My Cokonougher - Frost Connection

          My Ohio Cokonougher ancestors hail back to Adams County, Ohio in the early 1800s.  My Frost ancestors do the same, and they were interconnected with the Cokonougher family! 

          Rodena Cokonougher (b. 31 January 1858), the daughter of my great-great grandparents, Adtson and Elizabeth Cokonougher, married Andrew Frost (b.1855), the son of John and Mary Frost.  The photos you see here are pictures of them and their family. 

          Rodena's brother, my great-grandfather, Zachariah Cokonougher (1853-1904), also married a Frost descendant.  He married Mary Elizabeth Wisecup (1856-1934), who was the daughter of Phoeba (Frost) Wisecup (1830 - 1859) and the grandaughter of Adams County, Ohio residents Jacob (1793-1870) and Proba Frost (b. abt. 1794).  Jacob and Proba's farm was located then in what is now part of the Peebles, Ohio, city limits.

          The Frosts seemed to be a colorful and rough family.  There are many stories in the local newspapers of the time, about Frost scrapes with the law, and there is even a detailed and flowery account of one criminal trial in which two Frost boys were tried and convicted of murder, and sent to prison.  Evidently, Cokonoughers weren't the only family with hard heads.

Zackriah & Mary Cokonougher 1893 family photo

     This picture was originally owned by my grandparents, John and Amelia Cokonougher, who lived on Wisecup Hill in Ross County, Ohio.  John is third from the left in the back row. 

Cocanougher Cemetery in Kentucky.

     I responded to a comment in my previous post of Mary Cokonougher's Bible about Nancy Silvertooth Cokonougher (sic).  Here is an old newspaper clipping that tells more about Nancy and the cemetery in Washington County, Kentucky, in which she is buried.  There is no date on the clipping. 
     I have heard since childhood that there was a native American "Indian" named Nancy Silvertooth somewhere way back in the family tree.  This is that person.  She was the wife of a Jacob Cokonougher (sic), but there were many Jacobs in the family tree, so if one wants to claim her as a direct line descendant, then they need to be sure that they have the right Jacob.

Mary E. Cokonougher Family Bible 1820-1904

Mary E. (Wisecup) Cokonougher began recording births, marriages, and deaths in a family Bible after she married Zackariah Cokonougher in 1873.  Like most other wives and husbands of the times, she recorded the historical data in the Family Record section of the Bible.

       These photos are of the actual Bible.  Mary was my great-grandmother, through my father, Howard William Cokonougher, and my grandfather, John Henry Cokonougher Sr. 
     When I last saw the Bible in 1977, it was in South Salem, Ohio and in the possession of Mary's daughter, Anna Cokonougher Schmidt, who died in 1978.  I lost track of the Bible after that, but I did manage to make copies of the Family Record Section before Anna died. 

      The transcription that follows is
as identical to the original Family Record section as I can record it, including the original spellings,capitalizations, and punctuations. 
    The Bible was published in New York in 1874 by the American Bible Society with the title "The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments:  Translated Out of The Original Tongues and With The Former Translations Diligently Compared and Revised”.

         FIRST PAGE

     Adtson Cokonougher

     Born June 28  1824

         
           Elizebeth Cokonougher

     Born October 29, 1820

     Sarah. A. Cokonougher

     Born November 17  1848

     John Cokonougher

     Born July 14  1850

     Mary E Cokonougher

     Born March 18.  1855

     Rodenea Cokonougher

     Born January 31  1858

     William. H. Cokonougher

     Born February 16. 1862

     Lieddy Cokonougher

     Born. September 22,  1863

     SECOND PAGE

     Zachriah  Cokonougher

     Born April 2nd 1853

     Mary Cokonougher

     Born February 14th   1856

     William S. Cokonougher

     Born June the 12th 1874

     Provy M. Cokonougher

     Born January 12th 1877

     Joseph E Cokonougher and

     Adson E Cokonougher

     Born February 22  1880

     John H. Cokonougher

     Born July 6th   1883

     Charles S. Cokonougher

     Born September 20th 1886

     Anna M. Cokonougher

     Born September 17th  1892

     THIRD PAGE

     Zackriah Cokonougher and

     Mary Cokonougher was

     Married August. 29. 1873

     FOURTH PAGE

     Adison Cokonougher

     Died December 21, 1882

     Elizbeth Cokonougher

     Died September 12, 1872

     William H. Cokonougher

     Died October 10  1862

     Lieddy Cokonougher

     Died March 20   1874

        FIFTH PAGE

     Dorcas Frost. B. Dec. 22. 1872

     harvie J Cokonougher

     born June the 23

     1896

     Zacriah Cokonougher

     died sep 14  1904

Rodena Cokonougher Frost family Photo 1890s

     This photo is that of Rodena Cokonougher Frost with her husband Andrew Frost and her children.  the photo was probably taken in the 1890s, based on the age of the daughter in the picture.  Only one daughter is shown in the picture, but Rodena and Andy had at least two daughters:  Gracie, born in 1878, and Eva, born in 1879.  The family lived in Adams County, Ohio.
     Rodena was born 31 January 1858 to Adtson Ellsworth Cokonougher and Elizabeth Shoemaker Cokonougher.  She was also the sister of Zackariah and John E. Cokonougher.  Andrew was born in 1855 as the son of John and Mary Frost. 
     This photo was the property of my grandparents John H. and Amelia Cokonougher, and passed to me when they died in 1963.  Rodena was my grandfather's aunt.

     There is a record of one Andrew Frost being elected to and having served in the Ohio Legislature.  I don't know if this was the same Andrew Frost. 
     My grandfather John, who lived in Ross County, Ohio, used to tell of taking horse and wagon rides with his parents and other family members from Ross County all the way to Adams County, Ohio to visit with the Frosts and other relatives in Adams County.  He said the trip would take all day to get there, so they would stay overnight, and then return on a following day.  They always stopped for a picnic lunch halfway there.

Adtson & Elizabeth Cokonougher Marriage 1848

          The parents Zachariah Cokonougher (1853-1904) and John Elwood Cokonougher  (1850 - 1906), as well as ancestors for most of the "Cokonougher" families in Ohio and Michigan, were Adtson Elsworth Cokonougher and Elizabeth (Shoemaker) Cokonougher. 
          Their marriage was recorded in Volume II of the Marriage Records of Adams County, Ohio.  The record says that Addison Cohinour was married on February 3, 1848 by Rev. Shin to Elizabeth Shoemaker. 
          A news article in the 10 February 1848 Adams County, West Union, Ohio newspaper The Democrat reads and confirms the marriage record in it's list of recent marriages, as follows, "On the 3rd inst., by Rev. A.T. Shinn, Mr. Addison Cohinour to Miss Elizabeth Shoemaker, all of this county."
          Was the spelling of the name as "Cohinour" the original spelling, or was it merely a mis-spelling?  I have found so many different spellings and mis-spellings of the name, going all the way back to the 1500s, that it is impossible to say.  Later census records confirm that this Addison Cohinour is the same person as Adtson Elsworth Cokonougher.                                                   
          My grandfather, John Henry Cokonougher, told me that an old family legend claimed that the original two Cokonoughers to come to Ohio were cousins whose intentions to get married were forbidden by their families. The disappointed couple eloped and ran off from their home state into the state of Ohio, changed their name so that they wouldn't be found for a while, and got married.  My grandfather could not confirm the accuracy of this legend since it was just a story that had been handed down to him. 

John Elwood Cokonougher bio & photo abt. 1900.

John Elwood Cokonougher was . . .

born 14 July 1850 to Adtson and Elizabeth (Shoemaker) Cokonougher.  He lived in Adams County, Ohio, where he married Mary Alice Purtee in 1873.  They had four children:  Icie Cokonougher, Jerry Cokonougher b. abt. 1878, Etta Mae Cokonougher b. 20 Feb. 1883, and Harley Elwood Cokonougher b.10 July 1886.  John moved to Ross County, Ohio in the 1870s, to Paulding County, Ohio, in the early 1900s, and then to Montgomery County, Kansas and possibly Michigan.  He remarried to Luella Etta Case after the death of his first wife, and had two additional children by her:  Forest Herman Cokonougher b. 15 Sept. 1896, and Goldie Faye Cokonougher b. 12 Sept. 1893.  John died 27 Sept. 1906 in Montgomery County, Kansas.  John was the brother of Sarah A. Cokonougher b. 17 Nov. 1848, Zachriah Cokonougher b. 2 Apr. 1853, Mary Elizabeth Cokonougher b. 18 March 1855, Rodena Cokonougher b. 31 Jan. 1858, William N. Cokonougher b. 16 Feb. 1862, and Lieddy Cokonougher b. 22 Sept. 1863. 
           Most of this information came from the family Bible of Mary Elizabeth (Wisecup) Cokonougher, oral history told to me by my father Howard Wm. Cokonougher, and research by Ena (Cokonougher) Mulford.  The picture of John E. Cokonougher was gifted to me by Ena (Cokonougher) Mulford.  More about John Cokonougher and the Cokonougher family can be found in the book "The Genealogy Of The Family Of Ralph William Cokonougher" by Ralph W. Cokonougher, available on Amazon.com.

Zachariah Cokonougher 1870s photo

           This picture of  Zachariah Cokonougher was likely taken in the early 1870s.  It is copied from a tin type photo.
           Zachariah was born 2 April 1853 in Ohio to Addison and Elizabeth (Shoemaker) Cokonougher.  He married Mary Elizabeth Wisecup in Adams County, Ohio on 29 August 1873.  they had eight children:  William Sylvester Cokonougher, born 12 June 1874; Provy Myrtle Cokonougher, born 12 January 1877; Addison Elsworth Cokonougher, born 22 February 1880, Joseph Elwood Cokonougher, born 22 February 1880; John Henry Cokonougher, born 6 July 1883; Charles S. Cokonougher, born 20 September 1886; Anna Mae Cokonougher, born 17 September 1892; and Harvey Jay Cokonougher, born 23 June 1896.  Zachariah and Mary moved to Ross County, Ohio after they were married, where, except for a short time in Paulding County, Ohio, they lived the remainder of their lives.  Zachariah died of cancer on 14 September 1904.       
          More about Zachariah can be learned in the book "The Genealogy Of The Family Of Ralph William Cokonougher" by Ralph W. Cokonougher, available for purchase on Amazon.com.      

Cokonougher (sic) guild house - 1529.

A guild house in the Middle Ages was . . . .

 

. . . .  similar to a cross between today's labor union headquarters and a family owned business headquarters.  You had to be a member of the guild to work a job in the profession that the guild represented.  Usually, a particular family controlled the guild, and the jobs were handed down from generation to generation.  This particular Knochenhauer Amthaus (sic Cokonougher guild house) was rebuilt from scratch from the original plans in the last century and is now a major tourist attraction, and a restaurant, in the town of Hildeshem, Germany.  You can find out more about it by doing a google search online.  It is a good example of what the Cokonougher ancestors in the "old country" were capable of.

John & Amelia Cokonougher wedding picture. 1916

This is John Henry Cokonougher and his new wife Amelia Irene "Miller" Cokonougher in 1916, shortly after they were married.

John and Amelia met at the home of his mother Mary Elizabeth "Wisecup" Cokonougher in South Salem, Ohio.  Amelia was a 16 year old orphan who had been placed in Mary's home as what was then the equivalent of today's foster child, to earn her keep as a housekeeper.  John was a bachelor farmer who was twice Amelia's age.  They were married 46 years and had five children:  Cecil Lloyd Cokonougher, born 19 April 1917, John Henry Cokonougher Jr., born 29 June 1919, Howard William "Bill" Cokonougher, born 14 August 1922, Herbert Miller Cokonougher, born 25 April 1924, and Geraldine June "Gerry" Cokonougher, born 24 November 1933.  John and Amelia lived most of their married life on the family farm on Wisecup Hill in Buckskin Township in Ross County, Ohio, originally purchased by John's father, Zachariah Cokonougher, in 1905.

Viola & Ralph Cokonougher photo 1970

VIOLA MAE COKONOUGHER, my mother, with me, A1C Ralph W. Cokonougher, in 1970.  

I had just finished a tour of duty in Japan, and was on my way to a tour of duty in Italy, when this picture was taken.  I was home on leave as I traveled from one side of the world to the other.  Mom was glad that I was being sent just about as far away from the VietNam War as one could get.

Howard W. "Bill" Cokonougher's bulletproof head

HOWARD WILLIAM "BILL" COKONOUGHER., my father, (on the right) with me, A1C Ralph W. Cokonougher, in 1970.   

I had just finished a tour of duty on one of the southern Japanese islands in the China Sea at the time, and was on my way to a new tour of duty in Brindisi, Italy.  My father told me that he was proud of me for following in his footsteps as a serviceman.  He himself had served on the US Army battle lines fighting Japan in World War II.  My father was a hard-headed Cokonougher, not only in his opinions and ways of dealing with life, but physically too.  He was hit in the head with shrapnel during World War II when a tank was blown up in front of him.  The shrapnel failed to penetrate his skull and he was back fighting on the front lines the very next day.  Doctors did not remove the shrapnel, so my father carried it in his head the rest of his life.  Later on, after the war and when I was a small child, he was again shot in the head, this time by a ricocheted bullet while he was hunting rabbits and pheasants with his sister and brother-in-law.  That bullet also failed to penetrate his skull.  He just pulled out the shot, wiped off the blood, and continued hunting.

Howard Cokonougher Military Grave Marker

HOWARD WILLIAM COKONOUGHER.    

This bronze military veteran's marker is on the grave of my father, Howard "Bill" Cokonougher, in South Salem Cemetery in South Salem, Ohio. The marker reads "HOWARD W COKONOUGHER  PFC US ARMY  WORLD WAR II  AUG 14 1922  DEC 5 1984".  My father served as a Rifleman in Troop E, 8th Calvery of the 1st Calvery Division in the U.S. Army, and fought in battles on the Bismarck Archipelago, South Phillipines, Luzon, and New Guinea, and was awarded the Purple Heart, Asiatic-Pacific Theater Ribbon with 4 Bronze Stars, Phillipines Liberation Ribbon with 2 Bronze Stars, Bronze Arrowhead, and Good Conduct Ribbon.  He also has another, non-military, gravestone that is not shown here.