Cooper Family Dairy Farm

“Capturing a moment in S.C. history when children played with the familiar.”

Brother-in-law, of the photographer.

City Directories and History: The two-story white house, left, was constructed shortly after the Civil War. It was purchased by James L. Cooper, Sr., in 1915. As is evident from the photograph several additions, including a kitchen, pantry, and screened porch were added over the years.

Mr. Tonch Winfrey, known as Uncle Tonch, sharecropped on the farm for many years. He would come to the barn early each morning to feed the mules. Grandmother Cooper would give him breakfast. Growing up J.L. Cooper, Jr., was very close to Uncle Tonch. He taught him to hunt –the art of spotting birds and animals and safely shooting a gun.

The images on this page are the work of James L. Cooper, Jr., who in this image shows his deep appreciation of the farm on which he was raised.

The Cooper Family album consists of some 90 images of their farm, the individuals who worked on it and the changing technology prior to WWII. The dependency of both white and African – American citizens on each other forged a lasting bonds of friendship which are depicted throughout the photography on exhibit. Running a large scale dairy farm was a labor intensive operation, as seven day a week enterprise.

A majority of the images in this album, mostly

Uncle Steve was not pleased with his picture being taken. Images courtesy of the Cooper Photo Collection – 2017

from the 1930s, were taken by Mr. James L. Cooper, Jr., (1908 – 1956), an accomplished photographer who proceeded his own film.

Contributor’s Notes: The animals on the farm, were the farm! Don’t think the people living on the farm didn’t develop an affection only for the family pets. Each individual animal had it own distinct personality. Some were much easier to train and some won their way in the hearts of their handlers. There were favorite mules and cows that were greatly mourned upon their passing.

During the period prior to WW II, rural farms, even those not many miles from town, had a much greater feeling of remoteness than now. All farm road were dirt, and a farm telephone was indeed rare. Consequently, the Farmer’s family and the families of the sharecroppers and hands were one anothers’ closest neighbors. The farmer’s wife usually had a special relationship with the wife of one of the hands, and the farmer’s children would become close playmates with the tenants’s children.

The sharecropper system was paternalistic. And, the hands and their families normally had little or no education. Naturally, they had to depend heavily on the farmer and his family, especially during sickness. The wives and daughters of the sharecroppers also often worked in the farmer’s home being paid wages.

The strict segregation and unwritten social codes required that proper distance be kept, but within these confinements, true and lasting friendships developed. Despite the lack of education, farm hands were very intelligent and adept at work. The farmer relied heavily on the knowledge and abilities of experienced farm hands.

My father, James L. Cooper, Jr. never got farming out of his blood. He was raised on the dairy farm, and my mother’s father was also a dairy farmer. After being stricken by a stroke, he improved enough to have a few cows and chickens but was unable to return to work as an accountant. Bill Cooper – Author

Additional information:

My grandfather who started and ran Cooper’s Dairy was James Lafayette (Fate) Cooper, Sr. He was born at the Cooper Home in lower Spartanburg County on April 21, 1878. He died on Oct. 30, 1953 at his home in Laurens County SC. He married Ursula Clark (July 22, 1886-June 30, 1947). He had two children. His son, my father, was James Lafayette Cooper, Jr., (1908-1956) and his daughter Edith Cooper, (1910-1993). My father married my mother in 1936. She was Dorothy Lexine Copeland Cooper (1912-1998). They had two children, James Lafayette Cooper, III (1942-2013) and William Copeland Cooper (me), born August 3, 1946. Edith Cooper married Eugene Wingo (1906-1977). They lived in the Cooper home place with Edith’s parents and had two daughters, Emily Wingo Marler (b. Sept 7, 1937) and Betty Wingo Smith, (b. Dec. 16, 1943).

My grandfather Cooper worked earlier for the railroad but bought the house and property for the farm in the early 1900’s. My father helped work on the farm. He attended Presbyterian College, graduating in 1929. He was an accountant for the Watts Mill Office. He and my mother married in 1936, and photography was my father’s hobby until he was drafted into World War II in 1943. He developed his own film in the family bath tub! Most of the photos he took would have been taken after my married my mother until his entry into the war. After returning from the war in 1945, he never regained the interest in photography he had before.. Dad had a close relationship with the sharecroppers, especially Uncle Torrance who taught him to hunt and smell for snakes!

After my parents married, they lived at Watts Mill until the late 1940’s when they moved in with my mother’s parents, William A. And Jimmie Edney Copeland because of my Grandfather Copeland’s failing health. My father had a stroke in 1951 and died in February 1956 after suffering a second stroke.

My Grandfather Copeland was a dairy farmer also, and his farm was located in Highway 49 (Yarborough Mill Road) about three miles from my Grandfather Cooper’s dairy farm.

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WATTS MILL – LAURENS SC

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COOPER FARM GALLERY: