Tag: family feud

“To Pay the Debt”

LOCATION: Alabama; Texas
PERIOD: 1955-2015
DRAMATIS PERSONAE: Frank Roy “Th’ Cunn’l” Cooper (1823-1865); Luther “Luth” Cooper (1827-1876); Charles “Charlie” Cooper  (1918-2015); Lucas Keith Cooper (1897-1965); Luther “Sonny Boy” Cooper (1925-1965); Henry Barbour (1848-1924); Charles Thomas Barbour (1933-1955).

Charles “Charlie” Cooper  (1918-2013) was the oldest remaining link to a Cooper family dispute tht had raged for 100 years.  The patriarch of the family was Frank Roy “Th’ Cunn’l” Cooper (1823-1865), who fought and died in the Civil War.  He’d owned a slave, Henry Barbour (1848-1924), who was treated not as a slave but as Frank Cooper’s partner and trusted aide.  Cooper was an engineer, architect, and builder and Henry served as his construction foreman, overseeing all the work.

Frank Cooper was killed in the last battle of the war on April 14, 1865, a week after Lee surrendered at Appomattox, however word had not gotten to the western theater and fighting had continued. After Frank’s death, Henry managed the plantation, the various businesses, and supported Frank’s widow until she died.  Henry Barbour also erected a memorial gravestone, with the inscription “placed in lasting remembrance of the love and gratitude he felt for his lost friend and former master.”

Frank Cooper had a half brother, same father – different mother, Luther “Luth” Cooper (1827-1876).  Luth was nothing like Frank: intolerant, angry, resentful, and a racist – essentially the opposite of Frank Cooper.  Three generations later, Luther’s toxic line of the Cooper family would produce Luther “Sonny Boy” Cooper (1925-1965) who would unwittingly be among the mob that lynched Henry Barbour’s great-grandson, Charles Thomas Barbour (1933-1955) on the night of July 10, 1955.

A decade later, 100 years to the day that Frank Cooper died in the last battle of the Civil war, Lucas Cooper, who knew the whole history of the Barbour family and their importance to the Coopers, fought and killed Sonny Cooper, his cousin, as well as dying himself in the struggle.

TO PAY THE DEBT
(F. D. Leone, Jr.)

“I’m old and ornery, got a lot to say;
Be ninety-seven on my next birthday.
Went to prison, twenty-five to life;
Sheriff claimed I shot my wife.”

“After forty I was paroled,
By then I was seventy years old.
That’s when I chose to make my exit,
Left Alabama for West Texas.”

“Frank & Luther Cooper were half brothers,
But were nothing like each other.
Frank, The Cunn’l, was Luther’s opposite;
Luther resentful, The Cunn’l tolerant.”

“Henry Barbour was Cunn’l Cooper’s slave;
Cunn’l treated Henry equal all his days.
My daddy Lucas knew the good Henry done;
And how a Cooper killed his great-grandson.”

The cards have been dealt,
The devil took the bet;
It’s way too late today …
To pay the debt.

“Luth’s great-grandson Sonny was no good;
Ran around in a sheet and hood.
I’m going back to 1955,
That July night Charlie Barbour died.”

“He was lynched by the Klan,
Just because he was a black man.
My cousin Sonny drank whiskey to forget;
Some secrets can’t be kept.”

“Daddy swore to avenge Charlie’s death,
And he did when he got the chance.
He met Sonny on the 14th Street bridge;
Daddy was both jury and judge.”

“They fought and both tumbled down,
Into rushing water muddy brown.
Two Coopers lived; two Coopers died;
April 14, 1965.”

The cards have been dealt,
The devil took the bet;
It’s way too late today …
To pay the debt.

© 2025 Frank David Leone, Jr./Highway 80 Music (ASCAP). The songs and stories on the Highway 80 Stories website are works of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

“From Burden to Bowden”

LOCATION: Dallas County, Texas
PERIOD: 1850s-2010s
DRAMATIS PERSONAE: Henry Baxter (Burden) “Bowden” (1833-1915); Bertha Caldwell (1835-1918); Alan Edward Burden (1850-1916); Archibald Edward Burden (1802-1859); Margaret Alice Bowden (1918); Earl Walker (1996).

Henry Baxter (Burden) “Bowden” (1833-1915) was a thorn in the side of his family, especially his father and older brother. During the years before the Civil War Henry began to find meaning in the Abolitionist Movement, and became politically activated in that direction. This of course rubbed the rest of his family and neighbors the wrong way. While the majority of Southerners were strongly in favor of maintaining slavery, most were too poor to own slaves themselves, but as a matter of pride in their region they would fight to preserve the institution.

Things came to a head when Henry inlisted in a Union regiment and actually went to war against his family and state. His company saw a lot of action, and he fought at Gettysburg where he lost his arm.

The song begins with one of his later descendants, Earl Walker (1996), describing how his grandmother, Margaret Alice Bowden (1918), ended up with Henry’s wooden arm prothesis which, for some reason, they had kept and passed down through the family.

FROM BURDEN TO BOWDEN
(F. D. Leone, Jr.)

Grandma kept that wood arm in the attic;
We used to take it out on Halloween; run around with it.
Was told it was worth some money by a Dallas appraiser;
The army gave him that one; he was buried with a better one he got later.
Funny after all this time, how things turn out;
The Bowdens were a big deal in Texas, I don’t misdoubt.

First heard of Henry when I was a child,
Told he didn’t talk much, never smiled.
Stand-offish, had gotten above his raising.
Had some queer ideas, like going to hear a-coupla Yankees debating;
He’d wander off with a book, on his own;
One day he just spoke up, said “slavery’s wrong.”

The Burdens was poor, had no slaves, didn’t much care;
Only fought cause them blue bellies had come down there.
After it was done, they never forgave or forgot;
The Burdens cursed Henry, cuz it was for the North that he had fought.
When Henry lost his arm his daddy claimed,
“You can bet it was a Burden that blew th’ arm away.”

Married Bertha Caldwell; they had a bunch of kids;
Ten or twelve, a big number like that, they did.
Took the whole bunch to Texas,1885 or 6;
His grandson got into oil; they got pretty rich.
Strange thing was, after Henry changed his name,
You’d a-thot they been happy? Nah; was just more ashamed.

At the Gettysburg reunion old enemies embraced;
Henry’s nephew, Alan, only showed up to spit in his face.
Them Burdens could carry a grudge; quick to take offense;
Specially if it was some kin of theirs; Henry made no amends.
That was long ago, a hundred years by now;
Just some stories I been told, anyhow …

© 2025 Frank David Leone, Jr./Highway 80 Music (ASCAP). The songs and stories on the Highway 80 Stories website are works of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.