Unlocking FamilySearch Full-Text: More Records for Burgess Cooper

Now that Full Text Search at FamilySearch is making so many items findable, I've been revisiting some of my earlier research.  It's great to find new items which add even more to the picture of what was happening.  My Dad's paternal 1st cousin Ruth Thompson was married to Burgess Cooper for a brief time.  I've not found their divorce yet.  I knew that Burgess had done time in jail.  Seems he kept stealing different modes of transportation.  In his earlier years, it was a horse which he tried to sell shortly after stealing and later auto theft.  Here are a few of the newspaper articles about him.

Cooper Makes 
Final Attempt 
Jail Delivery

(From Wednesday's Daily Herald)

Burgess Cooper, confessed horse thief, who was yesterday sentenced to serve a term of three years i the Tennessee Industrial School, last night made a final desperate attempt to break jail. These attempts at jail delivery upon the part of Cooper are not new to Sheriff Houser, and last night the man under sentence was placed in a re-inforced cell, but in some manner he succeeded in so badly damaging the new Yale Lock on his cell door it was necessary for Sheriff Houser this morning to break it in order to get him out of the cell.  The sheriff will be delighted when he hears that Cooper is safely confined within the walls of the Industrial School.

"Cooper Makes Final Attempt Jail Delivery", Columbia Herald(Columbia TN), Vol LXXIV, No 12, March 21, 1922, p 2, col 4 ; image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHK-Q3RM-K8MN : accessed 18 October 2026), IGN 8963695, image 388 of 1056.

In Memoriam: Mattie J Elmore Osburn (1852 - 1903)

 

Mattie J Elmore Osburn

Born:  September 13, 1852

Died:  May 3, 1903

She had been a member of Union Ridge Baptist Church joining in early girlhood, later  uniting with the North Fork Church.

Survivors:

Husband-- Lucien Junius Osburn

Daughters:

Minnie Osburn Jennings(married Thomas G Jennings in 1896)

Ester D Osburn(married Thomas L. Thompson in 1903)

Elma Osburn Sanders(married Robert Sanders in 1900)

Maggie Knox Osburn Jeffress(married James Douglas Jeffress in 1910)

Son:

Samuel J Osburn

Sources:  

Baptist and Reflector, June 11, 1903, p 15, col 2; image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/article/baptist-and-reflector-mattie-j-elmore-os/205999013/ : accessed September 14, 2026), clip page for Mattie J Elmore Osburn- Obit.

Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/91912382/mattie-osburn: accessed 14 Sep 2026), memorial page for Mattie Elmore Osburn (13 Sep 1852–3 May 1903), Memorial ID 91912382, citing Willow Mount Cemetery, Shelbyville, Bedford County, Tennessee, USA.

Obituary of Margaret Ruth Thompson Cooper(1941)

Cooper

Mrs. Margaret Ruth Thompson Cooper, age 31 died in a Nashville hospital Saturday March 22.

She was the daughter of the late Charlie Thompson and lived here some 15 years ago.  Her remains were brought here where a short funeral service was conducted by J. L. Nunnley at the Lawrence Funeral Home and burial at Swanson Cemetery. 

Her survivors are one sister, Mrs. Sue Bell Elrod, and three uncles, John Cook of this place, Clarence Cook of Rockvale and Tom Cook of Old Hickory; an aunt, Mrs. Eliza Rowland of Rockvale and Grandfather, W. G. Cook of Rockvale.

Source
The Marshall Gazette(Lewisburg TN) Fri. Mar. 28th 1941 p.6 Columns 1
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHV-13RM-J76T?i=145&cat=215743
Imaged by TN State Library & Archives and digitized at Familysearch.org
Vol. 69, no. 50 (13 Dec. 1940)-v. 72, no. 18 (30 Apr. 1943)--Image 146 of 1078.

Note:  This would be a transcription of the obituary if it weren't for the fact that I corrected the 3 times that they used the word Rockdale when referring to Rockvale.  

Finding Cousin Ruth in the 1940 Federal Census

This post is a continuation of my previous post about my Dad's paternal 1st Cousin, Margaret Ruth Thompson Cooper.  If you haven't read that earlier post and click on her name in the previous sentence.  I'm going to refer to her as Ruth because that is what my family always called her.  On Ruth's death certificate it lists her legal residence as 129 6th Avenue South, Nashville, Tennessee.  I'd never been able to find Ruth thru a search of the census so now that I had the address where she was residing in 1941(and also listed there in 1940 directory as mentioned in the earlier post), I took that information and went looking for the Enumeration District for that address using the Steve Morse Census Tool.
From locating the address on a Google Map earlier I could see that the intersecting street was McGavock which narrowed it down to 2 Enumeration Districts.  I then browsed to the first of the two districts mentioned which had 12 pages and read those looking at the Street names.  Nothing...on to the next Enumeration District.  About halfway thru the 20 something pages, I find the address.  Margaret Ruth Thompson Cooper is listed as Margaret Moore.  No wonder I couldn't find her.  This is really odd to me because earlier in the directory for 1940 she is listed under last name Coopermore and the only one listed at the address in the directory. In the Census there are 4 other women who are in their 20s living at the same residence. Three of those women are divorced and one is widowed.   Some answers but more questions.  Are all these Margaret Cooper's the same person?

Newspapers.com - The Tennessean - 30 Mar 1941 - Page 31

A few thoughts 

1. I know from the information on the Death Certificate that the person listed is Cousin Ruth.  Her parents' names, place, and date of birth are exactly as they should be.  Too, we have her maternal 1st Cousin as the informant.  The residence on the Death Certificate and the census are the same so it seems likely that it was her.

Snippets from Tennessee, Death Records, 1908-1958 Ancestry.com 2011 Provo UT

From TN Death Certificate of Margaret Ruth Cooper who died March 22 , 1941

2.  She's listed as divorced in the census AND on the death certificate.  Her former husband B. V. Cooper remarried in 1939.

Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.Nashville, Davidson, Tennessee; Roll: m-t0627-03972; Page: 6A; ED: 99-42

3.  Why is the name/word "more" or  Moore listed in both the directory AND the census?

Very odd unless she was married to a Moore and divorced sometime in between her 1st marriage and 1940.  Also to have the word more added on the end of her surname Cooper in the directory is odd.  She is noted as the person who gave the info for herself in the 1940 Census.  

4.  I think my next plan of action should be to look at the other four persons enumerated with her and see if I can determine any connections.  

5.  Additionally, I need to find her divorce records from B. V. Cooper.  

An Address--Past and Present--Ruth Thompson Cooper

My Dad's paternal 1st cousin Margaret Ruth Thompson Cooper passed away in 1941 from tuberculosis.  I have a digital copy of her death certificate which lists her address as 129 6th Avenue S, Nashville, Tennessee.  On seeing the address and noting that the certificate said she had been sick for 6 months I had thought the address was probably a hospital or one of the sick houses for those with TB.  So I went looking thru the 1940 Nashville City Directory for that address. I found her listed but her surname has the word "more" added to the end of it.  I checked the abbreviation key page and didn't find "more" listed.  If it is a boarding house and there are more people why are their names not listed? Odd.

I was curious to see what is in that location today so I checked the address on Google Maps.   Today that would be near the Ryman Auditorium, Bridgestone Arena and not far from Nissan Stadium.  She is listed there in the 1940 and 1941 directory.  In the 1938 directory,  she is listed at 107½ 4th Avenue North, Nashville, Tennessee.  The 4th Avenue address is only a few blocks away and is closer to the Ryman Auditorium.  Given this information, it seems that this was a neighborhood she had live in for at least 4 yrs.

Google Map for 129 6th Avenue South, Nashville Tennessee

Margaret was listed as Mrs. in her last two directory entries.  She had married in 1933 in Williamson Co TN to Burgess V Cooper.  I haven't found her divorce yet but Burgess remarries in 1939 and she is listed as divorced on her Death Certificate.The informant on her Death Certificate was her cousin J. W. Cook, son of her maternal Uncle Clarence Cook.  There were many from my family who died of TB within the 1920 to 1945 timeframe.  

I've not been able to find her in the 1940 census but with the information obtained from her Death Certificate I know she was still alive and the city directories tell me where she is living.  I really need to do a bit more digging and get her story out.  I feel like I have just scratched the surface. 

Notes: 

Ancestry.com. Tennessee, Death Records, 1908-1958 [https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=2376]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. TN Death Cert of Mrs. Margaret Ruth Cooper (Davidson Co. TN 1941)

Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=2469]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Browsed to the TN--Nashville ---1940 listing Nashville, Tennessee, City Directory, 1940

Image 115 of 748 (listed alphabetically by surname)
Image 673 of 748 (by street address)


Google Maps Address 129 6th Avenue South, Nashville, Tennessee(accessed 2/22/2018)