Henry Cooley, Fairfield, was born February 19, 1830, in Pittsford, Rutland County, Vermont. His parents, John and Amanda (Cook) Cooley, died in the same State, of which they were natives. Our subject’s ancestors came to America in the Mayflower. Henry Cooley resided in Vermont till he was twenty-three years old, and then immigrated to Whiteside County, Illinois, where he sold goods for four years. In April, 1858, he came to Bureau County and farmed eleven years, after which he came to Yorktown, where he has been selling goods for the last fourteen years for O. W. McKenzie, and also keeping the post office.
Our subject was married in Vermont to Frances E. Rowe, who died here November 18, 1870, age thirty-five years. She was the mother of four children, viz.: Franklin H., who was born August 11, 1859 (he married Jennie Van Drew); Mary A., born August 21, 1861, wife of A. O. Hunter; John H., born March 14, 1867, and Frederick A. Cooley, born December 24, 1869. Franklin H. Cooley has two children, viz.: Charles H. and an infant daughter. Mrs. Mary A. Hunter has two sons, viz.: Merl D. and Frederick Hunter.
Mr. Cooley is one of the standbys in Fairfield Township, having filled the offices of Treasurer and Clerk for about twenty years. Politically he is a Greenbacker. He has 480 acres of land in Bureau County.
Source: History of Bureau County, Illinois, H. C. Bradsby, Editor. World Publishing Company Chicago 1885