"I am like a lost sheep in the world:": The Letters of Jeannette Cooley

Last week's History Note told the story behind the inscription on James Cooley's cenotaph in Longmeadow Cemetery. A cenotaph is a monument without a body. As a reminder, Cooley died at age 37 of typhus only nine months after beginning his tenure while serving in Lima, Peru as the United States Charge D'Affaires. This second part of the story will focus on his wife Jeannette, who accompanied him to Peru.

Jeannette Cooley wrote frequent letters home to her sister, Eliza, from her new home in Peru. Her husband had been named the United States' first Charge D'Affaires to Peru after the country was recognized. Born in Guilford, Connecticut, Jeannette had settled in Ohio. Though her husband was a prominent lawyer, state senator, and elector (for the Presidential Electoral college), the appointment to Peru must have come as a shock. He wasn't President John Quincy Adams' first choice, and he was relatively unknown.

Her first letter is written about their "long and tedious" journey to Lima by way of the Straits of Magellan. She "had two narrow escapes from the hands of death" during the voyage. The first was due to a storm: "our ship was tost [sic] from side to side, and the foaming mountain waves appeard to show with what anger they allowed us to pass." After passing Cape Horn, Jeannette was ill "for the want of medical skill my life was dispaired of." The passage took one hundred and three days to reach dry land at Valparaiso in Chile. From there they stopped at Coquimbo, and then Callao before entering the walls of Lima.

Appointed to his position in February 1826, it was many months of travel before James Cooley and his wife reached their destination. Jeannette seemed ill-prepared to take up diplomatic life in Peru. Her comments about the country were unflattering, to say the least, and reflect the culture shock that challenged her early New England sensibilities: "In the first place the whole coast of South America is not worth the comforts of one little Village in the U.S., for comforts is a word not in the Language or known in the Country." Keep in mind that she didn't actually speak the language! She describes the houses as being decorated with many silver objects like looking glasses and picture frames, but "at the same time with all of this silver they will live on a brick floor without a chair in the house." She goes on to say "Chairs carpets and knives and forks were a thing unknown in Lima untill lately but they are beginning to use them in the best houses."

Jeannette Cooley was impressed with the churches, though she says that the "Priests are constant attendants at Bull Fights and Cock fights!" The ladies of Lima "have fine black eyes and pretty feet" but they "smoke a segar which they all do from old to young rich or poor."

Clothing styles were also quite different from what Jeannette was used to: "they have their dresses made very short in order to show her pretty stockings and shoes. They never wear any bonnets, they are a thing almost unknown in S. A. and have onely been worn by the few English or American ladies. They are in general very fat and wear no jackets or corsets of any kind in common and their dress made loose and low in the neck." She describes the daily garb of the women as the daya (saya) and Mana (manto). These two garments were worn in such a way as to "conceal them-selves altogether except one eye." "A Lady will go any where with this dress, and not be known by her own husband or brother, I cannot give yo a correct idea of this dress with out sending you a painting. It is the most indecent dress to a foreign eye."

Image of a woman wearing a saya and manto, 1830

Library of Congress

She found the everyday items very expensive, like "Beef 18 cents a pound, flour from 20 to 30 dollars a barrel." "We have to buy our water in the City is supplied by a fountain that stands in this centere, and wood is the dearest thing of of all, with the greatest economy you must 75 cents a day and some times more for this article and we use it for nothing but cooking in a furnace as there is not a fire place in Lima." Jeannette rarely mentions her husband in these missives to home: "As to politicks I do not meddle with them, since the arrival of Le Mar our president I have been to a Bull fight and a splendid Ball, at the Palace." It seems that she was finally impressed with the parties, at least! She was very homesick and missed her family--it seemed that the mail was very unreliable: "we have not heard a word from any of you since we left home which you know must make me miserable, I beg and pray you to write often. I am like a lost sheep in the world."

Her postscript the next day included a description of their experience with an earthquake "we have had an Earthquake (blank) very severe this is the forth we have felt. our house rocked like a cradle, and we were much frightened." As awful as that was, the next line describes some seeds they have sent to Ohio of the Chirimoya (Annoma cherimola, custard apple) that they hope will thrive there. Jeannette says "it is a species of the Paw Paw, it is the finest fruit in South America, they grow as large as a tea pot."

Chermoya, which Mark Twain called "the most delicious fruit known to man"

Just two months later, Jeannette had changed her tone in a letter to her sister. She had just returned from a trip to a nearby Indian village called Lurin. She described it as "one of the richest valley's in Peru, it is a beautiful little green valley surrounded by sand hills, and the Sea. On one of these hills lies the ruins of Pachacamac, and the temple of the Sun." She goes on to describe the ruins, including the many relics that were strewn about. Her enthusiasm might have also been due in part to the amiable company, "as there was a large party of us spent our time very pleasantly riding on horse back and accompanying the Gentlemen to shoot ducks." They were warned about highway robbers, but "we set out merrily upon the full gallop." As promised to her sister in her earlier letter, Jeannette now set out to describe a Ball given by President Le Mar. Jeannette was obviously impressed by the riches displayed, "the young ladies were dressed with some taste, and some with their twenty thousand dollars worth of diamonds." There were tables furnished with all kinds of useful and beautiful items such as flowers, stockings, fruit, and "Cegars." Jeannette passed a very enjoyable evening, and she was amazed at an usual custom that was associated with events such as this ball "what is the most strange thing is that no party can be given without most every think stolen, some times not a plate, knife nor fork, nor spoon, and even the meats all is gone nothing remains, not even the table cloth. There is a lady got a turky by the leg and puting it under her shawl. This custom of stealing has always been allowed." She concludes the letter with pleas for letters from home "if you let us know that you are in existence it is better than silence." The final letter is one written to Jeannette in May of 1828, several months after James Cooley's death. It was written by a Mr. Wetmore, detailing the stores that he has arranged for her return trip and advice about what to do when she arrived back in the United States. The list of stores included cheese, salmon, dried apples, 8 dozen Fowls, 4 doz. Ducks, 6 Fenegas (fanegas is a Spanish bushel) sweet potatoes and 6 Canasters of Gingerbread. We know that Jeannette safely returned to Ohio after her adventure in Peru. She married again, to another Longmeadow transplant, Jonathan Ely. After his death, she married a third time, to Robert Neil. According to a gravestone in Ohio, Jeannette lived to 1899. Her gravestone includes her first husband James Cooley, as well as her second. This means that James Cooley has a grave in Peru, a cenotaph in his hometown of Longmeadow, and a second cenotaph in Ohio.

List of supplies for Mrs. Cooley's journey home from Peru

-Contributed by Betsy McKee, Longmeadow Historical Society Board Member

Originally published October 6, 2022 -Copies of letters courtesy of the Champaign County (Ohio) Historical Society Museum in Urbana, Ohio. Transcriptions by Betsy McKee Note: Spelling appears directly as transcribed from the letters

"What does that mean on that gravestone?"

Cooley family gravestone, Longmeadow Cemetery

James Cooley Died at Lima while Charge d'affairs for U.S. to Peru.

Feb. 24, 1828, AE 37.

Recently, we were giving a graveyard tour to two visitors, stopping to describe the usual gravestone details: carvers, symbolism, type of stone, genealogy, etc. One particular granite obelisk had the names of several members of the Cooley family inscribed on it. In addition to Calvin Cooley and Eunice Cooley was the name James Cooley, their son. The full text read: "James Cooley, died, at Lima while Charge d'affaires for U. S. to Peru, February 24, 1828, aged 37." Our visitors' simple question, "what does that mean?", sent us into full-on research mode. First, we searched the genealogy information from our go-to reference for all matters of early Longmeadow family lines, the Proceedings at the Centennial Celebration of the Incorporation of the Town of Longmeadow, October 17th, 1883." Here, we confirmed that James' parents were indeed Eunice and Calvin, and that he was the oldest of eight children. An Ancestry.com search revealed his original birth record: "James Cooley, son of Calvin Cooley and Eunice his wife was born April 7th, 1791." Being late in the evening, we continued the search via the internet, where we learned that James died of a "putrid fever," namely typhus, after only four days of illness. Merriam-Webster helped us with the definition of 'charge d'affaires,' which we learned was a diplomat who serves as an embassy's 'chief of mission' in the absence of the ambassador (there was no ambassador at the time). Cooley was the first charge d'affaires of the U.S. to Peru. The U.S. was the first "to acknowledge the political existence of the Spanish-American states, and to speak, with a voice of thunder, against the machinations which prevailed in Europe to re-colonize them" (Genealogybank.com, Connecticut Journal August 21, 1827). He was charged with "promoting free trade, implementing a policy of preferential tariffs and broadening bilateral relations."

We consulted the archives at the Storrs House Museum, where we found copies of typed, transcribed letters translated from Spanish to English detailing James Cooley's time in Peru and donated by Frederick B. Eveleth in 1927. From these transcribed letters, we learned that young James showed scholastic promise, and was sent to Monson Academy (now Wilbraham & Monson Academy).

First Monson Academy - Opened in 1806

After completing his studies there, he went on to Yale, where he graduated in the class of 1814. He studied law in Springfield for a year and then relocated to Urbana, Ohio. Many people from New England made the migration west to New York State, Ohio, and points further west. Ohio, which had only been admitted to the Union in 1803, was far less settled than the streets of New England that James Cooley had grown up on. An early 20th Century Ohio historian wrote, "In the early days of mud roads and log cabins, the lawyers rode the circuit with the judge, on horseback, from county to county, equipped with old fashioned leggings and saddlebags, averaging about thirty miles a day. The party had their appointed stopping places and, where they were expected on their arrival, the chickens, dried apples, maple sugar, corn dodgers, and old whiskey suffered, while the best storytellers regaled the company with their humor and anecdotes"(Bryan). Cooley was admitted to the bar in Ohio and took a partner named Calvin Fletcher - who would later name his own son James Cooley Fletcher in honor of his partner. James Cooley married Jeannette Chittenden in 1823, whose family had originally come from Guilford, CT. Cooley served in several capacities in the Ohio government, including as a State Senator. In 1826 he was nominated by President John Quincy Adams to be the first Charge d'Affaires to the newly recognized country of Peru. There were many who thought that this appointment was wholly deserved and reflected well on the state of Ohio: "...a young man of brilliant parts, of fine appearance and prepossessing manners and stood in the front rank of his associates." Others, however, like The Newburyport Herald asked: "who the devil's James Cooley?" The trip from Ohio, to Washington, then on to Peru was a long and arduous one. Having been appointed in February, James Cooley didn't arrive in Washington until November. The Ohio Monitor asked about the long delay: "It may be worth some little calculation to solve this question 'if it takes nine months to go from Ohio to Washington City, how many years will take to go from the City of Washington to Lima a distance of 8,000 miles." Nevertheless, Cooley and Jeannette arrived in Peru on May 14th, 1827 on the American Frigate "Georgia Packet," having traveled by way of the Straits of Magellan. His wife described the voyage as taking "one hundred and three days."

Springfield Republican, December 20, 1826 (Genealogybank.com)

Cooley wasted no time in presenting his credentials to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Peru, Mr. Francisco Javier Mariategui. According to a translated and transcribed letter by Antonio Espinosa Saldana written in 1927, "Mr. Cooley's presence as a diplomatic representative, was looked upon with great approval in Peru. The independence of the country at that time was only recognized by the Spanish-American countries, England and France and even the United States of North America, up until the appointment of Mr. Cooley, had only provided for Consuls in Peru." James Cooley's tenure in Peru was brief, and he died nine months later, after an illness of only four days, on February 24, 1828, at the age of 36. He was not buried in Lima's Catholic Cemetery, but in a Protestant Cemetery on a nearby island. He left his distraught wife, who did not speak the language, to make her long way home.

Connecticut Herald, July 1, 1828 (Genealogybank.com)

So we learned quite a bit from that simple granite marker, which is really a cenotaph for James Cooley. A cenotaph is a grave marker for someone whose remains are interred elsewhere. Stay tuned for Part II, which is the story of the Cooley's time in Peru, as described by letters from Jeannette Cooley to her sister back home. -Contributed by Betsy McKee, Longmeadow Historical Society Board Member

Originally published September 29, 2022 Sources:

Ancestry.com Bryan Charles Edwin. History of Madison County, Ohio, Ohio: Its People, Industries and Institutions Cooley, Jeannette. Letters at Champaign County [Ohio] Historical Society Museum Dexter, Franklin Bowditch. Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with Annals of the College History, Vol. VI September, 1805-September 1815 Genealogybank.com (Springfield Republican and Connecticut Herald) Longmeadow Historical Society Archives, Storrs, Richard Salter. Proceedings at the Centennial Celebration of the Incorporation of the Town of Longmeadow, October 17th, 1883

The Road Through the Meadows

Cover of 1960 Annual Report, Town of Longmeadow, Massachusetts

Until the late 1950’s, most vehicles traveling north and south along the Connecticut River rode on U.S. Route 5. On its path from New Haven, CT to the Canadian border, Route 5 passed through cities and towns in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont. In Longmeadow, it traveled the full length of Longmeadow Street. Route 5 was a very busy road and it kept getting busier. Along Longmeadow Street, traffic counts numbered between 15,000 and 25,000 cars and trucks per day. Alarmed by the uptick in traffic, government officials in Connecticut and Massachusetts created a plan to move Route 5 out of town centers by building a limited access highway from Hartford to Springfield. The new Route 5 highway was designed to accommodate up to 25,000 vehicles per day as it passed through Longmeadow. While Connecticut proceeded to build its portion of the new roadway, Massachusetts was a bit slower to do so. Longmeadow Selectmen voiced their concerns to the state on many occasions. At a 1953 meeting, Selectmen “registered our unanimous deep concern for the safety of our inhabitants, if the proposed Connecticut State Expressway, which will be limited access, should funnel its high speed traffic through Longmeadow Street on its way to Springfield, Massachusetts.” Nevertheless, the Selectmen persisted, advocating for the expressway until they achieved success. The 1955 Longmeadow Annual Report stated that, “The failure of the State Legislature to approve the state bond issue in 1955 delayed the construction and relocation of Route 5 through Longmeadow. Commissioner Volpe has assured us that the engineering necessary for the project is almost complete and with favorable action by the new session of the Legislature we look forward to the start of construction in 1956. The ever increasing traffic on Longmeadow Street has kept your Selectmen constantly in touch with the State Department of Public Works, by letter and conference, to accelerate this project.” Placement of the Roadway As plans developed, there were discussions about where to put the roadway. Several different locations in the Longmeadow meadows were considered. One location, west of the existing New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad tracks, was popular with many Longmeadow residents and they traveled to Boston to advocate for this location. However, the Commonwealth Department of Public Works and the federal government rejected their request, citing the enormous costs needed to secure and elevate the roadway above the floodplain in that area.

Relocation of Route 5 in Longmeadow, Commonwealth of Massachusetts,

Department of Public Works, Sept. 20, 1956. Page 1.

Courtesy of the Town of Longmeadow Planning Board.

Relocation of Route 5 in Longmeadow, Commonwealth of Massachusetts,

Department of Public Works, Sept. 20, 1956. Page 2.

Courtesy of the Town of Longmeadow Planning Board.

Instead, the Department of Public Works decided to place the expressway east of the tracks and on August 27, 1956 the Town of Longmeadow Planning Board approved the Commonwealth’s plan. In 1957, the expressway was renamed. President Dwight D. Eisenhower had signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act in June, 1956, providing federal funding for a new nationwide system of interstate limited-access highways. By February 1957, the planned expressway along the Connecticut River had been incorporated into the new system. It was now designated as Interstate 91. Route 5 was to remain where it was – on Longmeadow Street. The land slated to hold the new highway was, not surprisingly, already owned. By eminent domain, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Public Works acquired thirteen parcels of land on September 20, 1958.

Construction of the Roadway

Two construction firms built the road. Lane Construction Corp. of Meriden, CT. was awarded the contract to build the Route 5 expressway from Enfield, CT to north of Emerson Road and Daniel O’Connell’s Sons, Inc. of Holyoke was contracted to build the expressway from north of Emerson Road to Longhill Street in Springfield.

The Longmeadow section of I-91 was completed in 1959 but it was not opened for traffic until November 5, 1960. This was a month after Connecticut had extended its portion of the highway from Hartford to Longmeadow. Officials held a large celebration event and vehicles travelled the road for the first time. Police saw a noticeable drop in traffic on Route 5 immediately afterwards.

Springfield Union, Nov. 4, 1960

Impact of Interstate 91 Today, Longmeadow residents rarely think about Interstate 91. Though it passes through our town, one cannot access the expressway in Longmeadow – northbound travelers access the roadway in Springfield and southbound travelers access it in Enfield, CT. Nevertheless, the interstate still significantly impacts Longmeadow today.

• Longmeadow has fewer ways to access the Connecticut River shoreline. Connection to the river has always been important to the peoples who have lived on Longmeadow lands. For thousands of years, the Agawam people lived on both sides of the river and they fished in it and used canoes to travel along it. The first English settlers in Longmeadow were deeded lands along the banks of the Connecticut River; like their predecessors, they relied on the river for transportation and for fishing. Residents today mainly use the river for recreational purposes. The 1946 map of Longmeadow shows that five roads (Field Road, Emerson Road, Birnie Road, Bark Haul Road, and Meadow Road) crossed the tracks, allowing vehicles to get to the banks of the river. Today, only two roads, Emerson Road and Bark Haul Road, will take you west of the expressway.

U.S. Dept. of the Interior Geological Survey, Springfield South Mass.-Conn. Edition of 1946. Courtesy of the Town of Longmeadow Planning Board.

• The topography of other portions of Longmeadow changed when soil from undeveloped land was trucked to the interstate to be used as fill. The roadway is elevated from the meadow flatlands to protect it from possible flooding. The expressway was built to a minimum elevation 70, which is 14 feet above the railroad tracks (elevation 56), and fill was needed to raise it to elevation 70. The Longmeadow Planning Board reported in the 1958 Annual Report that it “gave approval to 13 Topographical Plans showing proposed fill removals within the Town, all of which was to be used only for the construction of the re-location of Route 5 (new Route 91) within the Town.” According to a 1959 article, “Lane’s contract entailed massive amounts of fill to raise the roadbed high above the level of the surrounding Longmeadow flatlands.” Daniel O’Connell’s Sons, Inc., which built the Longmeadow Curve part of the expressway, was required to bring in over 330,000 cubic yards of new fill.

• Longmeadow Street is spared the huge volume of through-traffic which travels on Interstate 91. Pre-Covid traffic counts showed that ~74,529 vehicles/day (2012 study) traveled on the Longmeadow section of Interstate 91 – tripling the original road capacity of 25,000 vehicles. In addition, a 2009 traffic study showed that ~22,786 vehicles/day traveled through the intersection at the north end of Longmeadow Street. These numbers combine to close to a 100,000 vehicles. Most of us have witnessed the bumper-to-bumper traffic which extends the length of Longmeadow Street when an accident on I-91 diverts traffic to Route 5. Imagine that going both directions throughout the day. Yikes!

In 1960, Interstate 91 ended in Springfield at a Longhill Street interchange just below the South End Bridge. There was much debate in Springfield about where to locate the expressway and construction of I-91 through Springfield was not completed until 1970. The expressway’s impact on Springfield has been dramatic, cutting through long-established communities, relocating businesses, and limiting potential revitalization activities along the Connecticut River. Contributed by Beth Hoff, Longmeadow Historical Society Board Member

Originally published September 22, 2022 Resources: Bianca Damiano, Recorder, Planning Board & ZBA Springfield Union: Feb. 12, 1958; Feb. 14, 1958; Oct. 21, 1958; Aug. 1, 1959; Nov. 1, 1960; Nov. 4, 1960; Nov. 5, 1960; Nov. 7, 1960 1955 Longmeadow Annual Report 1958 Longmeadow Annual Report 1960 Longmeadow Annual Report Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, Interstate Route I-91 Corridor Planning Study Springfield, Massachusetts: Interchanges 1 through 5. Existing Conditions Report, July 2015 MassDOT, Interstate 91 Viaduct Study Springfield, Massachusetts, August 2018 WGBY, Connecting Point, “Events That Rocked the Region: The Construction of Interstate 91” May 14, 2018