Rachel (Cooper) Matheny (1803 - 1877)

Born 26 Mar 1803 in Clark County, Indiana, United States

Ancestors

Wife of Henry Younger Matheny — married 4 Jul 1822 in Owen County, Indiana, USA

Descendants

Died 25 Jun 1877 at age 74 in Yamhill County, Oregon, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Roger Shipman [send private message]

Biography

Rachel (Cooper) Matheny was involved in the westward expansion of the USA. See Trails and Wagon Trains.

Rachel Cooper was born to Isaiah Cooper and Elizabeth Montier 26 March 1803 in Indiana.

She married Henry Younger Matheny, and the Mathenys accompanied her sister and husband, Daniel and Mary (Cooper) Matheny on the Oregon Trail in 1843. Rachel kept a diary, jokingly called "The History of Grease," after it had fallen into a pot of boiling broth, but it unfortunately burned along with a cabin after reaching Oregon.^[1][2][3] According to her niece, Charlotte (Matheny) Kirkwood, this was a very great loss to history.^[4]

Rachel donated the land for the Hopewell Cemetery, where many of the Hewitts, Mathenys and Coopers, including herself, are buried.^[5][6][7]

DNA

Parental descent from Isaiah Cooper (1778-1849) and Elizabeth Montier (1779-abt.1844) is confirmed at GEDmatch by a triangulated 25cM match on chromosome 8 between

• Roger Shipman
• the daughter of A E Cooper
• B S, the grandson of Harold Otto Smith (1892-1976)

and at 23andMe by a triangulated 22.2cM match on chromosome 12 between

• George Kirkwood, the son of Ersell Kirkwood
• B F, grandson of Newton Matheny (1903-1953)
• Roger Shipman

Sources

1. ↑ United States Census, 1850, database with images, FamilySearch : 9 April 2016), Oregon Territory > Yam Hill > Yam Hill county > image 6 of 36; citing NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
2. ↑ United States Census, 1860, database with images, FamilySearch : accessed 9 May 2016), Oregon > Yamhill > Willamette Precinct > image 5 of 6; from "1860 U.S. Federal Census - Population," database, (Fold3.com : n.d.); citing NARA microfilm publication M653 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
3. ↑ United States Census, 1870, database with images, FamilySearch : 22 May 2014), Oregon > Yamhill > Willamette > image 6 of 12; citing NARA microfilm publication M593 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
4. ↑ Into the Eye of the Setting Sun, Charlotte Matheny Kirkwood, 2016, by the Hewitt-Matheny-Cooper Family Association.
5. ↑ The Cooper Family History, Don Rivara, 1994, pp.25-26.
6. ↑ [Genealogy Trails of Yamhill County, Oregon, accessed 21 November 2023.
7. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #6331283 for Rachel Cooper Matheny, 1803-1877, Hopewell Cemetery, Dayton, Yamhill County, Oregon, United States of America.