Sgt. Henry Labon Cooper

Sgt. Henry Labon Cooper •AKA: Enrique /Cooper/ Labon Cooper, Henry Laban •Birth: ABT. 1745 in Granville Co., North Carolina (?) •Death: AFT. 1830 in Rutherford Co., Tennessee (?), Bogue Chitto, Louisiana (?); m.c.1767 ~Rowan Co, NC

Cooper, Henry Labon (about 1745 – after 1830), wainswright, planter and land developer. During the Revolution, Henry served as a private in the 2nd Corps D’Elite of Green’s Virginia Militia from the Watauga Country, under the name Henry Laban. Afterwards, listed as Enrico Labon Cooper (p. 26) his name appears in the "Mobile Names" of San Esteban de Tombecbe (Tombigbe, St. Stephens), and he was one of the North Carolinians on the surrender list of 1781 when the Spanish established control of the hinterlands of Mobile (Enrico Cooper), along with a William (Guilielmo) Cooper:  Archivo General de Indias in Seville, previously Havana Cuba (Papelas de Cuba) 2359: 417-18. He took an oath of allegiance and served as corporal together with another Enrico, probably Houston Cooper, his son, and Samuel and William (Guilielmo), brothers, all appearing on a 1787 Spanish census of Second Creek (p. 105, Anglo Americans in Spanish Archives. Lists of Anglo-American Settlers in the Spanish Colonies of America. A Finding Aid, by Lawrence H. Feldman, Baltimore:  Genealogical Publishing Co., 1991). In 1789, Henry, Samuel & William Cooper were tobacco growers in Second and Sandy Creek, now TN/AL/MS tri-state area (List of Tobacco Growers, Spanish Natchez District, 1790). In one season alone, they grew 21,200 pounds. This became the Tri-state Mussel Shoals area between Corinth, Miss., Florence, Ala. and Waynesboro, Tenn. It is interesting that the Coopers seemed to choose ambiguous areas on state lines to settle; another such area favored by them was the Chattanooga area, and yet another was the Little South Fork area in Tenn./Ky. Before this he lived in Bute Co., where he was a member of the Masonic Temple, and Caswell Co., N.C., where he was overseer of roads and a wheelwright.

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Henry Labon and Molly Huston Cooper - Henry born 1745 in Granville Co., N.C. Died 1830 in Rutherford Co., Tn. Molly born in 1750 Henry was the son of William Cooper, an Indian trader who lived among the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Cherokee. He married Molly Houston. One of the first mentions of him in historical records is from a tabulation of English settlers in the Tombigbee district of Spanish Mobile in 1781, where he appears with his father and brother William. He is apparently the same as Henry Labon Cooper, also mentioned in the same documents. Labon is either an old spelling for Laban, Jacob's father-in-law and the father of Rachel and Leah or a French surname (La Bon). From 1787 to 1792 Henry Cooper is found in Spanish censuses in the Second and Sandy Creek area of Natchez District with relatives William, Samuel and James, also a son by the name Henry. This became the Tri-state Mussel Shoals area between Corinth, Miss., Florence, Ala. and Waynesboro, Tenn. It is interesting that the Coopers seemed to choose ambiguous areas on state lines to settle; another such area favored by them was the Chattanooga area, and yet another was the Little South Fork area in Tenn./Ky. Before this he lived in Bute Co. and Caswell Co., N.C. where he was overseer of roads and a wheelwright. Late in life he moved to Wayne Co., Ky. where he patented 80 acres on Buffalo Creek. Still later, he hid with his grandson James in Rutherford Co., Tenn., near Black Fox's camp.A sample court record is as follows: Bute County, N.C. Minutes of the Court of Please and Quarter Sessions 1767-1779. Henry Cooper is appointed Overseer of the road from the road near Simm's Ford to Port Ridge, and Ordered that he keep the same in repair with the hands usually working thereon. In 1789, a John Lett was apprenticed to Henry Cooper in Wake Co. "to learn occupation of wheelright until age 21."A Henry Cooper married a Molly Blackman in Bute Co., N.C. Oct. 3, 1770. Could Molly Houston have married a Blackman first and this was her second marriage?Acc. to Pierce's Register, N. C. State Records, vol. XVI, 1782-1783, p. 92, Sergt. Henry Cooper served in McGlanhan's Company, enlisting in 1777 and acting as quarter master Dec. 18, 1777 and again Feb. 12, 1779. He was granted 385 acres in Hillsboro District for his service to the Continental Army (vouchers, p. 313, 328). This probably accounted for Henry's move from Bute Co. to Wake Co.