So here’s what I know about Miles. He was born somewhere in Connecticut, possibly Haddam or Middletown around 1769. He married Asenath Cowles. (I’ll be writing about the Cowles family at some point in the future.) I am fairly certain that Miles had at least two brothers, Abner and George and a sister whose name I don’t know, but who I think married Moses Austin. From what I have read in several books, it appears that their father’s name was George. There is a book “The Churchill Family in America” which lists a George Cooper who married Mary Churchill. This George was the son of Thomas Cooper and Abigail Whitmore of Middletown, CT. Mary Churchill was the daughter of John Churchill and Bethia Stocking who were also from Middltown, CT, but had moved to Portland, CT. If this George Cooper is Miles Cooper’s father then I can add a whole bunch of other people to our family tree who go back to The Great Migration time period, as in shortly after the Mayflower! The book lists George and Mary’s children as Abigail, George, Mary, and Elizabeth. There is a big gap between Mary and Elizabeth where Miles could fit in and Abner would have been the youngest. There are trees on Ancestry who do have Miles attached to this family, but I need more than that. My husband also has distant DNA matches with people who have the Churchill family in their trees, so it is possible. BUT I just don’t have any PROOF! I have been in contact with the Haddam Historical Society, since Miles’ father George was listed in one book as being from “Old Haddam”, but they couldn’t find anything. I need to figure out who to contact in Middletown, CT to see if there is information there.
And then there’s the mystery of where Miles and Asenath lived when they first were married. Some books say they lived in Durham, CT, some say Durham, NY, and I even found an obituary for one of their granddaughters that said Durham, Massachusetts. The only problem with that is that there is no Durham, Mass. I really thought it would turn out to be Durham, CT since that is very close to Middletown and Kensington where Asenath was supposed to have been born. But I recently read a genealogy article that talked about looking at NY Census records from 1855 to see what NY county or what state the person was born in. Adams, NY in Jefferson County was settled in 1800. Miles, Asenath, and their older children were among the first families to settle there. They arrived in 1803. Their younger children were born in Adams. But their older children were born in Durham. Their son John Cowles Cooper is listed on the 1855 NY Census as having been born in Green County, NY. Durham, NY is in Green County. Apparently many of the people who lived in Durham, NY had come from Durham, CT. The New York town’s original name was Freehold, but the people from Connecticut called it New Durham, and eventually the name was changed to Durham, NY. Also it looks like Freehold was originally in Albany County, but then Greene County was formed from part of Albany County. I tried looking at land records thinking Miles might show up in Durham, NY as having owned land, but unfortunately I couldn’t find anything. So the mystery continues until I can find more info.
Once they settled in Adams, Miles built a log house on what is now Church St and later in 1811 he built the first frame building in Adams. He also had a farm. He gave land for the Presbyterian Church in Adams. Asenath is listed as a founding member. Miles’ brother Abner was a sea-captain who was taken prisoner by the British during the Revolutionary War. He eventually moved to Pennsylvania. His brother George was also a sea-captain. He served on a man-of-war in the war and was injured in the thigh.
I am hoping to make our summer vacation this year be a trip through upstate New York to visit the towns and cemeteries of my husband’s ancestors and I certainly want to add a stop in Adams, NY. The Doxtater family were from there too. More about them in another future blog. Here’s the link to the Cooper family descendants https://myfamgen.com/cooper-family/.