The Chair: Volume I

John-5

Sam Cooper’s oldest son, William, had moved to Ohio before start of Civil war, though he did not serve in Union army, he was senior official in state in charge of many railroads as “Chief Scheduler & Timetable Official,” political patronage position created specifically for him that utilized his many administrative design engineering skills as “railroad man” overseeing transport logistics of men material sent to battle rebel armies in south, reporting directly to Maj. General James A. Garfield of 43rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, 20th Brigade, 6th Division, Army of Ohio. Terry Cooper is son of William, and father of John. William worked directly with John Augustus Roebling, known originally as Cincinnati & Covington Bridge, though war brought temporary halt to Roebling’s work. But in 1863 building of bridge over Ohio River which he had started in 1856, then halted due to lack of financing, but was finally finished in 1867. Cincinnati & Covington Bridge, later named John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge in his honor, was world's longest suspension bridge at time of its completion.

Sam Cooper’s last official act in office was to preserve the official records of the Confederate Army and turn them over intact to the United States government, where they form a part of the “Official Records, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies,” published in 1880. Military historians have highly regarded Cooper for this action. Historian Ezra J. Warner believed that in doing so Cooper was “thereby making a priceless contribution to the history of the period.” Great grandson John Allen Cooper, while at West Point, and later during various periods of his own military service, in times of contemplation and duress, would often refer to this history written by his great grandfather to learn administration, tactics, and strategy, but most of all for inspiration.

After war, Sam was farmer at his home, Cameron, near Alexandria, Virginia. Though his house had been taken over by U.S. government during war turned into fort, he was able to move into what had been overseer’s house. Because of advanced age Cooper earned meager living. On August 4, 1870, Robert E. Lee, on behalf of other former Confederate officers, sent Cooper three hundred dollars, Lee writing lengthy letter to him saying, “To this sum I have only been able to add $100, but I hope it may enable you to supply some immediate want to prevent you from taxing your strength too much.” Samuel Cooper died at his home in 1876, buried in Christ Church Episcopal Cemetery in Alexandria. Camp Cooper in Texas was named for Sam Cooper.

General Sam Houston of the Republic of Texas, and The Great State of Texas, once remarked later, to a reporter from New York City, while both “thinking and drinking” a fifth of Tennessee whiskey, about his “rag-tag, dirty, disorderly, but loyal” army. “Some are mathematicians, some are carpenter’s wives. I don’t know how it all got started. I don’t know what they do with their lives. Tangled up in blue.” Bob Dylan, a folk and rock icon of the later 1960s, used those words in one of his most famous songs, claiming to have thought it up, he said, while working on a fishing boat outside of Delacroix, after having briefly stayed in New Orleans on Montague Street.

Heirs to Sam Houston tried to collect damages from Dylan for copyright infringement, but Judge J.G. LeMaster, of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, ruled in favor of Dylan, because it was determined that Louisiana “Napoleonic Law” made no provision for the rights of artists, or publicly made off the cuff statements and reminiscences incorporated into musical lyrics or written works of fiction and non-fiction, beyond fifty years previous, making them de facto “part of the public domain.” Judge LeMaster, in his brief, stated “Although the statute of limitations in this case supersedes the merits of the case brought by the heirs of Houston, it is known to nearly any, even the most casual of lyrical observers, that Bob Dylan very likely had these words flash in his mind. These truths are self-evident and cannot perish from this earth. Further, it’s been over a hundred years, and whatever laws existed back then probably don’t apply any longer, what with the statute of limitations, especially for works of literature, music, and film.” Always the dramaticist, court scholars would marvel at LeMaster’s fondness for throwing in nonsensical mirth, as in the case with his last sentence, from previous political and constitutional recorded prose on print matter, a play on the evocative manner of such earlier prose. LeMaster would say later “This old Tulane laaaawwwyuhh was just havin’ some fun with you fine folks. But I know I am right.”

To this day, “The Idlewood Arch & Aqueduct” in now what is present day furthest southwest Houston, Texas, stands as a protective vanguard, sentinel, centurion, causeway, and safe harbor against invaders, tire slashers, cat killers, street racers, and door-to-door salesmen from all over the Western Hemisphere, and some from Japan and Portugal, too, who come to Texas seeking fame and fortune. It would, however, later face some incredible, nearly unbelievable, events not of its own doing, but because of circumstances beyond its control, simply a function of its location.

Vast infinite beauty of West was overwhelming to me. Days on end to get to next river. Mountains rising riding onward. Stopped in time, everyone came by left went goodbye, but I am still here.

On a cotton napkin left on a table after the John and Deborah reception, someone had scribed in likely India ink

“A chair came in during a hurricane.

The chair fell off the Philippine freighter.

The chair was used in a police interrogation.

To bash someone’s head in with.

Giovanni finds a chair on the beach.

All of girls with pretty flowers in hands.

Well, the girls all look prettier at closin’ time.”

Further, this message was found in a bottle on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico in Corpus Christi, Texas supposedly in 1983. Ronald Reagan was President. Historians, archeologists, anthropologists, and paleontologists are still trying to solve the meaning of this message. Some felt it was a code perhaps to trigger a follow up uprising by Germany after the Great War. After all, not all Germans of fighting age had died, although most had for sure. Others felt it was connected to a bank heist in Detroit the next month following the John and Deborah wedding. The Ohio State University has possession and control of the ongoing investigation.

Denise Faberschold announces to few friends family members in waiting room “So Jack shows up all neat at his mother’s gravesite after burial. Not before at hospital or at funeral home. Jane, her brother Leonard, at least all came to funeral mass.” She was wearing all black dress with some kind of cockamamie ‘pillbox’ hat with lattice festooned headpiece feather with mesh net over her face. Gold bird pin on her chest. I found out it was roadrunner. Part of her ‘Western Wind’ ad campaign from ‘Lana La Mode™,’ for Lana McCracken’s famous jewelry line “Lana Lux”®. Marvelous piece of jewelry, not at all ostentatious, it was gleaming.”

Leonard one who went with his sister Connie with her friend Kate to Philadelphia to see their Aunt Bess. Priest came out waved at everyone to sit after they all stood. Then they stood again then they kneeled then sat again.

Marie was pretty woman two times I saw her before in those few years she was nice enough, but I don't know if she’s really that nice. But that’s only because she never, well, actually almost never, was nice to John. He could say anything but she would correct John as he was speaking in front of not only his friends’ family but all those who fought with him in war. I just thought of her. I guess it is good she is gone. I hope so. It is. Glad John did not marry her. She was rude. Who knows where Marie was off to who knows where? Far away, I am sure. Long gone. She kicked me in my leg once. Never even said “Excuse me.”

Something came out of the sand the Sunday early morning after John’s wedding and big rainstorm on the beach at the edge of shoreline. It rained hard all night, and it was now surprisingly cold, too. It happens often in southern California in late June. Giovanni dug it out pushing it back and forth gently in the wet sand and is now walking it back to a truck he “found” to “take home” with him. His train for Denver, via Los Angeles, did not leave until the next day at 7:00 o’clock in morning. It would look good on his porch or maybe the patio he thought as he walked along while staring into the rising sun. He thought he might give it to his grandmother. But she lived in Norfolk, Virginia. Noticing that it did not match any of the tables and chairs for the reception that he had seen loaded late yesterday that were taken away last night in trucks, he thought it would be fine to take with him. No one would notice or miss it. Maybe. It was barely sticking out of the sand when he first saw it. No one would want it now. Besides, one of the legs is broken. “I can fix that with no problem,” Giovanni thought. Still a lot to clean up after the wedding. Maybe he would find some other stuff left behind that nobody wanted. Or forgot. It happened every wedding.

So again, off I went. -30-, symbol for end of news story may or may not be used for this saga, for it never ends.