — EXACT FILM LOCATED 2026-07-12 (maintainer pulled the Scott Co. deeds catalog): - Correction: FS catalog #134756 is WASHINGTON County, KY — NOT Scott (my earlier mis-cite). The correct record is Scott County (KY) Clerk of the County Court, "Deeds, 1793–1903" (17 reels). - Deed Book 16 is on FamilySearch image group DGS 8688445 (Film 981620) — the "Vols. 16–17" reel (Book 16 is at the front) — browse to p. 345 (deed dated 16 Nov 1878). Alt reel: DGS 8672873 (Film 1876560) = "Vols. 13–17, 1874–1880" (browse past Vols 13–15 first). (Grantor/grantee index for cross-check: "Index 1866–1899" = DGS 8193614 / Film 981615 — look up "Emison" grantor.) - Free alt channel: the Scott County Public Library genealogy dept (scottpublib.org, Georgetown KY) does book/page deed lookups — request "Deed Book 16, page 345 (16 Nov 1878), Emison→Cooper power of attorney."

B. The underlying Daniel Cooper ESTATE (higher value — should enumerate the heirs): - Ancestry "Kentucky, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1774–1989" (name-indexed): search "Daniel Cooper," Scott Co. + Fayette Co., decade 1850s (and open-ended, given the caveat below). Look for a will, administration bond, inventory, settlement/distribution, or Order-Book entry. Repeat for "Elizabeth Gaines" (the co-named estate) in the same counties. - FamilySearch Scott Co. + Fayette Co. will/probate/order books (catalog by county → Probate records) as the free equivalent.

Search log

• 2026-07-12 — Ancestry "KY Wills & Probate Records, 1774–1989" name-search = NULL for Daniel Cooper in Scott/Fayette. Searched "Daniel Cooper," death place Scott KY with the location slider at STATE breadth (all Kentucky) — the 18 returned hits are all loose middle-initial "D Cooper" matches (E D / Elisha D / D M / L D / R D / D G / W D / Frank D / Lorenzo D Cooper) in Wayne, Russell, Ohio, Spencer, Mason, Daviess, Johnson counties — none is an actual "Daniel Cooper," none in Scott or Fayette. ⇒ this collection's name index does not carry Daniel III's estate (likely intestate — an administration/settlement not indexed by decedent name, or a coverage gap). The name-search route is exhausted; pivot to the browse routes below.

• 2026-07-12 — "Elizabeth Gaines" search SUCCEEDED (route 3 below). Ancestry KY Wills & Probate has Elizabeth Gaines, Scott Co. KY, will + probate 1878, husband William Gaines, in Scott Co. Will Book Vol R-S (1874–1896) → catalogued [A.110] + person [p.850]. Her 1878 death matches this deed's "Mrs. Elizabeth Gaines, Decd." ⇒ the deed's estates are real and her will is now precisely located.

• 2026-07-12 — Elizabeth Gaines's will READ → [A.110] (image supplied). Scott Co. Will Book R-S pp.54–55, dated 1 Jan 1878, husband William Gaines. She devises "all the land which I inherited from my father" (husband for life, then to "such heirs as may be living of my own relatives") — NO issue, Cooper collateral heirs. The will names the heirs only as a CLASS, not by name — so it confirms the structure + her Cooper parentage (near-certain) but does not enumerate the heirs. Lag resolved: Elizabeth inherited land from her father in fee, held it to her 1878 death, and (no issue) left it to her Cooper relatives; the Nov-1878 deed is the Emison nephews collecting their direct Daniel-Cooper share and their remainder in Aunt Elizabeth's land, her death triggering both. (Corrects the earlier guess that Daniel III gave Elizabeth a life estate.)

• 2026-07-12 — FAYETTE Co. "Index to Wills, Vols 1 & 2" browsed = no "Cooper, Daniel" spotted (NOT airtight — see caveat). Maintainer downloaded the Fayette will index; Claude read the C-surname pages across Will Books K (1830) → Book 5 (1878) — the legible Fayette Cooper wills are William (1834, 1836), Spencer (1838–1850), Elizabeth (1850), Eliza (1853), and (maintainer, image 018) M. H. Cooper + Jacob Cooper; no Daniel Cooper seen. Caveat (maintainer): the scans are poor and bottom-of-page rows are lost, so a "Daniel Cooper" could be hiding in a cut-off row — treat this as "none found in the legible portion," not a definitive absence. Still, combined with the Ancestry name-index null, the leading hypothesis is that Daniel III died INTESTATE — consistent with daughter Elizabeth's will [A.110] saying she "inherited" land "from my father" (an intestate share passes by law without a will). An intestate estate = an administration (admin-bond / order / settlement book), not in a will index — which would also explain the will-index misses.

• CORRECTION 2026-07-13 → [A.111]: this intestacy hypothesis was WRONG. Daniel Cooper III was TESTATE — his holographic will was proved 16 Sep 1850 in the Scott Co. County Court (executors son Reuben H. Cooper [p.844] + son-in-law George Downing). The will/estate is in the Scott Co. County Court records, which is why the Fayette will index + Ancestry name-index (searched above) both missed it. See [A.111]/[p.737].

• Redirect → SCOTT County. Both records we hold (Elizabeth Gaines's will [A.110] + this deed) are Scott Co.; Daniel III's estate is most likely a Scott Co. administration/settlement. Pull the Scott Co. probate/order/administrator-bond books ~1850 (or its will/admin index) for "Cooper, Daniel." (Parked side-observation: the Fayette William + Spencer Cooper wills 1834–41 may relate to the Daniel-Jr → William [p.733] branch — check opportunistically, not now.)

• 2026-07-12 — FamilySearch FULL-TEXT SEARCH works on Scott Co. deeds → "Daniel Cooper" HITS. Full-text search of the Scott Co. Deed Indexes 1793–1866 (DGS 7899067) for "Daniel Cooper" returned 2 index pages naming him: (1) "…Commissioner To Cooper Daniel Deed 175…" — a commissioner's deed TO Daniel Cooper (~1845–46; commissioner's deeds arise from court-ordered divisions/sales); (2) "…Cooper Daniel … Collins Bartlet Deed 56…". ⇒ Daniel III DID hold/transact Scott Co. land (supports the estate being in Scott). OCR is garbled (index pages), so these give leads not clean citations. ** This unlocks the fast path** — see route 0 below.

⇒ Remaining routes to the HEIR NAMES — FULL-TEXT SEARCH is now the fast path (2026-07-12)

0. Use FamilySearch Full-Text Search on the DEED BOOKS (not the index). Clear the DGS filter and search, restricted to place Scott, Kentucky: - "Emison" → should return the 1878 POA directly (Deed Bk 16 p.345) — no browsing. (Rare surname = clean hits.) - "Daniel Cooper" in the deed books → his actual deeds, incl. any heir partition/division (which would name the heirs = the payoff). - "Elizabeth Gaines" / "William Gaines" → their land dealings. (Also open the two index hits above (DGS 7899067) to read Daniel's full grantor/grantee entries → the book+page of every Daniel Cooper deed to pull.) Elizabeth's will [A.110] done (confirms structure + parentage, but names heirs only as a class). The name-list must come from:
1. The 1878 deed itself — Scott Co. Deed Bk 16, p. 345 — on FamilySearch DGS 8688445 (Film 981620, "Vols. 16–17"), browse to p.345 (see §A above for the exact film); or a Scott County Public Library book/page lookup. It already names Stephen Cooper Emison + Julia; the full instrument may recite additional heirs/relationships.
2. Browse the SCOTT Co. probate — administrator-bond / order / settlement books ~1850–55 for "Cooper, Daniel" (Daniel III appears intestate: absent from both the Ancestry name-index AND the Fayette will index, yet Elizabeth "inherited land from my father"). His administration/settlement would name the heirs + shares = the enumeration this thread is for. Start with the Scott Co. will/administration index.
3. Any later distribution of Elizabeth's estate (after William Gaines's death) — would name the surviving remaindermen.

(Resolved along the way: the "28-yr lag" — Daniel III d.1850, collected 1878 — is explained by Elizabeth holding her inherited share until her 1878 death, per [A.110]. And "Elizabeth (Cooper) Gaines = a Daniel-III daughter who died without issue" is now near-certain from her own will.)

Cross-references

• I.188 The Emison Families, Revised (the source of this abstract) · p.1047 Stephen Cooper Emison · p.737 Daniel Cooper III · p.849 Mary Ann Cooper