Exactly 125 years ago today, on October 30, 1899, Annie French Cooley passed away at the age of 26. Annie was the daughter of Dr. French and his wife, Eliza.
I spent last week working on leveling and straightening some of the other monuments, which is usually pretty easy – you simply move the monument forward or backward, put some sand/gravel concrete mix under it, spread it out, then make sure it is level – essentially, giving it a base to help prevent the sinking of the stone. As I made my way down the row, I got to the last two monuments on the south side of the lot that belong to Arnold French Cooley and Annie French Cooley. In the photo above, you can clearly see Annie’s monument is uneven and has sunk some, which is not altogether unusual. As a result, I lifted the monument forward so I can could add the sand and gravel concrete mix under it. I noticed it felt strange as I carefully pulled it out and laid it down – almost hollow feeling. I realized after I got my tub full of gravel and concrete mix that there was a pretty deep hole under the monument.
I crouched down trying to get a better look at what exactly I had uncovered. I quickly realized that this was the top of Annie Cooley’s underground brick burial vault. Now I was faced with a dilemma, how could I fix this? I knew that the monument would eventually fall completely through the hole if I left it. I was shocked that it had not already been swallowed up considering the deterioration of the vault. I assume that the monument was placed at the head of the grave and sat directly on top of the vault. After 125 years in the ground, the bricks had begun to fall in and the monument began its slow descent.
All I could do was to carefully place the monument back and do some research on how to fix it. I could not find anything about uncovering a historic brick burial vault and what to do. Thankfully, my husband is brilliant and came up with a plan. Brian decided that we could get some rebar, dig a trench on either side of the hole, place the rebar down, pour concrete on top of the rebar to secure it in the ground, and place the monument on top of the secured rebar. So…that is what we did and fingers crossed, it seems to be very secure and stable so far.
We had to move Annie’s son, Arnold Cooley’s monument out of the way to dig the trench which was fine because it was facing the opposite direction for some reason.
Next, we put the rebar in and poured the concrete mix on either side to secure the rebar in the ground.
We then used a couple of bricks found from underneath Dr. French’s marker (which I told you about in the previous post) to fill in the gaps on either side of where Annie’s monument would be set. This helped level the ground so Arnold’s monument could be set properly.
Now, the moment of truth…so far so good. It took us a minute to get it somewhat level and secured, but I am pretty confident that Brian’s ingenuity worked.
And the final result! Of course, I need to clean them more, but they both look pretty fantastic – all nice and straight.
To really appreciate how much better Annie and Arnold’s monuments look – this the what they looked like when I started this project.
I feel like I am a close personal friend of Annie’s since I stumbled across the top of her vault. So, you know I had to find out about her. Annie French was born on April 21, 1873 to William Arnold and Eliza French. The French family consisted of six children when Annie came along. Sadly, the French’s had already lost 3 children prior to Annie. She was apparently very close to her older brother, Arnold, who was two years older than her. So close in fact that the two had a double wedding at the French hotel in 1895 and she named her only son after him.
This is the article from the Tuesday, August 20, 1895 article in the Commercial Appeal, Memphis, TN:
Double Wedding at Senatobia
Senatobia, Miss.. Aug. 19 – “Two weddings were Senatobia’s share of nuptial festivities yesterday, and the two fortunate young gentleman were Messrs. B.M. Cooley of Waverly, Tenn., and Arnold French of Senatobia. The former married Miss Annie French and the latter married Miss Lora Ligon, both of this city. The weddings were private, and were celebrated at the French Hotel. Dr. L.S. Foster performed the ceremony, and the wedding march was played by Miss Minnie Wait. Mr. Cooley is a young merchant of exceptional good qualities. Miss Annie French was one of Senatobia’s brightest girls. Mr. French is a salesman in the dry goods house here, is a fine gentlemanly, Christian young man and has the qualifications to make for himself a bright future. Miss Lora Ligon is one of those rare jewels whose luster is not dimmed by darkness, with a head and heart of many fine qualities.”
Annie actually married a man named Dorsey Marion Cooley not B.M. as the paper indicated. The two made their home in Jonesboro, Arkansas where Dorsey opened a store. Annie and Dorsey had almost 4 years together before they had a child. Sadly, Annie died shortly after their son Arnold French Cooley was born on October 22, 1899. It is unclear if Annie suffered some mishap while giving birth or if she simply contracted a serious illness right after the baby was born. Whatever the cause, Annie passed away on October 30, 1899 at the age of 26.
The Weekly Times-Enterprise in Jonesboro, Arkansas ran the following article in the Wednesday, November 1, 1899 edition of the paper:
Mrs. Dorsey Cooley Dead
“Mrs. Dorsey M. Cooley, a notice of whose severe illness appears in another column, died at the home of her parents in Senatobia, Miss., Monday evening. Mrs. Cooley has been with her people for a month past. Her death is truly sad. She leaves a little babe, scarce a week old and a husband to mourn her loss. She was a young woman in the full vigor and strength of womanhood. No thought of dying had entered into her plans, only life with all its promises opened to her view, but none can say when death will come, and none can stay its coming. It breathes on the old men and they are not, it lays its touch upon the infant and it fades like a flower in springtime; it reaches in its sickle and strikes at youth and youth too succumbs. No age is exempt. But the mother must leave her babe, but are we not told that “two sparrows sell for a farthing,” and yet no sparrow falls to earth without God’s notice, and how much more value the little life of this babe. If sparrows receive his notice how much more one framed in his own image must receive it. Mrs. Cooley was buried in the cemetery at her childhood home, laid to rest where she can rest in peace until the day when her babe will once more rest in her arms. The Enterprise extends sincere sympathy to the bereaved family, husband and relatives.”
One month after Annie’s death, her son, Arnold French Cooley died on November 30, 1899.
The Jonesboro Weekly Sun Jonesboro, Arkansas Thursday, December 7, 1899 published this short story on his demise:
“Arnold French Cooley, aged one month and eight days, son of Dorsey M. Cooley, followed his mother, who as a last act on this earth before giving her life for him, gave him this name, to the spirit land on Thanksgiving day, and was laid tenderly to rest in the family burial ground at Senatobia, Miss., Friday, December 1st. Brother Cooley arrived home Saturday, almost prostrated under recent afflictions.”
Dorsey M. Cooley had to be absolutely distraught during this time. I read he liked to write poetry and play music. I was fortunate to find one of his poems that was published in the Jonesboro Weekly Sun Jonesboro, AR on Thursday, February 14, 1901. It is evident he was still mourning his loss from his words:
Rambling Thoughts by Dorsey M. Cooley
When day, with its anxious throbs of care,
Puts on the shroud of eve’s sober hush,
There comes unsought, unasked, a soft voice,
Like the cadence of love’s sweet song,
Bringing to memory the hallowed joys of old
When life was young and in its garden
Strange sweet dreams sand the melody of the soul.
Though the past be shrouded in pain
And many of its hopes hushed
By the cruel relentless hand of fate,
Yet, memory lingers ever near
To breathe upon us the only beauty
The glory and halycon bliss we knew;
And softens, by withholding our failures.
Our follies, cruel words, or keenest anguish.
Memory is but the sister of Hope
Hope stands with out-stretched arms
And in every corner of life
To illuminate the way, to dispel the gloom
And distill heaven’s dew into
The faint and weary hearted.
Without each, life would have no fruition,
No color, but be an empty shadow.
Dorsey Cooley eventually married again, almost 6 years later. He became an attorney and lived a long life with his wife. However, he never had any other children.
I apologize for the back to back posts, but I could not wait to share this one especially. I will never forget this experience and I am so grateful that I could help fix Annie French Cooley’s final resting place.
Thank you for reading! Please share these stories and don’t forget to subscribe to the website. The subscribe button is all the way at the bottom of this post. More French Family stories to come…it may take me a little longer to share those though
I continue to enjoy your interesting research and it reminds me of the life and struggles of people who lived before our time and also of the difficulties they endured. Modern medicine has helped so often, but we still hear of sad stories and heartbreak of many young families. So many babies and mothers lost in the past and you see this went you visit older cemeteries. Debbie Perkins