James H. Cooper
James H. Cooper was born at Fishing Creek, South Carolina in 1778 to Captain Robert and Jane Hamilton Cooper. His professions were teaching school and farming. He married Peggy D. Brown.
During the War of 1812 he left South Carolina for Maury County, Tennessee, and joined the service to fight with Andrew Jackson. After the Battle of New Orleans he returned to South Carolina.
About 1839 he left again and settled in Marshall County, Mississippi, near Holly Springs. He remained there until about 1856, when he purchased land roughly two miles northwest of the present town of Falkner in Tippah County. He became postmaster in 1860 — at the age of eighty-two.
It was between 1856 and 1869 that he established the school known as Cooper Hill. James Cooper died in 1869 and is believed to be buried in Liberty Cemetery. He was a great-great-great-great uncle of the Walter McCoy children of Tippah County.
A cypress roof, then a clapboard replacement
The first building was a boxed frame structure with a cypress roof. Drinking water was obtained from a spring east of the school building.
By 1910 the old building had decayed and its foundation was resting on the ground. George McCowan, whose land joined the old school property, donated one acre for a new building. Lumber to build the new schoolhouse was purchased from Gus McGill’s sawmill in Benton County.
At the new location, drinking water came from a pump about a quarter-mile from the school house.
- Footprint
- 18′ × 30′Clapboard structure, built c. 1910
- Openings
- 6 windowsAnd a single door
- Heat
- 1 stoveWood-burning
- Blackboard
- ~20 planksPainted black above the stage
The building had a tongue-and-groove ceiling and a stage rising about a foot off the floor. On the wall above the stage, about twenty of the tongue-and-groove wall planks were painted black — that was the blackboard.
A day at Cooper Hill
School commenced at 8 a.m. and was dismissed at 4 p.m., with one hour for lunch and thirty minutes twice a day for recess. Students attended classes about five or six months a year.
Two long wooden benches were placed near the stage, facing it. Each class would come forward and receive its lesson while the remaining students sat at their desks and studied.
Some teachers paddled students when necessary in those days, but most used a switch. Often times, when naughty, students were sent to the woods to cut their own.
Some of those who were taught here
Cooper Hill School saw many students come and go. These names were recorded by the families who remembered them.
Students, by family
- Perrin
- Troy, Travis, Ruth, Lois and Gay Perrin
- Martindale
- Opal, Tas Jr. and Edgar Martindale
- Hopper
- Will, Ethel, Guile, Wardie, Virginia, Nettie, Ruby, Evie, Gerald, Daphine and Wright Hopper · Elmo, Alvis, Joyce, Martha and Buford Hopper
- McCowan
- Earnest, Trammell and Era McCowan
- Harrell
- Curtis, Casey, Iola and Ethel Harrell
- Buchanan
- Walter, Homer, Chris, Cora and Lamar Buchanan
- McMillin
- Ellis, Earnest, Everett, Thurston and William Earl McMillin. One of the earliest students was Porter S. McMillin.
- Labarreare
- John, Herman, Alfie, Dee, Niles, Olin, Doris, Mae, Elora, Lois, Mims and Daphine Labarreare
- Melton
- Lois Melton
Teachers
- Johnny Linebarger
- Emily Linebarger
- Jim Street
- Ida Linville
- Jettie Williams
- O’Cille Garrison
- Florence Crump
- Odis Childers
- Tom Jackson
- Willie Belle Alsup
- Monty Rowland
- Rob Rutledge
- Pearl Thompson
- Jettie Maddox
- Mable Peeler
- Tonia Jordan
- Mattie Lee Jones — the last teacher
Trustees
- Tas Martindale
- Burton Martindale
- Will Hopper
- Earnest McCowan
- Charley Harrell
Is a name missing?
These lists were assembled from family memory, and they are almost certainly incomplete. If you know of a student, teacher or trustee who belongs here — or you can correct a spelling — please tell us in the Falkner Heritage Facebook group or call 662-587-4067.
Believed to be the last of its kind in Tippah County.
Cooper Hill served its students for probably some sixty-seven years or more. It still stands today — restored, moved to Falkner Heritage Park, and believed to be the only one-room, one-teacher school still standing in Tippah County, Mississippi.
The building is now a working part of the museum. It holds displays and heirlooms, and it opens for community gatherings and events such as the Quilt Expo. Its original blackboard is still on the wall.
