Moore and Cooley Update

The lastest information on Susan Cooley is included in the PDF version of Sec 4

In version 1 of the family history book we last saw Susan Cooley-Moore, Great Grandmother of Clara Louise Watkins, newly widowed and living with her in-laws on the 1860 census in Sandusky County, Ohio. Her one year old daughter, Clara Ann Moore, was also in the household. Clara Ann Moore was next seen 31 May 1877 when she married Plumb Jaeger. We now know that Susan Cooley-Moore got remarried to a gentleman named Alvin C. Underwood on 13 May 1862 in Sandusky County, Ohio. They then move their family to Michigan for several years, and by 1870 they are living in Lemont, Cook County, Illinois. Clara Ann Moore is listed on the 1870 census as Clara Underwood. Alvin C. Underwood is a hotel keeper.

As mentioned, Clara A. Moore marries Plumb Jaeger in 1877 in Seneca County, Ohio. Several of her Moore relatives live in Seneca County which may account for why she was in that area.

Susan Cooley-Moore-Underwood and husband Alvin are still living in Lemont, Cook County, Illinois in 1880. Alvin is now a constable. Alvin dies on 05 Mar 1888 in Chicago and is taken back to Lemont for burial. It's unknown if Susan marries for a third time, or when she died.

The mystery of who the parents of Susan Cooley are remains unsolved. As mentioned in Section 4 of the family history book, on the 1850 Census eight year old Susan Cooley is living in York, Sandusky County, Ohio with the family of William Lagore and his wife Mary Jane Penoyer. Research on the Penoyer family shows no connection to a Cooley family. The siblings of her husband, William Lagore, are more difficult to track down, so there may be a connection to the Cooley family on his side.

On the 1870 census for Alvin Underwood and Susan Cooley, they list a servant named Ellen Cooley. Ellen was born about 1849 in Ohio. No Ellen Cooley is listed on the 1850 census for Ohio, although an Eliz Cooley is living in the household of Harry Harrington in Scott, Sandusky, Ohio, along with a brother named Asa Cooley born about 1848. There is an Ellen Cooley on the 1860 census living in the household of Jasper Whitney in Madison, Sandusky, Ohio. Also listed are James Cooley, Mary Cooley, and Elizabeth Cooley.

While it's apparent there were several orphaned children with the surname of Cooley, their relationships to each other, and the idenity of their parents is unknown. No relationhip between them and the families that took them in can be found. One common thread is that all the families that took in the children came to Ohio from New York.