Biographical Note
Born in Kentucky in 1845, Arvazena A. Cooper spent her formative years
in southwestern Missouri. At sixteen, she married Daniel Jackson Cooper (May
1861) and eight months later, their first child arrived. Cooper described the
violence that plagued them in Missouri during the Civil War and cites this as
the reason she and her husband decided to move to the Far West. In 1863,
Cooper, her husband, father-in-law, and infant set out by wagon for the state
of Oregon. The family settled in the Willamette Valley.
Cooper settled near Corvallis, Oregon, and performed the duties
expected of mid-nineteenth-century wives and mothers. She bore thirteen
children in Oregon (and one en route). She managed her growing household by
caring for and nursing her children and her husband; she prepared their food
and made their clothes. Cooper’s commitment to child rearing extended beyond
her own family. Cooper contributed to the building of Farm Home, a Corvallis
receiving home for orphans. She saw her fifteen children grow to adulthood as
well as some of her grandchildren. Cooper died in 1929 and is buried in The
Dalles, Oregon.
Content Description
The Arvazena Cooper Papers contain several documents relating to
Arvazena Cooper’s pioneer life. Included is a biographical sketch by Mrs. F. W.
Bayley, Cooper’s handwritten reminiscence of her 1863 migration to the state of
Oregon, and a typewritten copy of the reminiscence, which includes a preface by
L.W. Peters. This collection is unique in terms of its first-hand, personal
narrative of one woman’s “pioneering” experience. Cooper offered detailed
information on her move from Missouri to Oregon, including her impressions of
the land, her child’s antics, problems mobilizing the wagon train, and
encounters with Native Americans along the way. Cooper describes various wagons
that joined and left their train as well as the friendships and discord that
close proximity produced.
Cooper wrote her narrative in 1901. Sometime thereafter someone,
perhaps L. W. Peters, made a typed copy of the manuscript. The Cooper Papers
also include biographical information on Arvazena Cooper. This information
directs researchers who are looking for more information on the Cooper family
to Cooper’s sister J. C. Cooper (born Melzena Parallee Spillman).
The State Historical Society of Missouri appears to include a copy of
this family narrative. The Typescript Collection (collection # C0995) contains
the following entry: Item #229. “Cooper, Nan P., ‘Mother's Trip Across the
Plains,’ 1901 (Account of a journey by wagon train from Lawrence County,
Missouri, to Oregon in 1863, told by Arvazena Angeline Cooper.)”
Use of the Collection
Restrictions on Access Collection is open to the public.
Collection must be used in Special Collections & University
Archives Reading Room.
Restrictions on Use Property rights reside with Special Collections & University
Archives, University of Oregon Libraries. Copyright resides with the creators
of the documents or their heirs. All requests for permission to publish or
quote from manuscripts must be submitted to the Manuscripts Librarian in
Special Collections & University Archives. The reader must also obtain
permission of the copyright holder.
Preferred Citation [Identification of item], Arvazena A. Cooper Papers, CB C784, Special
Collections & University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene,
Oregon.