Our Collier family has origins in New York. Mother, Eliza, was born in 1798. I do not know her husband's name. There are four known children, born in the 1820's in New York: James Hamilton, David Henry, Alexander Cornelius and Lavina Ann Collier. David Henry was born in Jefferson County. Possibly the others were also.

     The family moved to Fort Madison, Lee County, Iowa sometime before 1850. All three of the brothers migrated to California before 1870. James Hamilton and Alexander Cornelius settled in Yuba County. David Henry's children settled and named Elsinore, California.

     My great-great grandmother is Lavina Ann Collier. In 1851 she married Jessie James Cooper and had six children. About 1880 the family moved to Paradise, Wise County, Texas. where she died in 1893.

     My grandmother, Jimmie Gibson, told me about her grandmother. Lavinia smoked a corn cob. Many times she would make Jimmie light it for her. If she didn't do it to her satisfaction, Lavinia would backhand Jimmie.

Allied Families

Cooper