Certificate of Death – Clay Henry Cooper – 1913
By Andrew Feight
From the death certificate of Clay Henry Cooper we learn that he was buried on Halloween in 1913. We find that Doctor Hopkins attended to Clay Henry during his last days, assigning the cause of death to “chronic asthma” and “engorgement of R. lung.” He died at 6:00am on October 28th, 1913. The “place of burial” was recorded as “Upper Twin Creek, O.,” with an undertaker’s address of “Buena Vista, O.”
According to the certificate, it was Fred Cooper, Clay Henry’s eldest son, who provided the biographical and genealogical details recorded on the form. Fred, it should be noted, lists his residence as McGaw, Ohio, which is another name for the Twin Creek community that once centered about the intersection of modern-day US-52 and Upper Twin Creek Road.
Clay Henry Cooper is recorded to have been a “Farmer,” born March 16th, 1858,” making him fifty-five years old at the time of his demise. Perhaps most interestingly, Clay Henry’s father is identified as “Dave Evans,” while his mother’s name is recorded as “Maria Cooper.” What sort of relationship Clay Henry may have had with his biological father is speculative at this point in time, but one thing is clear from the US Census records covering these years, Clay Henry took his mother’s maiden name and she raised him a Cooper.
Forbidden Twin 