Re: Koens in Middle Tennessee-Hoopers
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In reply to:
Koens in Middle Tennessee
Joel Hutto 9/07/02
Even though it's been years since the original message was posted, I wanted to get in a clarification before these message boards go to read-only mode in September of 2014. My info is based on Hooper research rather than on a specific interest in the Gower or Koen families.
The clarification regards the Davidson County marriages Joel posted so many years ago as
SAMUEL Koen to LELIA Hooper 21 Feb 1801
and
Samuel Gower to Celia Koen 30 Jan 1807
because both marriages are for the same bride.
The first marriage record involves two mistranscriptions made into the marriage book, versus the original marriage bond made for LEMUEL Koen and CELIA Hooper. [The marriage book in Davidson County is a relatively modern index made on the basis of old separate pieces of paper; it contains many errors in transcription or "best guesses" made by people not familiar with all the names of a century earlier.]
Lemuel Koen was still alive 2 November 1804 when he sold a slave. The fact that the slave sale was recorded in the county record book on 22 May 1805 probably means the record had to be made as part of Lemuel Koen's estate proceedings. Lemuel Koen's inventory was recorded 31 May 1805. His widow Celia (Hooper) Koen then married Samuel Gower a year and a half later.
There had already been some Koen/Gower intermarriage, because Prudence Coen [Koen] had married Elijah Gower 22 Dec 1790 in Davidson Co. Elijah Gower had been killed by Indians sometime in 1793. Prudence Gower and Sidney "Coon" then bought a 100 acre tract on White's Creek in May 1793. Prudence [Koen] Gower married John Miller 20 March 1797 in Davidson Co.Elijah Gower was a first cousin of the above-mentioned Samuel Gower who married Celia (Hooper) Koen in 1807.
Prudence (Koen) Gower and her first husband Elijah Gower had a son. He was named William Elijah Gower and married his first cousin Martha, or Patsy,Gower on 10 Feb 1812 in Davidson Co. William Elijah Gower then went off to fight in the War of 1812 and died of disease at New Orleans. When his estate sale occurred 6 November 1816, William Elijah Gower's administrators were Samuel M. Gower and Patsy Gower. Among purchasors was Samuel Gower, who was the brother of Patsy (Gower) Gower and the husband of Celia (Hooper) (Koen) Gower.
I do not know whether Celia had any Koen children; I have not found strong indication that she did. However, she had 7 known Gower offspring, the last born late in December 1827 near Nashville, TN. Shortly after that last birth, Samuel and Celia Gower and their children moved to southern Illinois in 1828.
For any Hooper researchers who might read this post:
The parentage of this woman born as Celia Hooper is uncertain. She was born between 1780 and 1786, possibly in South Carolina. The connection of Prudence (Koen) Gower to the tract on White's Creek is suggestive that Celia might have been closely related to Absalom Hooper, Sr, or William Hooper who were an early settlers on White's Creek; however, neither Absalom nor William mentioned Celia in their wills. She also is not among the heirs of Jesse Hooper [pension], or Church Hooper or Church's brother Thomas Hooper [wills, probate], any of whom might have been old enough to be her father and each of whom had some connection to South Carolina and were resident in middle Tennessee at the time they died. Her husband Samuel Gower did make a purchase at the 1809 estate sale of Church Hooper.