Andrew Wood Cooley

Notes:

Cooley, Andrew Wood, the first Bishop of the Brighton Ward (Salt Lake Stake), Salt Lake county, Utah, was born May 24, 1837, at Bruce, McComb county, Michigan, the son of Benjamin Cooley and Clarissa Wood. In 1858 (June 1st) he married Dinah Briggs at St. Claire, Michigan. She never came to Utah and had no children. Bro. Cooley migrated to Utah in 1863, where he became a convert to "Mormonism" and was baptitzed in 1864, being the only one of his father's family who joined the Church and also the only one of his father's children who raised a family. In Utah he engaged in farming and stock raising, and in 1866 (Feb. 17th) he married Mary Asenath Huntington, who was born May 31, 1846, in Cambria, Niagara county, New York, and bore her husband seven children, namely, Clarissa M., Andrew W., Benetta B., George W., Harold Ghesa, Chester N., and May Asenath. When the Saints residing on the west side of the Jordan river, immediately west of Salt Lake City, were organized into the Brighton Ward of the Salt Lake Stake, Bro. Cooley was chosen and ordained a Bishop and set apart to preside over said Ward, the ordination taking place Feb. 24, 1867. He held that position until 1877. In 1868 (Feb. 22nd) Bishop Cooley, yielding obedience to the higher law of marriage, was united to Jane Jenkins, who was born June 25, 1844, and who bore her husband eight children, namely, William J., John B., Henry W., Alva L., Melissa J., Fanny Elizabeth, Samuel B., and Ethel C. On the same date (Feb. 22, 1868) Bro. Cooley married Rachel Caroline Coon (daughter of Abraham Coon of Ohio and Elizabeth Yarbrough of Tennessee) who was born March 22, 1848, at Council Bluffs, Iowa, and came to Utah with her parents in 1850. She bore her husband nine children, namely, Samuel B., Idabel, Maretta E., Isabel, Lucretia May, Oscar W., Andrew W. junior, Abraham C., and Francis Ann. In 1870 (February 14th) Bro. Cooley married Ann Hazen (daughter of Robert Hazen and Mary Ann Bainbridge of Newcastle, England) who was born Sept. 25, 1854, in England. Her children (eight in number) were Marcus R., John S., Ezra H., Mary A., Martha J., Inez, Arthur D., and Walter A. Bishop Cooley died Oct. 11, 1887, at his home in Brighton. His descendants in 1919 numbered more than 120 souls; they are all members of the Church and all abstainers from the use of intoxicants and tobacco. A number of them are occupying prominent Church and secular positions in the community. Thus Ezra H. Cooley acts as Stake superintendent of Sunday schools in the Hyrum Stake, Utah; Henry W. Cooley is superintendent of the West Jordan (Salt Lake county) Sunday school; Lucretia May is treasurer in the Liberty Stake Relief Society, and many others hold positions in different Wards. Abraham C. has filled a mission to Germany, Ezra H. to Australia and Henry W. to the Central States. Arthur Dyke Cooley is a practising physician at Brigham City, Utah; Abraham C. Cooley is agriculturist, in charge of demonstration of reclamation projects for the U. S. government in sixteen western States, and Lucretia May held the position of deputy county clerk in Salt Lake county for nine years. This large family has been remarkably united, each working for the benefit of the whole, with four of the best mothers that were ever given in marriage to any man. For so-called infraction of the Edmund's law* Bishop Cooley served two terms in the Utah penitentiary, during which he suffered severely from the illness which soon after his release caused his demise.
* The Edmunds Act, also known as the Edmunds Anti-Polygamy Act of 1882, is a United States federal statute, signed into law on March 23, 1882 by president Chester A. Arthur, declaring polygamy a felony in federal territories. The act is named for U.S. Senator George F. Edmunds of Vermont. The act called for heavy fines and imprisonment for those guilty of "unlawful cohabitation".

Family/Spouse: Living. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]