Cooley, John

From Lane Co Oregon

In the Lane County Census of 1860, he shows as: Cooley John age 23 from Virginia.

[edit] Portrait & Biographical Record of the Willamette Valley Oregon by Chapman (Publishing Company, 1903). p. 1392

JOHN COOLEY

Born January 30, 1837, John Cooley became a pioneer of Oregon primarily through the courage and determination of his mother to find the best location for the future advancement of her sons, as with her and his brothers and sisters he crossed the plains in 1853. He was born in Virginia, where his parents had always lived, his father there engaging in farming until his death in 1843, when the mother brought her family as far west as Missouri and there located until coming to Oregon in 1853. In the district school in the vicinity of his home John Cooley received his education, and on attaining manhood he engaged in farming and stock-raising, to which his early training had inclined him. He is now employed in this latter business in partnership with his brother, Alexander, the two expending their intelligence and practical ideas in an extensive cattle business which has given them broad returns in the matter of profit.

Mr. Cooley is now living with his nephew upon a part of the old home place near Cottage Grove, Lane county, and which consists of five hundred and fifty acres of land, all in one body. This farm is the result of energetic and purposeful work, Mr. Cooley's whole life having been devoted to the cultivation of the lands which Oregon held out as inducements to the early settlers. He has found the comforts of life in the homes of his relatives. In politics he is like his brother, also of this vicinity, and whose sketch appears elsewhere in this work, casting his ballot in the interests of the Democratic party, though he has never cared to be officially identified with the movements of the party.