Daughter of Katie Stigill and Benjamin Adkins.
1st wife of Harmon Solomon Cooper

COOPER FAMILY Harmon Jr. and Polly Adkins Cooper were parents of 15 children. The descendants of this couple who found their new homes in Kansas were John George, who married Mary Martha Griffith, grandparents of Carl T. Cooper and Dorothy Cooper Hunt of Belle Plaine; Telitha Leanne Cooper, who married Andrew Phipps, grandparents of Mrs. I.C.(LOLA) Lane and the late Ray, Grover and Charles Phipps and Mrs. Roy (EDNA) Hatfield; Lucinda Cooper, who married Calvin Koger, grandparents of Scott Nye, Verna Nye Camien, and the late Cullen Nye. After the death of his first wife, Harmon Cooper Jr. married Martha Pyles and they had six children. The Cooper homestead was near Mt. Pisgah, Kentucky, not far from Monticello in Wayne County, Kentucky. A daughter of one of the last children still owns the farm (In 1984). The men fought in the Civil War. John George Cooper fought on the side of the north. When we visited the old homestead it was pointed out to us the spot where his parents buried their food to keep the soldiers from getting it. The horses were hidden in the timber to keep the army from stealing them, but the lives of the children were threatened so they revealed where the horses were hidden. The beautiful bluegrass covered hills of Kentucky seemed to be a fitting place for John George and Mary Martha Griffith, of Tennessee, to be married and settle down to raise their family. Sometime later many of the families decided to find a place to move to that was as near like Kentucky as possible. John G. and Martha took their small children and journeyed in a caravan of covered wagons to Iowa. My father said they traveled far enough north that they were close to Lake Michigan. He said he remembered seeing steamers on the lake and they looked like tea kettles, to a small boy. Since they were this far north, the Big Mississippi wasn't too difficult to cross. As they traveled on their journey, the children would run along behind the covered wagons with their old dog. The cold winters of Iowa were too severe for these people of southern Kentucky so their stay was terminated and they returned to those beautiful hills of Kentucly. In the summer of 1875 they decided to come to Kansas as Martha's brothers Yewell and Hugh Griffith were already settled in this fertile valley. So it was another long trip by covered wagon to Kansas. The first night they spent in this immediate area was two miles north and a half west of the highway north of Belle Plaine about where the old railroad applespur used to be. Then they located six miles west and one-half mile south of Belle Plaine on the east side of the road. The little red garage -that used to be their home. Submitted to 1884-1984 B.P.,KS. 100 Years of Memories by Dorothy Cooper Hunt. Compiled by Vicky Sue Blankenship. This is for Cathy Kessinger who works so hard on her family history.
- Vicky Blankenship∼


Mary Ann "Polly" ADKINS
•Given Name: Mary Ann "Polly"
•Surname: ADKINS
•Sex: F
•Birth: 1814 in Wayne Co., Kentucky
•Death: 17 AUG 1868 in Kentucky

Father: Benjamin ADKINS
Mother: Catherine STIGALL

Marriage 1 Harmon S. COOPER b: 24 AUG 1811 in Kentucky
•Married: 27 MAY 1830 in Dade Co., Kentucky

Children
1. Living COOPER
2. Telitha Leanne COOPER b: 21 APR 1831 in Virginia
3. Luida (Lucinda) COOPER b: 1833
4. Catherine COOPER b: 1834
5. Isaac COOPER b: 1835
6. Son COOPER b: 1836
7. Lucinda Jane COOPER b: 28 APR 1838 in Wayne Co., Kentucky
8. John Granville COOPER b: 1841
9. Benjamin Turner COOPER b: 5 DEC 1843 in Kentucky
10. Nancy Ellen COOPER b: 3 APR 1845 in Wayne Co., Kentucky
11. William H. COOPER b: 1848
12. George Washington COOPER b: 27 MAY 1848
13. Artemellia "Artie" COOPER b: 1850
14. Milley COOPER b: 30 OCT 1852
15. James COOPER b: 30 NOV 1854
16. Cansada COOPER b: 3 FEB 1859