Alexander
Howell Cooper
1830
-- 1886
Alexander Howell Cooper was born while the Cooper family was living in Hardeman County Tennessee. By the time he had reached his 12th birthday, they had moved to Hot Springs County Arkansas.
Al, as he was called by his family and friends, attended school and worked on the farm. On October 31, 1847, he married Barbara Clift the daughter of William and Mary Ann Clift. Al and Barbary were only seventeen when they married.
When the 1850 census was taken Al and Barbara lived in Saline Township. In the same household were his brothers, Julius and Jasper and their families. Al worked as a farmer renting land the first years of their marriage. In 1851, they purchased a small farm. During the next ten years they gradually purchased additional acreage. There they farmed and raised horses and mules. By 1862 they no longer owned land in Hot Spring County.
A total of eleven children were born to Alexander and Barbara Cooper: Frances Elizabeth, James, Caroline, Mary Jane, Emma, Jack, Hume, George Washington, Johnny, Augusta, and Leona.
In 1862, Al enlisted in the Confederate Army. He served in Cook's Battalion of the Arkansas Calvary and fought in several battles in the south. During the war he returned home several times to look after his family. At one time he was reported as a deserter, but if there were any consequences they were not included in his war records. Late in the war he was wounded in the leg and limped the remained of his life as a result of the wound. He was discharged from the army in April 1865.
Barbara remained at home, and with the help of her son, Jim, raised and sold mules and horses to support the family. Two additional children were born while Al was in the army.
According to Frances House-Greiss research notes published in Headstone History, Cemetery Inscriptions, Hot Spring County, Arkansas, Volume IV, during the Civil War it became so dangerous in Hot Springs County, Al and Barbary Cooper moved their family to Seiver County Arkansas. There Barbary and the children remained until after the war, and then moved back to Hot Spring County. In 1868 A. H. Cooper was taxed for 40 acres in section 21, township 3S, range 16W which was just northeast of Glenrose. They were also taxed for five horses, eight cattle, and ten hogs.
In July 1870 when the census was taken, the Cooper family was living in Fenter Township of Hot Springs County and in 1880 they were in Saline Township. In 1900 Barbara Cooper was still in Saline Township, and her neighbors have the same names as earlier, so it is believed that the Cooper family remained on the land they were on in 1868 probably until Barbara’s death in 1903.
Alexander Howell Cooper died there in February 1886, and was buried in the Fairplay Cemetery.
On the 27th of June 1901, Barbara Cooper made application for a widow's pension. L. D. Bailey, J. G. Baker, and G. W. Winters accompanied Barbara and swore that they had known Al Cooper for twenty-five years and he had served as a soldier in the Confederate Army. On the 21st of August the Pension Board for Hot Springs County awarded Barbara Cooper a $50 pension.
Barbary Clift Cooper was a very active, high spirited woman. She was tall, had a dark complexion, and black hair cut straight around her head. Barbara died in 1903, at the age of seventy-three and was buried next to Al at Fairplay.
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