Saturday, July 21, 2012

Buried in Cincinnati?

The tiny detail—the carved tack attaching the “page” to the small boulder—attracted me to this small black marker at the grave of Timothy Coop (b. 1817, d. 1887).


IN LOVING MEMORY
OF
TIMOTHY COOP,
OF SOUTHPORT ENGLAND.
WHO DIED AT
WICHITA KANSAS,
MAY 15, 1887.
IN HIS 70 YEAR.

There is a short biography of Timothy Coop in The Temperance Movement and Its Workers, Vol. III by P. T. Winskill (1892):

Timothy Coop, J.P., of Southport, is a name known far and wide as that of one of those men who, from a humble position, have risen to positions of honour, trust, and usefulness. He was born at West Houghton, near Bolton, in 1817, his father being a silk weaver. At an early age Timothy was bound apprentice to the tailoring business, and after completing his apprenticeship he removed from Bolton to Wigan, where he commenced business in a small way as a retail clothier. ... [T]he business developed so rapidly as to necessitate the erection of a magnificent pile of buildings, seen for a considerable distance, and known as the wholesale manufactory and warehouses of Messrs. T. Coop & Co., Wigan.

He was a staunch personal abstainer, and always a warm friend of the cause. During the later years of his life he indulged in his taste for travel, and while visiting the United States was stricken with malarial fever at Wichita, Kansas.


All of which introduces a bit of a mystery about this grave. Timothy Coop lived in England, he died in Kansas. Why is he buried in Cincinnati?

If I were a detective, I might start by investigating the relationship of Coop to W. S. Dickinson, who, according to Spring Grove burial records, bought the Coop burial plot.

Spring Grove Cemetery, Hamilton County, Ohio

1 comment:

  1. Interesting.................
    and I think you ARE a pretty good
    detective!

    ReplyDelete

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