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Source 031 – Personal Letter by Iva M. Cooper

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Author: Iva M. Cooper age 16 of Paw Paw, MI
Title: Letter to “Aunt” Miss HP Draper [Hannah P. Draper age 78 of Westmoreland, Oneida Co, NY]
Date: 12 February 1899
Curator: Christine Fisher
Note:

Paw Paw, MI
February 12, 1899

Miss HP Draper [age 78]
Westmoreland, Oneida Co NY

Dear Aunt:
As Auntie [Valeria Louise Nelson Nelson, age 62] has warned you not to be scared, I suppose you have nerved yourself for my awful letter.

I have never seen you, and perhaps never shall, but I hope that I may sometime, I would be glad to come if I could, and stay with you, and comfort you in your loneliness.

I hope you are getting along all right this cold weather, here this morning the thermometer registered 34 degrees below zero, and it is predicted, that it is going to be cooler during the next three days, some, here in town, have lost their fruit by having their cans burst, and we should have lost ours, if mamma (Helen E. Nelson Branch Cooper) had not nearly all night, keeping fires. Grandma [Nancy J. Nelson, age 85] said, this morning, when she first awoke, that she hoped those poor children would not freeze, meaning Amanda and Frank (Lawton), she thinks you are all right, because you wrote you had your supply of coal, for the winter, but I think the children will take care of themselves for Frank has a good supply of wood in the wood shed, we have also managed to keep in wood.

We are all as well as usual, papa [Lyman Cooper, age 70] and mamma [Helen E. Cooper, age 53] are convalescing from the LaGrippe, grandma [Nancy J Nelson] has a slight cough, having taken a little more cold, but is getting better, Auntie [Valeria], well, she is not exactly a somnambulist, for she does not quite walk in her sleep, but she does nearly every thing else, eats, talks, pares potatoes, and washes dishes in her sleep, and it is quite funny to see her sometimes when se goes to eat an apple, she will begin to pare it, get a mouthful, take a nap, and so alternate till the apple is finished, when she (rousts up) as grandma says, to see if she has eaten it, or where it has gone to, she nods and bows on all occasions, and this morning got up, went to the stove opened it, made a low bow, and was met by the flames, (I suppose I ought to say was kissed by them), at all events she singed her hair, smelled it burning, (and woke up). She says she was not asleep, but I think she must have been taking her morning nap, and got up in her sleep, we never know what she will do next, she says it is not so funny, and though we have to laugh at her, we are all sorry for her, because she has been broken of her sleep so much taking care of grandma, that she can not help it.

I thought I would send you a valentine, and thank you, for that , capable cat; I have three cats, but I have not used diamond dyes on them, one of them is black nearly all over, the other two are malta and white, I think. I will not follow the example of the capable cat and dye them. Do you keep a cat? Grandma says, you used to keep a cat, when she was there, and that you had a chair for it.

I think this is all for this time, as grandma says, you can not read it, your not being used to my writing.

When you write to Auntie V [Valeria]
Write a letter, please, to me.
I will always ever be
Your grand-niece Miss Iva C.

Miss Iva May Cooper [16 years old]
Paw Paw, Box 178
Van Buren Co, MI

Source 122 – Website: The Battle of Cherry Valley, NY

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Author: John Sawyer
Title: History of Cherry Valley, from 1740 to 1898
Publisher:
Publication Date: 1898
Page Numbers:
URL: www.myrevolutionarywar.com/battles

The Battle of Cherry Valley, NY (massacre)
Cherry Valley is between Albany and Utica, NY.
About 300 residents, excellent social standing, superior education.
About 6 houses and a church.
Fort built in cemetery, near church, in summer of 1778.
Colonel Ichabod Allen, commander of fort.

11 November 1778 – massacre – 500 indians (Senecas, who were the wildest and most ferocious of “The Six Nations”) and 200 Tories. 48 killed, 16 were soldiers of the garrison. 30-40 captives taken.

12 November 1778 – Continental troops arrived 2 hours after enemy left down the valley.

Source 121 – Book: History of Cherry Valley

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Author: John Sawyer
Title: History of Cherry Valley, from 1740 to 1898
Publisher:
Publication Date: 1898
Page Numbers:
URL:
Excerpts regarding: Moses Nelson and widow Dunlop

Page 8
CHAPTER II – THE EARLY DAYS OF THE REVOLUTION

Page 15
On the hill at the upper end of the valley, in a direct line from the Fort stood the log house of Col. Samuel Campbell, on the site of the residence now occupied as a summer home by his great-great-grand-children; a half mile to the east and on the same level was the house and shop of James Moore, the blacksmith of the settlement, on the lands now owned by Elisha Flint, and North of him lived a Nelson family. About the same distance to the North of Col. Campbell’s was the home of his father-in-law, Matthew Cannon (disputed); while at an equal distance to the West, was the home of John Campbell, now the summer home of the writer. The present Jackson Millson farm was then occupied by James Campbell.

Page 41
… longer in the burning building, when he bethought himself of a cellar door close up to which grew a field of hemp. Creeping through this he was fortunate enough to escape through the hemp unperceived by the Indians, who continued dancing, yelling and shooting around the house until it was burned to the ground. Then they continued on their way, happy in the thought that the bones of the supposed victim were buried in the ashes of his dwelling.

The peace of the settlement was undisturbed during the following year and confidence was beginning to return to the settlers, when, without warning, on the 24th. of April, 1780, a party of seventy-nine Indians and two tories descended on the ill-fated settlement. Eight of the settlers were killed and fourteen carried into captivity, and the settlement was this time completely wiped out of existance; the Fort, church and the few buildings left after the first incursion being burned to the ground. Thus in a few hours were the results of the labors and struggles of nearly forty years destroyed; the valley returned again into the undisputed possession of the beasts and the birds, and Cherry Valley, a few years before, the largest and most prominent of the Frontier settlements of New York, was but a name.

Source 148 – Check Payment to Charles R. Thomas

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1894
To the County Treasurer of the County of Kent.
On the first day of February A.D. 1895 pay to Charles Thomas or order, the sum of Twenty-Five dollars, for [unclear], out of any moneys in your hands belonging to the [unclear] Byron Drain Fund.

[Signed] Benjamin Laubach, County Drain Commissioner of the County of Kent.