Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2023
Harriet Frederick was born May 9, 1831, in Harrimans, formerly called Turners, New York. She was the youngest child of Jacob John Frederick, Jr. and Catherine Stevens Frederick (1792-1883). Her grandparents were Jacob Frederick, Sr. (1758-1844) and Marytje Polly Tours Frederick (1759-1810); and Elisha Stevens (1759-1814) and Rachel DeMott Stevens (1772-1847).
When she was 17 years old, Harriet married Josiah Cooper (1828-1905) at the old Frederick homestead in August 1848. Josiah’s parents were Josiah Cooper (1785-1855) and Hannah Ellis Cooper (1784-1870).
Shortly after their marriage, Harriet and Josiah Cooper moved to Pennsylvania and later to Newburgh, New York, where they lived for several years. They had seven children.
Before they left New York, Harriet Frederick Cooper began a quilt. It had 44 names own it, including deter parents and siblings and their husbands’ parents and siblings, as well as extended family.
In 1855, the family moved to Shakopee, living in Eagle Creek Township. According to reports, Harriet and Josiah and their children travelled by train and ferry to the end of the line at Shakopee in October 1855. They arrived in Minnesota and stayed at Harriet’s brother’s, Francis W. Frederick, about three miles from Shakopee. Today, this would be the location of Valleyfair. Some relatives remembered them leaving New York by oxcart to the West.
Harriet and Josiah felt that the farm in Eagle Creek Township was a very poor one. Besides working the farm, Josiah made ax handles and did other work. Finally, Josiah volunteered for three years of military service in the Civil War on Aug. 15, 1862. He was 34 years old, and Harriet was 31. While Josiah was away, Harriet and the children lived with their parents, Catherine Stevens Frederick and Jacob Frederick. While Josiah was at Fort Ridgely, Harriet birthed her second to the last child, Eliza Stella, who was born Dec. 17, 1862.
Harriet’s husband, Josiah, mustered out of the army on Aug. 24, 1865, at Fort Snelling. He was nearly 37 years old. By spring of 1866, Josiah and others went to Ashley Township in Stearns County, Minnesota, and they returned to Shakopee and brought their families back to Ashley in covered wagons drawn by oxen and wagons drawn by horses, according to Arlene A. Gable, great granddaughter of Josiah and Harriet Frederick Cooper in March of 2000. Early land records show that Josiah purchased land in Sec. 7 with Kentucky Agricultural Scrip in October of 1866. Harriet and Josiah became settler-colonists in Stearns County. Although Homestead Rules and Regulations and actual practice are hard to figure out, it appears from the same early records that Josiah may have homesteaded in adjoining Section 18 at about the same time.
Josiah worked as a cabinetmaker and carpenter in Sauk Centre, apparently commuting to and from the homestead. Their last child, Rosa Rose Yazzie, was born on the homestead on March 4, 1872. The family moved into the town of Sauk Centre in 1873, so the children could receive the benefits of an education. The Sauk Centre Herald reported in the June 21, 1873, that “the tide of immigration is flowing northwest and westward in a continual stream” with trains of travelers coming through town.”
Although Harriet and Josiah and family moved into town, they must have continued to farm the Ashley land. Harriet and Josiah’s daughter, Eliza Sella died in Sauk Centre on May 9, 1874, of bronchitis.
Harriet Frederick Cooper, who lived in Eagle Creek Township for ten years, died on Wednesday, July 3, 1929, according to the Sauk Centre Herald on July 11, 1929. She was 98 years old, and when she died, she was the oldest white person in Sauk Centre, and probably the oldest white person in Stearns County.
Josiah Cooper passed away on Nov. 3, 1905, and after that Harriet moved into her daughter and son-in-law’s home.
On May 9, 1929 “Grandma” Cooper celebrated her 98th birthday, and she received callers all afternoon. Everyone was surprised by her mental alertness and wonderful memory, according to the paper. A few days later, Harriet Frederick Cooper was again confined to her room, and she seemed to recover when she suddenly became worse and passed peacefully away.
Harriet, who was a member of the First Congregational Church in Sauk Centre for nearly forty years, was actively interested in the church. Rev. C.S. Sparks, pastor, paid tribute to her many years of living and saw in them the gift of God not only to her but to her family. He recalled her sweet smile, her radiant hopefulness, her cheerful optimism, and saw behind it all a clean life, a happy nature, and a Christian spirit that geared her death to knowing that this was but the next experience and the greatest if all. The reverend noted her pioneer spirit and her love of nature, the flowers, the trees, the grass, the growing things and to the fact that she saw good in everything.
Harriet was buried next to her husband, Josiah, in the Greenwood Cemetery.