Cope, James

The following data is extracted from A History of the Pioneer Families of Missouri - Montgomery County.

James Cope, of East Tennessee, settled in Montgomery County in 1837. He married a Miss Hutton, of Tennessee, whose father was a soldier of the war of 1812. On one occasion the portion of the army with which he was acting met with some reverses, by which it was cut off from its base of supplies, and the soldiers were reduced to the verge of starvation. As a last resort, Mr. Hutton cut off a portion of his horses' tail, and ate it, and thus saved his life. The horse seemed to experience very little inconvenience from the loss of his caudal appendage, and Hutton rode him during the rest of the war. The children of James Cope were Malinda, Hannah, Isabella, Samuel W., and Susan, all of whom settled in Montgomery County in 1837. Malinda was married in Tennessee, in 1835, to John Kizer, a blacksmith, who came to Missouri and settled in Troy, Lincoln County, the same year. He remained there two years, working at his trade, as a journeyman, for $30 per month. He also worked nearly every -night, for which he received extra wages, and at the end of the two years had saved a small sum of money. He then came to Montgomery, and with his own money and $50 that he borrowed from the County Treasurer, he bought a tract of land, on which he opened a farm, and resided there until his death, which occurred in 1869. He hunted a great deal during the first part of his residence in Montgomery County, and on one occasion killed forty-five deer in a single day. At another time he killed three deer at one shot. He had nine children, eight daughters and one son, and his widow and children, six of whom are married, still reside in Montgomery County. Hannah Cope married her cousin, James Cope. Isabella also married her cousin, John Cope. Samuel W., who became a Methodist minister, and is now a Presiding Elder in his Church, was married twice; first to Louisa Stewart, and after her death to Jane Scott. He lives at present in Chillicothe, Mo. Susan Cope married David Glover, of New Florence, Montgomery County.

Source: A History of the Pioneer Families of Missouri - Montgomery County

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