US Naval Records: John Laver Mather / John Cooper

[Ruth]

I've just stumbled across John Laver Mather aka John Cooper who was awarded the Medal of Honour twice during the 1860s while serving with the US Navy.  There's some secondary information on the web, e.g.:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8040688

Is he likely to have a naval record stored in a US archive somewhere which is not available online?  I wonder how it is known that he changed his name from John Laver Mather?  And he's proving hard to track down in the US census after his naval service and before his burial in 1891 so any help would be appreciated with that!

I think he was the son of John and Susanna Mather who were living in Liverpool, England in 1841 with a 13-year-old son John who was not born in Lancashire.  He was baptised in Liverpool - but not until 1832 - as John Lever or Laver Mather.  The coincidence of the name, his age in the 1841 census, and the fact his brother, William, is described as a seaman when he is listed in North Providence, Rhode Island in the 1850 census staying with his grandmother Sarah Segar/Seager, all suggest this could be a match.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

Ruth

[shellyesq]

There's some information about John Cooper here - http://www.cmohs.org/recipient-detail/291/cooper-john.php  I'm not sure what accredited to New York means, but I would think it means that he enlisted in New York or was living there.

There is a John Cooper in the 1890 Veterans' Schedule who was living in New Brighton, Staten Island, New York.  On the sheet, it says his rank was quartermaster, and under Regiment or Vessel, it says Brooklyn.  It says he enlisted Sep. 1864 and was discharged Oct. 1866.  That seems to line up with the above information.

[Ruth]

Thanks shellyesq - that's really helpful!  I hadn't spotted the Veterans' Schedules on Ancestry.  Seems he was in a sailors' home with the wonderful name of Sailors Snug Harbor.

[shellyesq]

You're welcome.

Have you followed any of the family members that were in Rhode Island forward?  If they died before John, maybe an obituary would mention where John was living?

[Ruth]

His grandmother, Sarah Seager/Segar died in Providence on 12 Sep 1854.  There's a brief death notice for her in the English newspaper the Liverpool Mercury (which is how I found out she was in the US at all).  Where should I look for an obituary in the US?  I haven't been able to find the brother, William Mather, after 1850.

As it has been suggested that John Laver Mather changed his name to John Cooper, this rather implies that he wanted nothing to do with his family, so I suspect it's a long shot.  I'm also trying to find whether his father left a will mentioning his sons.

Thanks again for your help.

[shellyesq]

There's some information here about the sailors' home:  http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nyrichmo/ssh.html  It says towards the bottom that they will search for their records for no charge, so maybe that's an angle worth pursuing. 

[johnnyboy]

There is a John Cooper in the 1890 Veterans' Schedule who was living in New Brighton, Staten Island, New York.  On the sheet, it says his rank was quartermaster, and under Regiment or Vessel, it says Brooklyn.  It says he enlisted Sep. 1864 and was discharged Oct. 1866. 

There is a Wikipedia page for John Laver Mather Cooper: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Laver_Mather_Cooper. His birthplace is given as Dublin, Ireland, which may throw a spanner/wrench into the works.

Sailors Snug Harbor, apparently the first home for "aged mariners" in the U.S.,  is still in business today as Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden, a National Historic District at the northwestern corner of Staten Island. Read about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailors_Snug_Harbor.

The John Cooper that Shelly refers to in the quote above may be the man you're seeking. West Brighton, Staten Island, where he was living in 1890, is the location of Snug Harbor. And "Brooklyn" under Regiment/Vessel may refer to the first USS Brooklyn, which was commissioned in 1858 and fought in the U.S. Civil War. To read about the USS Brooklyn, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Brooklyn_%281858%29

John Cooper and other members of Brooklyn's crew are listed in the section of the Brooklyn article dealing with the Battle of Mobile Bay, one of the best-remembered naval battles of the Civil War, partly because Union admiral David Farragut yelled out "Damn the torpedos! Full speed ahead!"

The modern Snug Harbor's website is http://www.snug-harbor.org/index.html.

Regards,
John