frank
Frank Cooley and his widowed mother were persuaded to move to Dakota Territory in 1882 by De Smet land agent, Alfred Waters; the two families had known each other for many years in New York. Both Frank and his mother held claims near De Smet.

It was Frank Cooley who went into partnership with Cap Garland hauling goods in De Smet. It was Frank Cooley who, along with liveryman John Pierson, purchased the sheep owned by Laura Ingalls Wilder and her cousin Peter Ingalls and mentioned in The First Four Years.

Emma and Frank Cooley visited the Columbian Exposition (Chicago World's Fair) in 1893, where they learned about "the land of the big red apple" and decided to check it out.

It was Frank Cooley who traveled to Missouri by train in 1893 and purchased two farms near Mansfield, one of them intended for Almanzo Wilder (as there was a problem with earlier deeds on these farms, neither the Cooleys nor the Wilders took possession of these farms). It was Laura and Almanzo Wilder who followed the Cooley family to Missouri.
- posted by pioneergirl at 10:27 PM