Daily Newsletters
Account
Washington Evening Journal
111 North Marion Avenue
Washington, IA 52353
319-653-2191
Coop family opens time capsule at Antioch Church
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
FAIRFIELD – The descendants of early Fairfield pioneer William Greyer Coop gathered for a special occasion on Saturday, Oct. 4.
Family members met at the Antioch Independent Church north of Fairfield where Coop and his son William Henry Coop are buried. William Greyer Coop was one of the first settlers in Jefferson County, and William Henry Coop was the first child born to pioneer settlers in the county in 1836. Sculptor Chris Bennett created a statue depicting William Henry Coop speaking to a young boy, which is in Fairfield’s Central Park.
The 50 or so family members were there to open a time capsule buried in the church’s cemetery 25 years ago, full of photographs, documents and newspaper clippings. Steve Coop led the ceremony that day and began by reciting the family’s history and its importance to Jefferson County’s history. He spoke about how William Greyer Coop was born in Virginia and later served in the Blackhawk Indian War as a colonel, and though he was later promoted to general, was always known as “Colonel Coop.”
Those gathered at the church cemetery were anxious to see the items placed in the time capsule. Unfortunately, since the time capsule was not buried deep enough, below the frost line, Iowa’s annual freeze and thaw produced condensation on the sealed photos and notes, causing the ink and colors to bleed. Coop said he and the other members of the family present were disappointed in the significant water damage they saw, but Dee Ann Lehn hopes to laminate the photos and notes that survived, after letting them dry out in the church basement.
Antioch Independent Church is a historically significant part of the county for several reasons. It was founded 150 years ago in 1875, in fact the very same week that Parsons College opened, according to research historian Lawrence Eyre of the Carnegie Historical Museum. William Greyer Coop’s father David Coop built a cabin for his family near Carlinville, Illinois (now known as Coop’s Mound), and this cabin was preserved by being disassembled and rebuilt on the grounds of Antioch Independent Church north of Fairfield. Sadly, Steve Coop noted that this cabin eventually succumbed to the elements and had to be demolished.
Eyre said Fairfield looked very different, almost completely barren, in the 1830s when the Coop family arrived.
“The initial surveyors marked in their notes any tree that was more than 6 inches in diameter, because back then, there weren’t many,” he said.
Jefferson County’s population was 2,773 at the time of the 1840 census, and the population of Fairfield that year was 110. In just 20 years, the county’s population exploded to over 15,000 in 1860, and Fairfield’s population had grown to 1,692.
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
