Rachel Caroline Coon Cooley ~ Index
Rachel Caroline Coon lived a life of great courage, faith and kindness as a pioneer of Utah. During her ninety-one years she witnessed and participated in the building of Zion. Rachel was born 22 March 1848, in Kanesville, Pottawattomie County, Iowa. She was the last child born to Abraham Coon and Elizabeth Yarbrough.
Abraham Coon's father, mother and family had traveled from Ohio to make a new home in frontier Illinois in about 1818. The Yarbrough family came soon after from Tennessee. Abraham Coon and Elizabeth Yarbrough were married in 1829. In 1839 they were living in Carrollton, Green County, Illinois when a hundred miles north, Joseph Smith purchased land at Commerce, Illinois. This became Nauvoo, "The Beautiful" and sanctuary of the Saints (Mormons). Abraham Coon and his wife Elizabeth joined the Mormon Church that same year. From that time forward, through persecution, sacrifice and trails, their lives reflected firm commitment to the faith they had embraced. This was Rachel's heritage.
By 1843 Abraham Coon had moved north and purchased land in LaHarpe, Hancock County, Illinois nearly twenty-five miles east of Nauvoo. It is believed he was a member of the Nauvoo Legion and family traditions say he was at one time a guard to Joseph Smith, Jr. Abraham Coon was among the faithful few taught the principle of plural marriage in 1843 or 1844, evidence of his close association with the Prophet. Abraham Coon took as his second wife, Frances Yarbrough, Elizabeth's sister. The marriage date is not known, but Frances bore Abraham a son in 1845. Abraham, Elizabeth and Frances were considered worthy to receive their endowments in the Nauvoo Temple. When on 3 February 1846, Brigham Young announced that no further endowments could be performed before the Saints left Nauvoo, the Coons were in the thong who would not be turned away. Brigham Young relented and performed the ordinance for a few more days. All three were endowed in the Nauvoo Temple on 6 February 1846. Eventually Abraham married two more wives, Mary Elizabeth Wilson and Sarah Wright Curtis. Six additional children were born to these marriages.
Abraham Coon and his family were among the Saints who fled Nauvoo in February of 1846. In June they reached the area generally described as Council Bluffs, on the western boundary of Iowa. The following spring, 1847, Abraham had been named to be in the first group to travel west, but he was asked by Brigham Young to remain to run a mill and help provide for the Saints unable to move. Farm land was prepared and worked by their united effort: breaking the ground, fencing it and putting in crops for themselves and those who would come later.
They made their homes one block from S.E. Wick's mill in the small settlement called Indian Mill, Iowa. This was three miles northeast from what became the Mormon village of Kanesville (later the city of Council Bluffs). The Indian Mill had been built here on Big Mosquito Creek ten years earlier by the government to provide flower of the Pottawattomie Indians. The tribe moved on. Abraham Coon helped operate this mill, he also presided as bishop of the Indian Mill Branch. Bishop Coon was responsible for providing the necessities of life not only for his own family, but for the families in his branch of men in the Mormon Battalion, which may have been as many as thirty.
After Rachel was born in 1848, the family of Abraham and Elizabeth included six daughters and four sons. The oldest was Susannah, followed by John, Perihelia or Milly, Sarah Ann, William, Elizabeth, James, Frances Ann and Rachel. A son named Erastus had died at birth. The happy occasion of Rachel's birth was tempered by the death of thirteen year old Sarah Ann and also the death of Elizabeth's sister Frances, the second wife of Abraham.
When Rachel was two years old, in 1850, her family left Iowa and crossed the plains with ox-teams and wagons. Enroute, Rachel's oldest sister, Susannah Coon, already married to Moses Abernathy, died of cholera on her twentieth birthday. Rachel's parents and older brothers and sisters walked most of the way. Enduring many hardships, they arrived Salt Lake Valley in the fall. They made their home near the Jordan River, just west of the later, Utah State fair grounds.
In the spring of 1856, Abraham Coon was among the sixty or so families called by Brigham Young settle in what became western Nevada. This endeavor was called the Carson Valley Mission. He took wife Mary and her young children with him. Tragically, Mary became ill during the journey and died the day after their arrival. Abraham made a home for himself and his little children of the west side of Washoe Lake.
First wife Elizabeth and her older children ran the Coon ranch. Although the family had been in Utah for five years, times were hard for them with their father on a mission. Many times they were without food. Rachel's mother was endowed with great faith. She always told her suffering children, "The Lord will send someone with something before nightfall." Her prayers of faith were answered. Rachel remembered her sister, probably Elizabeth, being seriously ill from eating poison roots. However, due to their faith and the calling of the Elders to administer to her, she was soon well again. However humble their circumstances, they were willing to share what little they had. Rachel was eight years old when the first handcart companies arrived in Great Salt Lake City, in late 1856. Many were sick and worn from the long hard journey. The Coons, in spite of their own struggles, helped care for these pioneers.
In September 1857 the Carson Valley settlers were called back because of the approach of Johnston's Army. Rachel later remembered how frightened the Salt Lake Valley people were when news arrived of the army coming to Utah. The Mormons had several times been persecuted and driven from their homes. They feared the same thing might happen again. They were instructed to fill their wagons with all the belongings they could carry. They filled their homes and barns with straw, ready to burn, rather than to leave them to be taken by outsiders. Guards were to set them on fire, if necessary. Rachel's oldest brother, John Coon stayed behind to set fire to their farm. They bid farewell to their humble home in March or April of 1858, with tears streaming down their cheeks. They moved to Utah Valley to stay until they were notified it was safe to return. When they were finally allowed to return in July, they were overjoyed. In their home they knelt in family prayer thanking the Lord for deliverance.
Rachel's father became prominent in the Salt Lake Valley. He owned choice properties, among them a farm on both sides of the Jordan River (with a home near the river) and a home in the city. The city home was on the sough side of First North Street (later Second North) between Third and Fourth West Streets (later Fourth and Fifth West). Abraham was a farmer and stock raiser. He was also road supervisor in Salt Lake County for eight years and sold lumber from his ranch in Coon Canyon in the west Oquirrh Mountains. He was proud of his beautiful thoroughbred horses.
Abraham was well known for his hospitality to everyone, including the Indians. Indians were always welcome at their home on the Jordan River. At times they camped at the farm and were fed and taken care of whenever they needed assistance. Abraham was also know as a community doctor. He ground roots and made medicine form herbs. He treated and comforted many complaining and ailing pioneers and Indians.
Rachel Caroline Coon was a beautiful girl, vivacious, with dark hair and blue eyes. Her friends called her "Cad." She was loved and respected by everyone who knew her. She attended public school and faithfully attended church. She was a leader among her associates and among her friends in the ward.
One of Rachel's best friends was Mary Jane Jenkins. The Coon and Jenkins families became devoted associates when Mary Jane was twelve years old and Rachel eight. They lived in adjacent cabins during summers in Coon Canyon. Among many things the two families did together were felling timber, cutting lumber in the Coon Sawmill, heading livestock and tending crops. Rachel and Mary Jane played together constantly and probably shared chores. During winters the Coons lived near the Jordan River on the east side and the Jenkins farther west. Rachel and Mary Jane undoubtedly saw each other often. As the girls grew older they became enthusiastically involved in recreation with other young people, both at the ranch an in the area of their winter homes.
Rachel also spent time during her teen years in Huntsville, where older brothers and sisters had settled. She was a friend of the father of President David O. McKay and it is said she was courted by him at one time.
Rachel and her friend Marry Jane knew Andrew Cooley, who at that time was the bishop of their Brighton Ward. Brighton Ward was the sparsely settled, vast area (mostly desert) west of the Jordan River. Undoubtedly, Rachel was comfortable with the practice of plural marriage. When she was born, her father already had two other wives besides her mother. She had lived in a polygamist family all of her life. Family histories indicate that Rachel and Mary Jane, at Rachel's suggestion, visited Bishop Cooley's wife, Mary Asenath and asked if she would share her husband with them. Many families were practicing plural marriage at this time and faithful members were encouraged in the practice by the Church. Andrew, Mary, Rachel and Mary Jane all held a deep faith in the restored gospel. With Andrew's and Mary's acceptance, the arrangements were made. Andrew married Mary Jane and Rachel on the same day, 22 February 1868, in the old Endowment House, the ordinance being performed by Heber C. Kimball. A decision had also been reached that Mary Jane would be called Jane, to prevent confusion with Andrew's wife Mary.
Brother Kimball asked who was to be married first. Andrew replied, Rachel was engaged first, I think she should be first.
At this Rachel said, Oh, but Jane is the older and I think she should be first.
Andrew had married Mary Asenath Huntington two years before he married Jane and Rachel. He later married Ann Hazen as well. Rachel was never known to be envious or jealous, but was thoughtful and considerate of the other wives. They loved one another dearly and were closer than sisters. When asked if she ever felt slighted or hurt, she said it made a better woman of her because they had to sacrifice and regard one another's feelings. She said, I am sure that before I came to this world, I made a promise to live in polygamy and great have been my blessings.
After Rachel's marriage, she lived in Brighton where her first son, Samuel Beach Cooley, was born on July 4, 1869. Samuel died after just six hours. Losing her first child must have been a great heartache for Rachel.
Early in 1871 the Cooley family moved north to Huntsville. Andrew bought a ranch and raised stock. Rachel knew Huntsville well from her girlhood days. She now returned to take a useful and active part in the community. In Huntsville, Rachel became a faithful and energetic worker in the Relief Society, working with her sisters, Elizabeth Coon Hawkins and Frances Ann Coon Hardman, helping the sick and helping to lay away the dead. Rachel, Jane and Ann lived in separate homes but worked together as a family. All worked hard making and selling cheese and butter.
Andrew was a family man. His family exemplified unity and love. No matter where they lived, wives and children spent a great deal of time together. All of the children were close and loved each of the mothers, calling them "Aunt Mary, " "Aunt Jane," "Aunt Rachel" and "Aunt Annie."
Three children were born to Rachel in the Huntsville community: Ida Belle (17 September 1870), Maretta Elizabeth (24 October 1872) and Isabelle (28 October 1874). Here the children had the measles. Jane's son John and Rachel's daughter Ida Belle died of complications of the disease. Because other children were sick, the mothers couldn't leave. Twice Andrew placed a little body inside a heavy chest and took it to Salt Lake City to be buried. He had pictures taken of them both so that their mothers could see how they were dressed. They were buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.
After several years in Huntsville, the family moved in 1875 to Batesville (later called Erda) in Tooele County, where Rachel's father owned property. Here Rachel's fifth child, Lucretia May, was born on 13 May 1877. In the early fall of 1877 they returned to the Brighton Ward. Each wife, with her children, lived on her own farm near the other families. Three sons were born to Rachel: Oscar Wood (1 September 1879), Andrew Wood (26 February 1882) and Abraham Coon (16 June 1884). Initially Rachel's family lived in a dugout, but later moved into a house a short distance away. It had four rooms with a large attic upstairs.
The Edmunds-Tucker law was passed, prohibiting a man from having more than one wife at a time. United States Marshals were sent through the Mormon Settlements to arrest men living in polygamy. Bishop Andrew W. Cooley was arrested and sent to the Utah prison for six months in 1885. This was a very difficult time for the Cooley family.
When they could, family members visited the prison. One bitter cold day the wives bundled the children up and in a wagon drove from their farms to the prison to visit their father. As the children peered down from the top of the wall, Andrew raised his arm so they would know which of the prisoners was their father.
Rachel was always willing to help where sickness or trouble existed. Sometimes she could earn a few dollars, which would help her take care of her family. While her husband was in prison, Rachel went to take care of George Huntington's wife, who was expecting a baby. While she was away, their thirteen year old daughter, Maretta became very ill. Andrew was allowed to come home under the guard of two wardens to see her. He had a knack with "doctoring" and was able to help his children during illness. After his visit, she seemed much better. When he visited in a few days, she had taken a great change for the worse and passed into a coma. She died that day, 31 March 1886. Andrew was not permitted to attend the funeral. He was released on 8 April 1886, when his six-month sentence had been served.
In the summer or fall of 1886, Rachel had to give up her home when a lawyer demanded the property in payment of the $5,000 mortgage Andrew had borrowed two years earlier. His prison sentence had a disastrous effect on the family's finances. Rachel cleaned up a dugout, where the Gus Anderson family had lived and moved her family out of their home.
During an early thaw in January 1887, water seeped into the dugout and Rachel, who was pregnant, was taken to her mother's home in the city. Here her daughter, Frances Ann, was born on 16 February 1887. Rachel's father, Abraham Coon had died in 1885. Andrew had been arrested again for not discontinuing his plural marriages. While Rachel was still recovering from the birth of her child, Andrew was sentenced to another six months in prison. He was the first polygamist convicted and imprisoned a second time for the offense.
Returning to prison again was too much for him. His health was very poor. With payment of a fine, he was released after five months on 1 August 1887. These times became extremely hard for the Cooley family, but the law would no longer permit him to return and live with his families. He rented a room from his first wife's mother and some of his children took care of him there. Later he moved into the Coon home near the east bank of the Jordan River, where Rachel was then living with her brother. Andrew Wood Cooley died on 11 October 1887, at the age of fifty. The funeral service was held at the Coon residence. Remembering that day, Rachel said, "We had him dressed and in the casket and just before the service, we four women, his wives, stood arm in arm crying and wondering what we would do with our little families. We all decided we should stay together in all of the things we were to do and work our lives through in peace, faith and love for each other and our children and children's children."
The Plastic, a monthly newspaper in Salt Lake City, reported on his funeral service: This was a remarkable funeral in that the deceased had been twice incarcerated in the Penitentiary because of his sincere belief in and practice of the eternal order of marriage and in that the speakers were all ex-convicts. No doubt Brother Cooley's death was hastened by the harsh penalties inflicted for his conscientious bearing toward his wives and children, whom he would not cast off and abandon at the bidding of bigoted crusaders ~The sympathetic and brotherly feelings were very marked toward the stricken family~
Rachel had six children left in her sole care. The oldest, Belle, who was only thirteen and the youngest, Frances Ann, was almost eight months. The four mothers accepted the new widowhood with the same courage that they accepted every one of the things that had happened to them thus far in life. Sickness and financial worries were numerous, but faith and testimonies of the gospel renewed their strength. What greater heritage could these families have than the love, kindness and good will that existed among them? Thoughtful and considerate of each other, they were willing to work and share, pray and worship together.
For a time after Andrew's death, all four wives lived in the Salt Lake Valley. Mary lived in Salt Lake City most of her life. She had remained during most of the Huntsville period and all of the Batesville and later Brighton periods, caring for her mother. Although Mary was not as intimate as the other three, her relationship with Jane, Rachel and Ann was one of love and unity.
Rachel had inherited some money from her father's estate and was convinced by her sisters, Edna and Mary Elizabeth ("Mit"), to buy (Samuel L. Baker's) property near them in Mendon. Edna and Mit were children of her father's third wife. Mendon was a small town in Cache Valley, ninety miles north of Salt Lake City. In the spring of 1890, Rachel was not yet ready to move north and offered the small rock house with a few surrounding acres to her sister-wife Ann for a year. Ann accepted the offer and moved her family to Mendon. When Rachel and her children came in April the next year, Ann and her family moved into a log cabin on the property. Jane also purchased property in Mendon and arrived a few weeks after Rachel. Except for Mary and her two children and Jane's son Henry, who was working in Brighton, all of the Cooley family now lived in Mendon. Jane's home was across town from Rachel's and Ann's, but they lived near enough to visit and for their children to be together. This was a united family and being together again was wonderful. In the Cooley family, there were no "half brothers and sisters." All of the children and mothers were close. Mendon residents later remembered the three wives and their children all sitting together in church. These were happy days.
The family was poor, but did not accept charity. For some time, one of the few furnishings in Rachel's home was a carpet rug made from rags by a daughter recuperating from the effects of diphtheria. They were always humble, feeling it was an honor to do any and all kinds of work. Rachel and the children worked for their own support. Love, congeniality and putting family and spiritual values above the material made them happy. Rachel was active in church work, working in the Primary presidency and as a teacher in Sunday school, Relief Society and M.I.A. She was an honest tithe payer.
The family again endured tragedy when Jane's nine year old son, Sammie (Samuel Beach Cooley) died on 27 November 1891 and was buried in the Mendon cemetery. The next year Ann and her family moved farther north to Alto, a small town on the flats east of Newton, when the opportunity came for her family to work land on shares for Lyman Martineau. Jane returned to Salt Lake City for a visit, but never returned to Mendon and eventually sold her home there. Being separated again was probably very difficult for the three women, who loved one another's company.
Rachel and her family lived in Mendon several more years. In her home Rachel took care of an elderly blind woman, Sister Catherine Schettling Jack for fourteen years. For this she received a small payment, remembered as three dollars each month. Though blind, Rachel's guest knitted stockings and sold them to Mendon folks. With the earnings Rachel occasionally bought percale and from it sewed the woman a new dress. Sister Jack had come from Europe and spoke sparse English. Rachel's youngest daughter, Frances, at times tired of fetching things for her and when Sister Jack asked a favor, Frances sat very quiet and still. Always Sister Jack soon said, Frans, Frans, you give me no ans.
When Sister Jack died in October 1907, the Logan newspaper, the Journal reported from the funeral of Sister Jack: Sister Cooley received much praise for the motherly way she cared for the little woman, who had been blind for a long time.
By the time Sister Jack died, Rachel's daughter Bell and two sons Oscar and Andrew were married. Soon Abe and daughters May and Frances were living and working away from home (in turn they all married). Rachel sold her Mendon property and moved to Logan to live with Belle. Within a few years she moved to Salt Lake City, where she lived with May, or in the apartment in the rear of May's home for many years. Ann and occasionally Jane, lived with her there. All three wives were good friends but the bond between Rachel and Ann was particularly strong. Ann's brother Samuel said they were as close and affectionate to each other as it is possible for human beings to be. Rachel once told a family member, Wherever Aunt Annie goes, after she died, I want to go.
While living in Logan and in Salt Lake City, Rachel worked faithfully in the temple giving hundreds of souls a chance for life eternal. Imagine the joy to be felt by her in thereafter with all of these people. This work brought great happiness to her life.
She visited family members and helped them with their homes and children in times of need. Hazel Cooley, a grandson of Ann, remembered Aunt Rachel as gentle and kind. We were always most happy to have her come and she always helped us. She was a happy person. I remember her singing ‘Count your Many Blessings' as she swept or mopped a floor. And she was excellent with babies and children.
Her granddaughter DeLomb Savage said that she was an inspiration to family and friends. She was always ready to extend a helping hand to those who needed encouragement and relief ~ She had great faith, realizing that the hardships in her life had made her stronger. An expression she used very often was, ‘Whatever is, is best.' She taught by example to make the most of our own lives.
Two years before Rachel's death, a tribute was written by daughter-in-law Mary L. Cooley (Oscars's wife), which gives a picture of Rachel's philosophy of life: We thank a marvelous person for endowing us with wisdom to guard tongue and temper and learn with patience the art of ruling our own lives. She taught us to respect the rights and limitations of others. She has helped us strive for the highest reward of merit, ambition and opportunity in our own activities. She was ever ready to extend a helping hand to those who needed encouragement and relief in struggle. She has enabled us to give a smile instead of a frown, a cheerful kindly work instead of harshness and bitterness. She has taught us to be sympathetic in sorrow, realizing there are hidden woes in every life no matter how exalted or lowly it may be. If in life's battles we are wounded or tottering, she pours into life's wounds a balm of hope and encourages us to continue undaunted in strife. In sorrow she lifts us up with the thought that if there were no shadows, there would be no sunshine and everything in life must have a bitter and sweet portion. She has taught us to be true loyal friends and to remember our own shortcomings. If we win, we shall have the laurels of the victor, but if we fall with our face to the foe fighting manfully and fighting to fling the foe behind, our reward is still great. Be sure to return good for evil. This tribute I pay to Mother Cooley.
In her last years she divided her time among her three daughters. She had a clear mind and was in good health almost to the end of her life, except for problems with her sight. She died of "lingering illness" on 16 November 1939 at age ninety-one, in the Cooley Hospital in Brigham City, cared for by Ann's son, Dr. Arthur D. Cooley.
Tributes given at Rachel's funeral in Salt Lake City attest to her prominent place in the hearts of family members and friends. Carla Spencer, representing Aunt Jane's and Aunt Annie's families said, Through all her hardships, she would simply say that God's will must be done and she would do what was pleasing in His sight. She searched for truth and finding it, lived a true example. Her glorious life stands as a testimony to each of us.
Rachel's nephew Isaac Coon said, Aunt Rachel was a beautiful woman in her younger days and she lived to be a grand old lady. To know her most was to love her most. She had a beautiful disposition, one that I think only the people who live next to the Lord can possess.
President David O. McKay, then a counselor to President Heber J. Grant, also spoke at her funeral service. He knew her well. I remember her sweetness,
he said, her cheerfulness. Those two q qualities she radiated. As I look upon her countenance today, I thought how each furrow there in that lovely brow made by the passing of time had in the past radiated the smile and sunshine of a noble soul. I want to pay tribute to her as a pioneer, yes a noble woman, yes, but most of all as a lovely mother.
Notes…
In the photograph of their home, here in Mendon, Utah there is a young girl with a doll on the left hand side. I believe this to be Edna Baker. Her grandfather is Abraham Coon, who is also Rachel's father. So this is why, I believe she shows up in this picture with their home in Mendon, Utah. Also this home is now and was then a Baker home. I do not know the date for this photograph, but estimate it to be about 1899. The Coon and Baker familes each share much the same experiances in both Nauvoo, Illinois and with the founding of the 1856 Carson Valley Mission, in west Nevada, among other things.
Also both had property at or near the Jordan River, to the west of Salt Lake City where they each had ranches. Both of them were known for their work with timber for building as well. Edna Baker was born on 2 June 1888 and Frances Ann Cooley on 16 February 1887. So they are close in age as well as sharing a common family history. The current address for this home is 165 West 200 North in Mendon. Gaylen and Judy Baker reside in the lovely restored rock home today.