Cooley Cemetery - Vernon Parish, LA
Submitted by Jane P. McManus

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Directions:  Take LA Hwy. 8 East from Slagle, and turn right (South) at the
second road after crossing Calcasieu River.  Keep left until you reach the
Emmett Richardson home (see mail box).  The Cooley Family Cemetery is
located behind the house on property currently owned by Emmett & Beulah
(Cooley) Richardson.  The small area is fenced and maintained by the Cooley
family.  Beulah is the daughter of Steven (Cap) Cooley & Jane Monk.
Tombstone inscriptions were recorded by Jane P. McManus 1995
History of the Cooley family was provided by Pearl Cooley, Slagle LA.

HISTORY OF THE COOLEY FAMILY

The original patent for the land where the Cooley Family Cemetery is
located was made by Steven Cooley (born ca 1819 in South Carolina).  As a
young man, he moved to Florida where he probably met and married his first
wife who was born there.  In the late 1830's, Steven and his young wife
packed their worldly goods on a wagon and began the migration to Texas.
Their first child, Westley, was born in Texas in 1838-1839.  Then for
reasons unknown, the Cooleys decided not to remain in Texas, and by the mid
1840's, they had settled in Louisiana where two daughters, Elizabeth and
Martha, were born.  Steven's first wife may have died with the birth of the
youngest daughter, or shortly thereafter, but her burial has never been
located. 

Steven raised the three small children for several years on his own.  In
the early 1850's, he met and married Eliza Louise Ventioner, daughter of
Isaac Ventioner and Matilda Sweat, and they had four children:  Francis
Marion, Letha Annie, Steven (Cap), and Sarah.

In 1860 Steven Cooley traveled to Natchitoches, Louisiana where he patented
the 199 - 22/100 acres of land where he had homesteaded for years.  The
description of that property was:

SE 1/4 of SE 1/4 of NE 1/4 of Section 27, Township 3, Range 6

Not long after he had taken care of this property, Steven Cooley and his
oldest son Westley answered the call to support the Southern cause in the
conflict between the States over the slavery issue.  He served as a Pvt. in
Co. D, 1st LA Infantry, and his son Westley served as a Pvt. in Co. E, 16th
LA Infantry.  After the war Steven returned to the parish a beaten man,
having lost his beloved son Westley during the Battle of Chickamauga in the
mountains of Tennessee.  Steven Cooley died in 1868 and was buried on the
banks of the Calcasieu River in the small Mayo Cemetery (Vernon Parish).    

Steven (Cap) Cooley, son of Steven Cooley and his second wife, Louise
Ventioner, moved onto the old homestead where they lived for many years and
raised their family.  Cap had married Lucinda Frances Jane Monk, daughter
of Richard Monk and Martha Jane Cooley, and had eight children:  Alice,
Emma, Dora, Grace, Lela, Beulah, Steven, and Sybil Cooley.  In 1895 during
an influenza outbreak in the community, two of the Cooley daughters died
within a day of each other.  

Cap & Jane Cooley buried their little girls near the house, and this site
became known as the Cooley Family Cemetery.


Cooley, Emma - 1893/1895
Cooley, Alice - 1890/1895
          [daughters of Steven (Cap) Cooley & Jane Monk]

Cooley, Steven - 27 Mar 1905/Apr 1921 [son of Steven Cooley & Jane Monk]
Cooley, Steven [Cap] - Dec 1862/Jan 1921 [son of Steven Cooley & Eliza
Louise Ventioner]
Cooley, Lucinde [Lucinda Frances Jane] Monk - 28 Apr 1867/12 Jan 1946
          [daughter of Richard Monk & Martha Jane Cooley]