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When my brother, sister and I were young our mother used to tell us tales of her Uncle Jack. Her bedtime stories about Jack became part of our family folklore - to me he was a distant, legendary, romantic character from the deep, dark past that I loved to hear about, right up there with The Lone Ranger and Robin Hood.
Though these tales were told in snippets and well before I reached my teens, I still remember the legend of Jack Cooper fairly well. Briefly, it went something like this:
Uncle Jack was born in New York, but his parents were English. The family went back to England when Jack was about ten years old, but Jack didn't want to live in England, and always said that as soon as he could, he would return to America. One day Jack, just a teenager, ran away from home. His parents were quite sure he would be heading back to America, so they contacted the police, who searched the docks at Liverpool and all the ships there which were bound for the United States. But they couldn't find Jack, and perhaps with a little help from crew members, he stowed away on a ship back to New York.
Jack became a cowboy, complete with cowboy hat, leather boots with spurs, and Colt 45 revolver. He later became a Texas Ranger, but eventually he ended up in the refrigeration business and made a fortune manufacturing fridges. At one stage, when returning to England for a visit on his own private yacht, Jack was arrested at the docks for having his firearms with him - Britain was at war, and foreign visitors bringing weapons into the country were not taken lightly.
Disaster struck when Jack's factory burned to the ground. He had no insurance, and was left penniless. But that wasn't the end for Jack, and he soon set up a road-side food van which did so well that before long he had a fast food store somewhere which eventually grew to be a chain of stores in multiple states.....
I'm not sure my mother's anecdotes ever reached the end of the story, but if they did, I don't remember it. Nevertheless she had painted enough of the picture of my Great Uncle Jack to leave me with a thirst for more knowledge of this adventurer. Now, as I explore our family's history, one of the most satisfying aspects has been the steady unfolding of the life of Great Uncle Jack, uncovering the man, busting the myths, and investigating the foundations of the legend.
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John Knowles Cooper, known to his family as Jack, was born in New York City on December 2nd, 1889, the third child and second son of James Edward and Isabella Cooper. James Edward and Isabella were both from Lancashire, England, and had arrived in New York on April 16th, 1888, on the Alaska, which had sailed from Liverpool via Queenstown, Ireland. With them were their two children, James Sydney (Syd) age 2, and Isabel Ethel, just 13 months old. Jack was the Coopers' first American-born child and spent his earliest years in New York, but by 1895 he and his family were living in Newark, New Jersey. The US Census of 1900 tells us that on June 1st of that year Jack was 10 years old and at school. The Coopers now had three more children: Winifred (my Grandmother), Jenny Emily and Edmond Andrew. In 1901 the family returned to England on Cunard's Lucania, arriving at Liverpool on May 11th, and settling in the Salford area near Manchester. Apparently Jack didn't like this idea, and so, unknown to Jack and his family, the legend had begun.
I have been able to confirm, through Ancestry.com, that Jack did indeed stow away on a ship to America. However, his ship didn't sail from Liverpool. The SS North Point sailed from London on April 11th, 1907 - just one week after the burial of Jenny Emily. I imagine that young Jack, a 17 year old kid from Newark, was undoubtedly pretty street-wise and cunning, and knew that his parents would have the police search the docks and ships - at Liverpool, and perhaps Manchester, but not London. Jack eluded the authorities and his parents, and made good his escape, arriving at the Port of Phildalphia, Pennsylvania, on April 28th. The US Immigration Dept's Incoming Passenger List for the SS North Point shows 10 passengers, plus one stowaway - John Knowles Cooper: age: 17; Nationality: USA; Race: English; Destination: Newark.
The legend says that Jack was probably helped by the crew (to evade the police etc), but what I have found contradicts this notion. First of all, I believe Jack managed to evade the police himself by jumping on a train (I'm guessing without a ticket) to London instead of Liverpool. Secondly, I found another very interesting document from the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Immigration Records, Special Boards of Inquiry:
"JOHN KNOWLES COOPER
Stowaway, arrived S.S. North Point, April 28, 1907. Is 17 years old, English.
Escaped before being deported. "
Now this is interesting from a couple of points of view: it would suggest that Jack didn't get much effective help from the crew or passengers on the ship, as he was apprehended and detained on his arrival at Philadelphia. But why was he to be deported? The Passenger List has a column headed "Nationality (Country of which citizen or subject)" in which Jack was marked "Do" (ie, Ditto, as above), which was USA. His race is recorded as English, which I guess is accurate. It may have been that while he was saying he was a US Citizen and had honestly told the authorities that his parents were English, he couldn't prove that he was a US born citizen, and having arrived from England the authorities deemed he should be sent back there. But evidently our elusive and clever young Jack gave the authorities the slip again, and escaped before they were able to put him on a returning boat to England.
The Passenger list from 1907 has a column for "Whether going to join a relative or friend" (and if so where and who?), in which Jack's entry is simply "Newark". Looking at what we've so far discovered about Jack's sharp thinking and evasive skills, having escaped from custody and knowing he'd said he was bound for Newark, that's probably the least likely place I would expect him to go to. Did this young man go West and become a cowboy? Well, so far, that part of the legend doesn't seem to hold up all that well, as I've found no actual evidence of Jack ever being a cowboy. But I have found something: closer examination of that SS North Point Passenger List revealed an interesting fact - the 10 other passengers on board the North Point were all Cattlemen.
My mother's tales were a re-telling of stories undoubtedly told to her and her brother by Jack himself, and it's quite possible that his accounts of his own history may have been a little larger than life to impress his young niece and nephew. Referring to his Atlantic crossing as a stowaway, he may have said he was a cattleman (or cowboy) for a while, as in pretending to be one of the group of cattlemen he found himself with. It could also be that once he escaped custody he went and found the cattlemen, and stayed with them. The cattlemen had all listed addresses in Philadelphia where they would be boarding. They were made up of two Irishmen, two Scotsmen, one American, and five "Negroes" (nothing else stated about their nationality or race!). I suspect they had been recruited in England, perhaps by the American among them, who organised lodgings for them pending moving out to where their employment would be. Jack may well have tagged along with this mixed bunch of cowboys, which would have steered him clear of the authorities, and given him income and somewhere to live for a time.
What happened immediately after Jack escaped I don't know, but the next record in his timeline that I've been able to find shows him back in England as a witness at his brother Syd's wedding in Pendlebury, Lancashire on November 5th 1910, and he was at his parents' house in Salford in the 1911 census. I so far have not found Jack in the 1910 US Census, nor any record of Jack's return to England, and it's possible Jack returned to England for Syd's wedding, and stayed a while. Did the US Immigration people track him down and deport him? At this stage we simply can't tell, and the period from 1907 to 1910, when Jack was between 17 and 20 - important years in a young man's life - remains veiled. Given the limited controls on immigration in the US at that time, it's doubtful the Immigration Department would have spent the time and manpower to hunt Jack down to deport him. I imagine a more likely scenario of Jack, with boyish looks and quick wit, wielding a bit of charm on his arresting officers, being "detained" in an office and told "wait here" while the officer in charge left the room, door open, allowing Jack an opportunity to depart quickly and quietly.
Fully grown, Jack was not a big man. Several records show him as being 5' 5¼" tall, weighing around 130 lbs, with brown hair and grey or hazel eyes. I feel that more likely than going west to become a cowboy, Jack would have spent those very formative years in the familiar surroundings of Newark and New York, and likely found work in either the then booming railways or the shipping industry or both, as further information suggests.
Finding work in the Merchant Marine may have been the key to Jack's returning to England for his brother Syd's wedding in 1910, and he seems to have stayed because in the 1911 census he was working as an engine stoker with the Manchester Ship Canal Railway. But clearly he had no intention of staying in England forever, and on October 5th, 1912 he sailed aboard the SS Caronia from Liverpool, arriving in New York on October 13th.
On May 25th, 1914, Jack applied for a US Passport. At that time he was living at 13 North 11th Street, Roseville, Newark, NJ, and was working as a "Locomotive Fireman". In his declaration on that application, Jack "swears" that his father (James Edward Cooper) was a Naturalised US Citizen (I have found no evidence of this). The declaration goes on to say that "...I am about to go abroad temporarily; and that I intend to return to the United States with one year..."
World War I
Where Jack was going or even if he did go anywhere at all in 1914 remains obscure, but on January 11th 1916 Jack arrived in Manchester, England, and at some time over that year he registered with the US Consul General as a US Citizen residing in Manchester and working in the Merchant Marine, his Certificate of Registration marked to expire on November 25th, 1916.
At that time of course Britain was at war with Germany, but the United States was not. Jack's older brother Syd was serving in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, fighting in the trench wars in France and Belgium. Jack appears to have been living at his parents' house in Manchester during this period, perhaps to help out during what must have been a difficult time for his family. But things were soon to change for Jack.
In a letter from Syd to his younger sister Winnie (Alice Winifred, my Grandmother) dated March 11th, 1917, Syd wrote "...I had a letter and parcel of cigs (100) from Jack yesterday too - same time as your parcel. I was in luck's way evidently". Then, on April 26th Syd wrote "...I had a letter from Jack also 2 days ago saying he was on his way to New York...".
Jack's letter to Syd would have been written a week or two before Syd received it, suggesting it was written mid-April - just a few days after the United States declared war on Germany on April 6th.
Jack indeed returned to America, and completed a US Draft Registration Card on June 5th 1917, on which he cited his occupation as "Sailor", but with his employer as "None". The next day, June 6th 1917, Jack enrolled at the Navy Recruiting Station, New York. The now expired Certificate Of Registration of American Citizen (in Manchester) was subsequently stamped "Ack'd JUN 22 1917" - Jack was back in England. But now, like his older brother Syd, Jack was at war.
How much experience Jack had in the Merchant Marine at this time is hard to establish. In 1911 he was working on the Manchester Ship Canal Railway, and by May 1914 he was back in Newark, working as a railway (locomotive) fireman. But by 1916 he was stating on his US Citizen Registration in England that he was in the Merchant Marine. His apparently hurried return to America around the end of April 1917 seems to have been hastened by America's declaration of war, rather than simply the return of whatever merchant ship he was working on, as on his Draft Registration he says he is a sailor, but with no employer. Definitive records showing exactly when, how and why Jack returned to America in 1917 are unavailable, but I did find a John Cooper (no middle name or initial) on the crew of SS Philadelphia, engaged in Liverpool on May 19th, 1917, as a Pantry Steward, sailing from Liverpool and arriving in New York on June 3rd. I can't be certain that this was Jack, but this John Cooper was American, where nearly all the other crew were British, he was recorded as 5' 4" (close) and 150lbs (also close) and aged 28, which would have been Jack's "age next birthday" if that was the method used. The timing also works very well, with this John Cooper arriving in New York on June 3rd, and Jack's Draft Registration and Enlistment of June 5th and 6th. It would also support Jack's statement that he is a sailor with no current employer, as he would have quit that engagement to sign up with the US Navy.
Whatever Jack's level of marine experience was, it seems he went into immediate service in the Merchant Marine, even though he had enrolled in the US Navy. In wartime, the US Government and the Navy controlled all US shipping, and merchant ships were put to use carrying personnel, arms and other supplies to wherever they were needed around the world. I haven't been able to establish with certainty which ship Jack initially served on after he signed up, but I have reason to believe it was the SS Owasco
The SS Owasco was a 122.2 metres long, 4,630 ton steam ship with a triple expansion engine, single screw, and top speed of 12.5 knots. Built in Belfast by Harland and Wolff Ltd in 1893 for the Pacific Steam Navigation Company of Liverpool, England, it was originally called the SS Orallana. From 1905 to 1906 she was owned by the Hamburg-Amerika Line, and was renamed SS Allemania. The following year she was owned or operated by the Russian East Asiatic Steam Ship Co under the name of SS Kowna, and from 1907 to 1917 she returned to the Hamburg-Amerika Line, again sailing as SS Allemania. In 1917, following the declaration of war, the Allamania was requisitioned by the US Government and renamed SS Owasco.
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| SS Owasco, seen here as "Allamania" prior to being requisitioned by the US Navy |
Less well known than the Western Front in France and Belgium was the Italian Front, which ran along the border between Italy and Austria-Hungary. The Italians, who before the war were allied with Germany and Austria-Hungary, disagreed with Austria-Hungary's stance and its declaration of war against Serbia, citing that the alliance was one of defence, not aggression, and so Italy stayed out of the war initially. But Italy had its own differences with Austria, and wanted to regain old territories lost long ago. Allied diplomats had secretly been trying to persuade Italy to join the war on their side, and in 1915 gains were being made by the Russians, and an allied victory was looking like a strong possibility. Not wanting to miss out on the spoils of such a victory, Italy agreed to join the allies in the Treaty Of London, on April 26th.
The Italian Front had all the horrors of the Western Front, with the added difficulties of high altitude, freezing extreme winters, difficult terrain and rocky ground. Like their Western Front counterparts, the Italians suffered very heavy casualties, in a stagnant armed stalemate which dragged on for years. In November 1917 the British and French started to bolster the Italian Front Line, but of greater value than the additional troops was the help from France, Britain and the US in providing strategic materials - coal, steel, fuel and so on - that the Italians were desperately short of.
On the evening of December 10th, 1917, Jack was sailing on the Owasco in a convoy of four ships from Norfolk, England to Genoa, Italy, carrying various supplies most likely intended for the Allies on the Italian Front, including 50,000 cases of gasoline. The convoy was off Alicante, on the East coast of Spain, passing near a lighthouse. Shortly before midnight, the men on watch heard the explosion of the first torpedo which sent the ship in front of them to the bottom of the Mediterranean. They sounded the alarm, and all the crew mustered on deck, ready to man the life boats. Less than ten minutes later, a second ship was hit, and then the Owasco. The Owasco sank just fifteen minutes after being hit by the torpedo, "blazing like a torch", as one survivor described it.
The two other victims were a British ship and a Norwegian ship. All but two of the 97 men on board the Owasco made it safely to land: a Norwegian named Albert Jacobsen, and a Spaniard by the name of Garcia, were lost. The crew of the Norwegian ship made land not long after the Owasco's crew, but they never found out what happened to the crew of the British ship.
Jack and his fellow crew members made it safely to the Spanish shore, presumably at or near Alicante, where local villagers treated them well and helped them to make contact with American authorities in Valencia, about 100 miles to the North. Remarkably, despite the obvious difficulties of being stranded in a foreign land in 1917, 100 miles from the nearest American Consulate, coupled with the limitations of transport and communications in that area at that time, the American Consul in Valencia had the Owasco crew on their way home just 16 days after their ship had been destroyed.
On December 26th, 1917, the SS Manuel Calvo sailed from Valencia, Spain, having left Barcelona on Christmas Day. The SS Manuel Calvo belonged to the Spanish Transatlantic Company ( CTE: Compañía Trasatlántica Española ) and ran transatlantic services from 1901 to 1931. She was built in Newcastle, England, by Armstrong, Mitchell and Co for MacIver and Co, and was launched as the Lucania (not the same Lucania mentioned earlier) in 1891. She was sold in 1892 to the North German Shipping Line, and was renamed H.H.Meier. CTE aquired the ship in 1901, rebuilt her and renamed her Manuel Calvo, placing her on the Genoa-Barcelona-Cadiz-New York-Havana-Veracruz service. On board Manuel Calvo on Boxing Day 1917 were Jack and his shipmates, heading back to New York via Malaga and Cadiz, courtesy of the US Consul in Valencia, sailing back through the same waters where the Owasco lay on the sea floor.
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| Manuel Calvo at Santander, Spain Image Courtesy Of Alberto Mantilla Pérez, With Thanks Read the story of this amazing ship at http://www.buques.org/Navieras/Trasatlantica/Trasatlantica-2_I.htm |
While Jack and the other Owasco crew members would have been happy to be returning to New York, their journey would have been far from a pleasure cruise. The German Navy was, at that time, operating "unrestricted warfare" in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, and would attack any merchant vessels they believed were helping Britain and her allies without warning, even those belonging to neutral countries. The month-long journey would have been uncomfortable, with crowded conditions on board the Manuel Calvo, the brutality of the Atlantic Ocean in winter, and the ever present danger of attack from U-Boats. Nevertheless, Manuel Calvo arrived safely in New York on the evening of January 24th, 1918.
With their hasty departure from the sinking Owasco, the crew members were left with little or no identification papers, and Jack applied for leave and a passport on January 26th 1918, which was issued on January 28th, valid to May 1st. His address is shown as 25 South Street, New York - the Seamen's Church Institute which was founded in 1834, and the 13 storey building in South Street was opened in 1913, to give seamen in port a safe place to stay. On February 17th Jack's passport was stamped by the Aliens Officer at Liverpool, England, so it would seem that after the Owasco ordeal Jack wanted to spend some time with his family in Manchester. His stay must have been short, however, as on March 8th his passport was stamped at New York. Jack would have barely had a week with his family.
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| The Merchant, before being chartered by the Navy |
While the war ended on November 11th, Jack's release papers were dated December 8th, and his service in the US Navy continued to December 19th, when he was released from Active Duty. He remained attached to the Navy with "Inactive Status" (Reserve Force) until June 5th, 1921, the expiry of his original enrolment of June 6th 1917.
After The Great War
Discharged from Active Duty by December 19th, 1918, Jack wasted little time moving on to the next phase of his life, and on December 27th he left the USA for England once again, this time, it seems, for the purpose of marrying Gladys Davison, from Yorkshire, whom he presumably met during his various times in England either before or during the war. Jack arrived in Yorkshire on January 12th, 1919, and he and Gladys were married in Dewsbury on February 5th.
Jack's previous passport had expired on July 1st, 1918, so he applied for a new one at the US Consulate in Bradford, Yorkshire on May 1st 1919. This passport included a photo of Gladys. On June 2nd, 1919, Jack and wife Gladys sailed from Liverpool on board the Lapland, a four mast, two funnel ship built in Belfast and launched in 1908. They arrived in New York on June 11th. The address Jack gave on the Passenger List was 9 Seymour Ave, Newark NJ, but by the 1920 US Census, Jack and Gladys were living at 290 Hicks St, Brooklyn, Kings, New York, an apartment block with five dwellings, and Jack was now working as an "Inspector, Railroad".
On October 21st 1920, Jack and Gladys had a son, John Davison Cooper, born in Brooklyn. In the 1925 New York State Census they were living at 611 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn, and Jack was listed as "Steam Engineer". Over the next five years Jack took a change of direction which appears to have been for the better. The 1920's was a decade of massive change in the Western World, and America was booming. In the aftermath of the horrors of the war, recovery was fast and furious. The war had brought about giant leaps forward in technology, particularly in the automotive, aviation and electrical sectors of the world's economies. Manufacturing had enlarged and techniques had improved to accommodate the increasing needs of the war effort, and now these advances and resources were available to the general public, not just the military. The war had changed and modernised society's mood on both sides of the Atlantic. There was rapid industrial and economic growth, and prosperity which created enormous consumer demand for products now cheaper than before, and new products spawned by new and improved technologies. By the 1930 US Census Jack and his family had bought a house in 84th Rd, Jamaica, Queens, New York, and Jack was employed as a "Serviceman, Electric Refrigeration". Jack was indeed in the refrigeration industry.
The 1930's and 1940's
In the spring of 1931, Jack took Gladys and John D to England, sailing to Southampton on the Leviathan, which arrived on April 21st. I suspect it was then that my mother, just 6 years old, first met her Uncle Jack, and the spinning of the legend began. The Passenger List of the Leviathan recorded Jack's occupation as "Salesman", so it would seem Jack had stepped up from servicing refrigerators to selling them, and perhaps had had an increase in income in the process.
Despite the Great Wall Street Crash of October 1929, and the Great Depression which plagued the world's economies over the following decade, Jack's prosperity of the late 1920's appears to have continued into the early 1930's. He had bought a house sometime between the 1925 and 1930, and now in early 1931 he was able to take his family on a two month holiday to England. Photos I have suggest that this was a happy period for all concerned. Jack, Gladys and John D are pictured on various excursions with sister Winnie and her husband Fred, Jack's younger brother Arthur, and a cousin, Edith. And of course, all the kids!
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| Jack certainly stands out in this picture from his 1931 trip to England, apparently trying to look like a cowboy! Sitting from right to left are John D Cooper, Winnie, Gladys with my Uncle Keith, my Mother Hilda, and I think the lady on the left may be Edith Cooper, Jack and Winnie's cousin. |
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Hilda, Uncle Arthur, John D and
Keith Jolly, at the rear of the Jolly
house in Eaves Lane
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Fred's hand resting on Jack's shoulder
suggests a ceertain affection between
these two brothers-in-law
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Jack and Fred appear to have got on well, and whether they knew each other before 1931 or not I can't be sure, though it is more than likely. In 1911, Fred and Winnie were both student teachers in different colleges in London, but almost opposite each other across the Thames, and I suspect this is where and how they met. They were married in 1921, and being quite conservative they probably had a fairly lengthy courtship and engagement, which almost certainly would have brought Jack and Fred together at least around the time of Jack's marriage to Gladys in 1919, given that Jack was in England from January to June of that year. Fred was just three months older than Jack, and like Jack he had seen service in The Great War, with the Royal Flying Corps, the forerunner of the Royal Air Force.
Fred and Winnie Jolly at that time were living in Eaves Lane in Chorley, Lancashire, in a relatively small terraced house. On a passenger list Jack gave his address in England as his parents' house in Manchester, but some photos suggest he also stayed with the Jolly's for at least some of the time. On the Passenger List of the Leviathan for the journey back to New York, Jack's last address in England was recorded as 7 Ewhurst Ave, Swinton, which was the home of his younger brother, Edmond. By all accounts this must have been quite a holiday for all the Coopers, and Jack must have given the impression that he was quite wealthy, whether he actually was or not.
Jack returned to England alone in February 1939. The ship's Passenger List shows his address in England as Aldersyde, Balshaw Lane, Chorley, which was the new home of Fred and Winnie, which they had had built for them around 1932. Jack's occupation was recorded as "Refrigeration Business". He stayed in England just over four weeks, returning on April 1st on the RMS Queen Mary. Just what the purpose of this "solo" trip to England was is open to conjecture, but I suspect it was not of the same happy nature as his holiday eight years earlier. Jack's Uncle, Thomas Soanes Cooper, passed away on April 21st, 1939 - just three weeks after Jack returned to America.
By the 1940 US Census, Jack was still living in 84th Road in Queens, and recorded his occupation as "Refrigeration Engineer", and his industry as "Refrigeration Installation". So Jack was still in the refrigeration business, but in the 1940 census he was recorded as "PW", representing an employee on a wage or salary, suggesting that he never actually had his own fridge manufacturing business as the legend claimed.
Clearly, several elements of the legend are true or based on facts which have been confirmed - Jack certainly did stow away on a ship to America in his teens. He may even have worked as a cowboy for some time, and at the very least we know that he did spend time with some cattlemen. There's no evidence to suggest that he was ever a Texas Ranger, however, and the information we do have about his movements between 1907 when he stowed away and 1940 suggests he wouldn't very likely have had the time. We have evidence of several trips between England and the USA, but no sign of his own yacht, nor of him being arrested at the docks for carrying firearms - he was, however, detained at the Port of Philadephia as a stowaway. Surprisingly, I have no recollection of the legend containing any tales of Jack's war-time activities, and his ship being torpedoed in the Mediterranean. Jack was clearly in the refrigeration business, but there is no evidence that it was his business, only that he was an employee. The loss of his factory/business could have been that of his employer, making him redundant, and broke. In the legend, this was followed by the road-side fast food business.
The last verifiable direct record of Jack that I have found is his US World War II Draft Registration Card from 1942, which shows Jack's address as Newport Rd, Marlow, Cheshire, New Hampshire. This is just two years after the 1940 US Census in which Jack was recorded as a Refrigeration Engineer living in Queens, New York. I took a "virtual drive" through Marlow NH on Google Street View: Marlow is a picturesque village in country New Hampshire and today has a population of a little over 700. This is a stark, diametrically opposed contrast to where Jack had spent most of his life - Brooklyn, Kings, Queens, Newark - very busy, noisy, smelly cities and suburbs. Yet at the age of 52 we find Jack in the tranquil, scenic, small community of Marlow, Cheshire, New Hampshire, 225 miles from Queens, New York, and a world away in life style. And it was definitely our Jack Cooper: the name on the card is John Knowles Cooper, date of birth December 2nd 1889, place of birth New York City, person who will always know whereabouts: Gladys D Cooper.
Underneath Gladys's name is a line for Employer's Name and Address. This line is blank. The next line, however is headed "Place Of Employment Or Business", and the entry there is the same as the residential and postal address - Newport Road, Marlow, NH. Was this the location of the road-side fast food? Did Jack and Gladys, in their 50's, find themselves redundant somewhere between 1940 and 1942, and cash up whatever wealth they had in New York to buy a little road-side cafe with attached residence in Marlow, New Hampshire?
The 1930 and 1940 US Censuses may hold couple of clues. In both censuses Jack and Gladys are recorded as owning their house (No 16) at 161 84th Road in Queens, and its value was noted in 1930 as $8,450. Nos. 22 and 24 were valued at $8,750 and $9,000 respectively. There is no mention of whether or not there was any debt on the properties. The Cooper family was living in the same house in the 1940 Census, as owners, but its value was reported at $5,000, and Nos. 22 and 24 at $5,500 each. This represents a massive drop in value of over 40% in that ten year period. In 1930, Jack was working full time as a refrigerator serviceman, while in 1940 although he states that he worked 40 hours the week before Census Day, he also states that he had no income for the whole of 1939. The Great Depression seems to have hit Jack and his little family hard, as it did millions of other families world-wide. Yet Jack was able to travel to England in February of 1939 and stay for about a month.
In researching history - any history - hard, documented, solid evidence often runs scarce, and sometimes it doesn't even exist. This leaves gaps in the story which the historian can either leave blank, or he/she can fill the gaps with a little bit of educated conjecture, imagination, and occasionally a touch of humour. Sometimes, we just have to admit that we don't know what happened.
I have no knowledge of the nature of Jack's relationship with his uncle, Thomas Soanes Cooper, but I assume they knew each other as by the time Jack was travelling back and forth between England and the USA, Thomas was living in Southport, Lancashire. I'm still researching Thomas, so my knowledge of him is limited, though already I feel he has an interesting story to tell also! What I have established is that Thomas Soanes Cooper ended up quite wealthy, wealth which I believe (but have not yet proven) derived primarily from working on railway construction in Argentina, probably with his brother, Francis Aspinall Cooper. The England & Wales Probate Calendar shows Thomas's effects at the end of his story to be in excess of £35,000 - quite a sum of money in 1939! In loose terms, at that time, Jack's Uncle Tom's wealth could have bought a dozen or more of Jack's houses!
Though this is only conjecture, the timing of Jack's apparent financial struggle, his trip alone to England, his Uncle Tom's passing, and the subsequent sharp change in life-style seem to be connected: if Jack had no income for the whole of 1939, and possibly some of 1938, then he and Gladys would have been living on whatever savings they may have had, and relying on help from others. By February of 1939 their resources are likely to have dried up, and things would have been grim. It's quite possible that Jack was already getting help from his Uncle Tom in England, or he may have travelled there to seek his help. I have no knowledge of Tom's cause of death, so I have no way of knowing whether Jack knew his uncle was dying, or if Tom's death was sudden, not long after Jack returned to his family in New York.
Tracing Jack After Marlow
If the roadside cafe was in Marlow sometime after 1940, the timing doesn't fit for this part of the legend to have been told to my mother during Jack's 1931 visit to England, nor the 1939 visit, when my mother would have been not quite 15. But my mother spent a year living and studying in the USA, much of it at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts - just 84 miles from Newport Rd, Marlow. She sailed from Southampton to New York on the America, on November 27th, 1947, arriving on December 4th. Her New York Incoming Passenger List shows her Final Destination as "N.H. Marlow", and in the column headed "whether going to join relative or friend" is recorded "Uncle: John Cooper, 117 Newport Rd, Marlow NH". This is indirect evidence that Jack and Gladys were still in Marlow at the end of 1947, in the sense that the record is actually about my mother, but contains information about Jack.
Firm evidence of Jack's whereabouts and activities after the Second World War has been elusive compared to the abundance over the course of his earlier life. The indirect evidence in the form of my mother's Passenger List entries shows that he was still in Marlow at the end of 1947, and interestingly, just 17 days after my mother arrived in New York, Jack's youngest brother, Arthur, also sailed into New York from Manchester on board the SS Amos G. Throop. Arthur's Passenger List entry also shows his final destination as Jack's address in Marlow, and that he intended to stay permanently in the USA and become a citizen. Arthur settled in Keene, New Hampshire, just 20 miles from Marlow, until his death in 1955.
It would seem that at some point between 1947 and 1951 Jack and Gladys were living in Florida. I found a Social Security Number for a John Cooper, born December 2nd 1889, which was issued in Florida "before 1951". I have yet to confirm that this was Jack - no middle name is given, nor place of birth, only the date. Interestingly, the number was on a Death Index, showing the place of death as Castile, Wyoming, New York. This aspect was puzzling, but I didn't dismiss the information. In November 1956 my Grandmother, Alice Winifred Cooper and her sister, Isabel Ethel, sailed from England to the USA, returning in March 1957. Their port of departure from the USA was Jacksonville, Florida. A 1957 City Directory records a John K and Gladys D Cooper living at 404 South Tampa Ave, Orlando, Florida - about 140 miles or two to three hours drive from Jacksonville. It seems very likely that Winifred and Ethel went to spend a few months with their brother Jack. That leaves the puzzling question of the Death Index and whether or not the John Cooper listed was indeed Jack, and if it was, why Castile, Wyoming, New York? Castile is a fairly small rural town located roughly centrally in the western part of New York State. I was intrigued as to why Jack may possibly have gone from Queens, New York to Marlow, New Hampshire, then to Orlando, Florida, and end up in Castile, New York.
Jack's son, John Davison Cooper, may hold the key to some of Jack's movements after Marlow, or more particularly, after Orlando. I haven't been able to establish if John went to Marlow with his parents but I think it doubtful. In the 1940 US Census, John, then aged 19, was listed as a student, and information subsequently found indicates that his field was probably Electrical Engineering. From other Ancestry.com users and the New York State Marriage Index, I found that John married Shirley Jane Cook in 1952. Shirley was from Rochester, New York, and I found listings for a John D Cooper, listed variously as "Engineer" or "Elec Eng" in a Rochester City Directory for 1948, 1949, 1954, 1959 and 1960. From 1954 onwards, the listing also shows Shirley, at the same address. Castile is about 52 miles from Rochester.
Exactly how, when and where Jack's story ends is something I am yet to establish with certainty. Difficulty and cost of obtaining Death Certificates from the USA preclude a process of elimination which may lead to the answers, and while I have found some of his descendants who would almost certainly know the answers, at the time of writing I have been unable to make contact with them. It seems that in the early 1940's John Davison Cooper followed his career path and in the late 1940's ended up in Rochester, married Shirley Jane Cook and continued to live there through to at least 1960, while Jack and Gladys appear to have been living in Florida. Information I have found through Ancestry indicates that Gladys passed away in 1961, in Alachua, Florida. Alachua is about 125 miles north of Orlando. Perhaps following Gladys's death, Jack, approaching 72 years of age, may have wanted to be closer to his son and grand children, and moved to Castile, New York, where he remained until his story ended in 1966.
When I began my research, "Uncle Jack" was a somewhat obscure remnant of my childhood memories of bed-time stories and family legend. Little by little I began to uncover the real history, not far removed from the legend, of John Knowles Cooper. The street-wise kid from Newark, removed from his home turf, determined to return. The boy who stowed away and became a man, a sailor, a victim of the German U-Boat Campaign, a survivor, who went on to raise a family in his homeland, battled the Great Depression, and emerged in the peace and tranquility of New Hampshire.
Born in a New York City far different from the one we know today, Jack witnessed the arrival of the motor car, a world at war, the rising of the sky-scraper, and the evolving, ever-changing New York City skyline. Perhaps it was the change in New York that didn't quite work for Jack, as by 1940 it was a far different city from the one he was missing so much in 1907. Perhaps this is why he sought out the more peaceful environments of New Hampshire, Florida and Upstate New York in which to spend his later years.
I never met Jack. He lived most of his life long before I was born. But our paths nevertheless did cross in many places - at my Grandmother's house in Euxton, on the streets of Chorley, in the hills around my birthplace. I have walked where Jack walked, stood where he stood, separated only by the impenetrable barrier of time. Now I've come to know him and grown quite fond of him in the process, and I am proud to tell what I can of the story of my Great Uncle Jack, John Knowles Cooper.
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