The Coopers of Long Hill

Levi H. Cooper 1831–1909

Catalog ID p.1945 · Cite this page: njcoopers.com/p/1945/

Levi H. Cooper was probably born on 11 Jan 1831 in Warren County, New Jersey, probably the son of John Cooper. He married three times: probably Elizabeth Jane Goble, probably Permelia Cooper (1880) and probably Sarah Gross (1883). He probably died on 20 Dec 1909 in southeast of Stafford, Stafford Co., Kansas and was buried on 21 Dec 1909 at Stafford cemetery, Stafford, Kansas. Four children are recorded.

Facts

EventDatePlace / detailCertaintySources
birth 11 Jan 1831 Warren County, New Jersey probable J.232
residence 1850 Independence Township, Warren Co., NJ certain D.4
residence 1860 Independence Twp, Warren Co., NJ certain D.470
residence 9 Sep 1864 Independence Twp, Warren Co., NJ (P.O. Johnsonsburg) certain B.108
residence 1870 West Jersey Township, Stark Co., Illinois (P.O. Toulon) certain D.587
residence 1880 Asherville, Mitchell Co., Kansas certain D.587
residence 1885 Mitchell County, Kansas certain E.12
residence 5 May 1892 Asherville, Mitchell Co., Kansas certain B.108
residence 1 Mar 1895 Asherville Twp, Mitchell Co., Kansas certain E.11
residence 4 Aug 1898 Asherville, Kansas certain B.108
residence 1900 Glasco city, Solomon Twp, Cloud Co., Kansas certain D.587
residence 6 Mar 1907 Glasco, Cloud Co., Kansas (P.O. Simpson) certain B.108
occupation 4 Aug 1862 Labourer certain B.108
occupation 9 Sep 1864 a day labourer at farming &c certain B.108
occupation 1880 Farmer certain D.587
occupation 1900 Farmer certain D.587
death 20 Dec 1909 southeast of Stafford, Stafford Co., Kansas probable J.232, J.309
burial 21 Dec 1909 Stafford cemetery, Stafford, Kansas certain J.232

Family

Parents

Spouses

Siblings

Children

  1. John A. Cooper 1861–1935 G.705, D.587, D.591, E.11, L.163
  2. Carrie Elizabeth (Cooper) Field 1865–1944 probable D.587, F.274, J.232
  3. Marvin Cooper 1868–1947 probable D.587, E.11, L.163
  4. Irvin Cooper 1868 probable D.587, E.12, L.163

Family tree

Solid lines and outlines: certain. Dashed: probable or weaker. Open the full tree (four generations)

Elizabeth Jane (Goble) CooperElizabeth Jane (Goble) …1845Permelia CooperPermelia Cooper1851–1882Sarah (Gross) CooperSarah (Gross) Cooper1837–1908Levi H. CooperLevi H. Cooper1831–1909John CooperJohn Cooper1786–1867Israel Cooper1750John A. CooperJohn A. Cooper1861–1935Carrie Elizabeth (Cooper) FieldCarrie Elizabeth (Coope…1865–1944Marvin CooperMarvin Cooper1868–1947Irvin CooperIrvin Cooper1868

In the documents

Every published document that names Levi H. Cooper, in date order, with what that document itself records.

DateDocumentRoleWhat it records
1830 B.108 military service and pension file
NARA compiled military service record (21 pp.), invalid pension file certificate 34380 (67 pp.) and medical file (1 p.) for Levi H. Cooper, Private, Company B, …
 principal
as "Levi H. Cooper"
birth: 11 Jan 1830, Warren Co., New Jersey
1831 J.232 obituary
"Death of Levi H. Cooper" — Stafford County Republican (Stafford, Kansas), Thu 23 Dec 1909, p. 8. Death notice giving his birth as Warren County, N.J., 11 Janua…
 deceased
as "Levi H. Cooper"
birth: 11 Jan 1831, Warren County, New Jersey
death: 20 Dec 1909, southeast of Stafford, Stafford Co., Kansas
burial: 21 Dec 1909, Stafford cemetery, Stafford, Kansas
residence: 1908, came to Stafford Co. from Brown Co., Kansas, "a little over a year ago"
1839/1900 C.178 marriage index entry
Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, 1763-1900 (Illinois State Archives and Illinois State Genealogical Society) - four queries read 2026-10-26: all COOPER marria…
 groom
as "COOPER, LEVI"
1870 D.587 census index sweep
Three census households for a Levi (H.) Cooper born in New Jersey — West Jersey Twp, Stark Co., Illinois 1870 (dwelling 230, p. 32); Asherville, Mitchell Co., K…
 head
as "Levi H. Cooper"
1885 E.12 state census
1885 Kansas state census, Schedule 1 — Mitchell County, Kansas; page 3, lines 8–13. FamilySearch DGS 007841207, image 190 of 1099. The printed township, county …
 head
as "Levi H Cooper"
residence: 1885, Mitchell County, Kansas
1895 E.11 state census
1895 Kansas state census, Schedule 1 — Township of Asherville, Mitchell County, Kansas, 1 March 1895; page 12 [also numbered 8?], dwelling 73 / family 73. Asses…
 head
as "Levi Cooper"
residence: 1 Mar 1895, Asherville Twp, Mitchell Co., Kansas
1907 B.107 military index pair
Two federal indexes for LEVI H. COOPER, Private, Company B, 15th Regiment New Jersey Infantry (Union) — the Index to Compiled Service Records (NARA M550) and th…
 soldier
as "Levi H. Cooper"
23 Dec 1909 J.309 obituary
Stafford Courier (Stafford, Kansas), Thursday 23 December 1909, page 2 - "Death of Levi H. Cooper"; newspapers.com image 423359900.
 deceased
as "Levi H. Cooper"
birth: 11 Jan 1831, Warren county, New Jersey
death: home of his daughter, Mrs. John Fields, southwest of town [Stafford]
burial: the Stafford cemetery
military: three years in the Civil War, Co. B., 15th New Jersey Volunteers

4 further documents not published (they may name living people).

Still unknown, and where we have looked

Searches recorded

ancestry all 2026-10-27 · NOT the all-collections search - this row is a collection-level COVERAGE walk of the two Ancestry Methodist collections, recorded under...
Searched for: NOT the all-collections search - this row is a collection-level COVERAGE walk of the two Ancestry Methodist collections, recorded under ancestry-all because that is the only Ancestry value the schema admits. The two were enumerated by coverage rather than searched by name, because the question is whether they can hold a Pequest / Independence Twp baptism of 1834-1836 at all. (a) Collection 61176, New Jersey, U.S., United Methodist Church Records, 1800-1970 (720,996 records). The Browse this collection panel was walked: County -> City -> Organization, for Warren County, giving all six cities and all nine organizations. Separately, surname Cooper with the collection's own Event Type = Baptism filter (f-RecordType=Baptism, confirmed present in the submitted URL) - 1,185 rows. (b) Collection 9188, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, U.S., United Methodist Church Records, 1775-1949 (499,925 records) - the collection Israel Cooper never named. Browse panel walked: Event State -> Event City, for New Jersey. (link)
Result: NOT A NULL - A COVERAGE EXCLUSION, which is a stronger and cheaper answer. 61176 holds no congregation in Independence Township. Its entire Warren County content is Asbury (Record Book for Asbury Circuit), Finesville (Miscellaneous Church Records; United Methodist Church), Harmony (Harmony Circuit MEC; Harmony MEC; Lower Harmony Methodist), Mansfield (Mount Bethel Methodist Church), Phillipsburg (Green's Bridge) and Washington (Miscellaneous Church Records) - nine record sets, all in the county's south-west. Independence Township is in the north-east. No Great Meadows, no Vienna, no Danville, no Pequest. The 1,185 Cooper baptisms are overwhelmingly Paterson, Newark, Trenton, Camden, Rahway and Elizabeth. 9188's entire New Jersey holding is NEWARK - the Event City dropdown is disabled because Newark is its only value - and its two New Jersey items are "Vol 10: Newark Wesleyan Institute Trustees Minutes, 1846-1857" and "Vol 11: Methodism in Northern New Jersey (Returned to Methodist Historical Society)". Neither is a baptismal register. => The 16 unread pages of 61176 recorded here this morning were never a pending search. A page count was standing in for a coverage question. The Ancestry Methodist route is closed; Drew University is what remains - and the question to put to Drew is now specific: does the Pequest M.E. register survive, and why was it not digitised with the rest of the Greater New Jersey conference records?
ancestry all 2026-10-27 · THE ILLINOIS HALF OF THE ABOVE, run immediately after the New Jersey null, because he was in Stark Co., Illinois by 1870 and that is...
Searched for: THE ILLINOIS HALF OF THE ABOVE, run immediately after the New Jersey null, because he was in Stark Co., Illinois by 1870 and that is where a marriage missing from New Jersey would most likely be. ancestry.com/search/ all collections, Levi Cooper, marriage 1866 +/- 6 (1860-1872), 50 per page, no place token. 575 results; the first 50 read. (link)
Result: NO ILLINOIS MARRIAGE THAT CAN BE HIS. The result set is dominated by England - Levi Cooper is a common Staffordshire name, and Staffordshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire supply most of the first fifty - with Tennessee, Michigan, Alabama, Indiana, Iowa and West Virginia making up the American rows. Exactly TWO Illinois rows appear, and they are the same marriage indexed twice: Illinois, U.S., Compiled Marriages, 1851-1900 and Illinois, U.S., Marriage Index, 1860-1920 both give Levi M Cooper x Sarah J James, 17 October 1867, FULTON County. Not him, on three counts: the middle initial is M, the county is Fulton and not Stark, and the bride is Sarah J James and not Elizabeth Jane Goble. And the date is too late regardless - his eldest child John A. Cooper John A. was born in 1861. A PARTIAL, NOT A CLOSED NULL. Fifty of 575 were read. What makes it worth recording anyway is that the Illinois marriage collections surfaced within those fifty and contained only that one row - so the collections were reached, and he is not in them under this name.
findagrave 2026-10-03 · Levi Cooper, b. 1831 +/- 2, d. 1909 +/- 1, any location (2 matches).
Searched for: Levi Cooper, b. 1831 +/- 2, d. 1909 +/- 1, any location (2 matches). (link)
Result: Only his own memorial 89793085 (Stafford Cemetery, Block C Lot 45 - already in Images) and an Emily L. Woodford Cooper of Caroline NY. Nothing new.
familysearch tree 2026-10-03 · Levi Cooper, b. 1829-1833, d. 1908-1910.
Searched for: Levi Cooper, b. 1829-1833, d. 1908-1910.
Result: Profile LCXK-PYY, Levi H Cooper: b. Jan 1830 [sic] Warren NJ; marriage 26 Apr 1880; d. 1909 Stafford KS; no parents attached; spouses Sarah Gross (99T8-PNG, 1837-1908), Elizabeth Jane Goble (L7G6-N27, b. 1845) and PERMELIA DEAO (LCXK-5QP, b. 1851 - a wife the catalog does not hold); children John A (1861-1935), Carrie Elizabeth (1864-1944), Marvin (1866-1947), Irvin (b. 1868). Lead only.
ancestry all 2026-10-03 · Levi H Cooper, b. 1831 +/- 2 New Jersey, d. 1909 Kansas, all collections (42 results).
Searched for: Levi H Cooper, b. 1831 +/- 2 New Jersey, d. 1909 Kansas, all collections (42 results).
Result: Tree 'John Read tree': b. 11 Jan 1831 'Warren, Somerset, NJ'; d. 20 Dec 1909 Stafford; residence 1870 Toulon, Stark Co., Illinois; spouse Permelia Deao; son Irvin; and PARENTS 'Joseph Brown Cooper' and 'Hannah Wills' - an unsourced parentage contrary to this file's (the only Joseph Brown Cooper in the catalog is the Waterford man b. 1794 in the Hull register [I.185]). Records: Newspapers.com Obituary Index, three private member photos, the Find a Grave index, a public member photo and a private member story (not opened).
newspapers com 2026-10-03 · SIGNED IN. "Levi H. Cooper", all papers, 1870-1910 (46 matches, first page read).
Searched for: SIGNED IN. "Levi H. Cooper", all papers, 1870-1910 (46 matches, first page read). (link)
Result: NEW: Stafford Courier 23 Dec 1909 p. 2, 'Death of Levi H. Cooper' - downloaded and catalogued as [J.309]: born January 11th, 1831, Warren county NJ; Co. B, 15th New Jersey Volunteers, three years; died at daughter Mrs. John Fields' 'southwest of town'; prints the death as 'Monday, Dec. 21st, 1909' (21 Dec 1909 was a Tuesday). Stafford County Republican of the same date = [J.232]. Other hits not opened: Beloit Gazette 1897, Beloit Courier 1878 and 1887, Sedan Times-Star 1898, Kansas City Journal / St. Louis Globe-Democrat / Capper's Weekly 25-27 Jun 1889, Rochester Herald 1902.
genealogybank 2026-10-03 · SIGNED IN (chris_2535). Levi Cooper, keyword Stafford, 1860-1910 (64 results; Kansas 17).
Searched for: SIGNED IN (chris_2535). Levi Cooper, keyword Stafford, 1860-1910 (64 results; Kansas 17).
Result: No obituary for him on the first page. Kansas hits not opened: Topeka Weekly Capital 7 Jul 1892 and 28 Aug 1900; Barton County Democrat (Great Bend) 7 Mar 1895, 6 Mar 1908 and 21 Jan 1910.
familysearch records 2026-10-27 · familysearch.org/search/record/results, given Levi, surname Cooper, birth 1833-1837, birthplace New Jersey, country United States - run...
Searched for: familysearch.org/search/record/results, given Levi, surname Cooper, birth 1833-1837, birthplace New Jersey, country United States - run to look for a birth or baptism record in the corrected window (see the 2026-10-27 body section; the window the file had carried was 1831, four years off). (link)
Result: NOT A NULL, AND IT MUST NOT BE RECORDED AS ONE. 6,970 results - the search was not tightened enough to be a search, and the great bulk of it is 20th-century Enlisted and Officer Muster Rolls and Rosters, 1916-1939 for other men entirely. No birth or baptism record for a Levi Cooper of Warren Co., N.J. appeared in the first page, but a first page of 6,970 is no evidence of absence. What it DID confirm, all of it already held: the 1850 Independence Twp household ([D.4], indexed birth 1836), the 1860 Independence household ([D.470], 1837), and the 1880 Asherville, Mitchell Co., Kansas household ([D.587], indexed birth 1834) - that last being the row that sent me back to [D.587] and turned up the 1870 age 38 and 1880 age 46 that the morning's age table had omitted. See the correction in the body. A SECOND ATTEMPT THE SAME DAY, TIGHTENED TO THE COUNTY, AND THE FILTER DID NOT BIND. q.surname=Cooper, birth 1833-1837, q.birthLikePlace=Warren, New Jersey -> 133,414 results, with Burlington, Monmouth, Camden, Gloucester, Hudson and Passaic rows on the first page. The place filter is advisory, not restrictive - a third silently-ignored search parameter in one day, alongside Ancestry place ids and Find a Grave locationId ([[feedback_ancestry_place_recipe_when_names_are_garbled]]). Also not a null. What BOTH attempts suggest, without proving: across two searches of the window, no New Jersey church, christening or baptism collection appeared in the results at all - only censuses, state censuses, marriages and out-of-state deaths. That is consistent with the WPA inventory, which in 1940 found the Danville and Oxford registers in private custody (the pastor; an acting clerk at Hazen) rather than in any repository. => The register route is an OUTREACH item, not a search that can be run from here, which is why t6 asks for the Presbyterian Historical Society and the Presbytery of Newton rather than another query. FamilySearch's CATALOG could have settled whether they have since been filmed. It could not be reached: three attempts on 2026-10-27, three different URL shapes (place facet, place + country, free-text "Danville Presbyterian Church New Jersey"), each returning the same server-side "Something Went Wrong ... unable to display the search results." The records search worked throughout, so this was the catalog service and not the parameters. Worth one retry on another day before concluding anything.
state index 2026-10-26 · Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, 1763-1900 (Illinois State Archives + ISGS), apps.ilsos.gov/isavital/marriageSearch.do, four queries -...
Searched for: Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, 1763-1900 (Illinois State Archives + ISGS), apps.ilsos.gov/isavital/marriageSearch.do, four queries - this source had never been used on him, or anywhere in the catalog for a marriage. (a) groom Cooper, county STARK (the county value taken off the form's own dropdown, not typed) - 9 rows, all read. (b) groom Cooper, Levi, STATEWIDE - 4 rows. (c) bride Davison, Lucy, STATEWIDE - 3 rows. (d) groom Cooper with bride Goble, STATEWIDE - 0 rows. (link)
Result: ONE ROW THAT MAY BE HIS SECOND MARRIAGE, AND IT IS NOT A WIFE THIS FILE HOLDS. COOPER, LEVI with DAVISON, LUCY L, 24 December 1874, Stark Co. register vol 002 p 0067, licence 00000057 -> [C.178], and she is indexed at [name.720]. He was living in Stark County across that date and had been divorced there the year before; and in the whole statewide index there is exactly one groom indexed as a plain "Levi Cooper" - this one (the other three are Levi A of Mercer, Levi M of Fulton, Levin C of Madison). Graded possible and NOT adopted into marriages: - his own 1898 pension circular [B.108] lists only two former wives and no Lucy. See the 2026-10-26 section in the body. COOPER x GOBLE, STATEWIDE: ZERO - and this one is a real negative, not an empty window. The index's county-span list gives STARK as 1839-1900, i.e. the county's whole existence, so the absence is informative: his first marriage was not contracted in Illinois, which matches the reading that he married Eliza J. Goble in New Jersey about 1860-61 and that the 1873 Stark Co. divorce dissolved a New Jersey marriage. Incidental: the nine Stark Coopers include APOLOS S (1872), GEORGE (1862), GEORGE W (1870), HENRY S (1840), PERRY J (1895) and WILLIAM D (1899), none with a catalog file and none claimed as kin; all nine rows are transcribed in [C.178] so the search is not run again.
ancestry all 2026-10-29 · Collection 9065, "Kansas, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1803-1987" (367,459 records) - the FIRST probate search ever run for him....
Searched for: Collection 9065, "Kansas, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1803-1987" (367,459 records) - the FIRST probate search ever run for him. Three passes: the collection's own Browse this collection county menu enumerated in full; name=Levi_Cooper (23 rows, all read); and name=Joseph_Cooper (22 rows, all read) for Joseph Cooper at the same time. (link)
Result: NOT A NULL - A COVERAGE EXCLUSION, which is the stronger and cheaper answer (the same shape as the 61176 Methodist finding above). The collection's own description says it holds "approximately 45 percent of Kansas counties", and the browse menu lists 44: Allen, Anderson, Atchison, Bourbon, Brown, Chase, Chautauqua, Cherokee, Clay, Coffey, Crawford, Doniphan, Douglas, Elk, Franklin, Geary, Greenwood, Harvey, Jackson, Jefferson, Johnson, Labette, Leavenworth, Linn, Marion, Marshall, McPherson, Miami, Montgomery, Morris, Nemaha, Neosho, Osage, Pottawatomie, Riley, Rush, Saline, Sedgwick, Shawnee, Wabaunsee, Washington, Wilson, Woodson, Wyandotte. STAFFORD IS ABSENT. So are MITCHELL and CLOUD - which is all three of his Kansas counties. BROWN IS PRESENT, and [J.232] has him coming to Stafford from Brown Co. about 1908, so a Brown Co. search is worth running even though he did not die there. The two name searches agree with the browse list: no Levi Cooper of ours (the 23 rows are middle-initial L. fuzzy matches, with no Levi at all), and no Joseph Cooper probated 1893-94. A guessed filter token f-F000116E=Stafford was tried first and did NOT bind - it returned 357 rows with every Probate County cell blank, and is recorded here as a parameter artefact, not a result.
familysearch records 2026-10-29 · FamilySearch catalog, Place = "Kansas, Stafford", signed in. Run both with Subjects = Probate records and with no subject filter at all,...
Searched for: FamilySearch catalog, Place = "Kansas, Stafford", signed in. Run both with Subjects = Probate records and with no subject filter at all, because a subject token that does not bind returns a false zero. (link)
Result: FamilySearch holds EIGHT catalog items for Stafford County, Kansas, and not one is a court record. The subject-term list the unfiltered search returns is complete and short: Cemeteries (3), Census - 1905 (1), Census - 1915 (1), Census - 1925 (1), History (2). No probate, no court, no land, no vital records. => Taken with the Ancestry coverage exclusion above, the Stafford County probate of BOTH Joseph Cooper Joseph (Oct 1893) and this man (Dec 1909) is NOT ONLINE ANYWHERE. It is one court for two estates and it has to be asked for. The FamilySearch wiki for the county was read the same day and says the records exist: probate begins 1879 (both deaths are inside it), and "There is no known history of courthouse disasters in this county." Addresses: Stafford County Courthouse, 209 N. Broadway Street, St. John, Kansas 67576-2042; Stafford County Historical and Genealogical Society, 100 N Main St, Stafford, KS 67578. See todo t8.
familysearch records 2026-10-29 · FamilySearch Full-Text search, signed in - never run for this man before. Phrase "Levi H. Cooper" unfiltered (76 hits, first 50...
Searched for: FamilySearch Full-Text search, signed in - never run for this man before. Phrase "Levi H. Cooper" unfiltered (76 hits, first 50 collection lines read), then "Dennis" "Levi H Cooper" to open the Illinois cluster. (link)
Result: A STARK COUNTY, ILLINOIS ESTATE IN WHICH HE IS A NAMED PARTY, AND A DATED LAND PURCHASE THE CATALOG DID NOT HAVE. Most of the 76 are other men - a Levi H. Cooper of Carroll County, Arkansas supplies the Patent Records and Arkansas Tract Book rows, and a clerk of that name in Hertford Co., North Carolina supplies another. The Stark County, Illinois rows are his, on place and date: he farmed West Jersey Twp from March 1866 to September 1877 ([B.108], [D.587]). Three collections carry it - Probate estate files: Stark, Illinois. Probate Estate Case Files 1849-1930 and Stark County Probate Court Records: Stark, Illinois. Probate Estate Case Files 1873-1875. FamilySearch's own machine transcript of the docket index (reel 3Q9M-CS6X-2S82-G, image 13 of 645) reads: "Dennis John Est of 419 Appt of Admr 417 Claims allowed 464 419 Order to deliver up Notes of Levi H Cooper 486 419 Petition to sell Real Estate 420 ... 514 420 Decree of Sale". And the papers themselves: "the petition of Ira M Dennis ... that John Dennis late of said County departed this life ... that prior to his death said John Dennis sold ten acres of land in said County and ... a bond for a deed for the same to one Levi H Cooper and received notes of said Cooper"; "Miles A Fuller administrator of the estate of John Dennis deceased"; and the date - "during the lifetime of the said John Dennis towit on the 22nd day of August AD 1872 ... said John Denis sold to Levi H Cooper ten acres of Land part of the North [...]". SUPERSEDED THE SAME MORNING: the petition was opened, downloaded, read at 2x and catalogued as [A.224], and it REFUTES the father-in-law reading - the heirs at law are five Dennis children and two predeceased sons' issue, with no Eliza and no Cooper among them. The machine-transcript quotations above are left as written because they are what led to the document. See the body section and [A.224].

Documents