This book "Nelson C Cooley and His Family" details the life of Nelson C Cooley, my paternal great grandfather. Nelson C Cooley (NC) was the son of Nelson Sr and the grandson of William Cooley of Mississippi. NC was born in Clark County Mississippi in January 1849. NC married Mary Ann (Mollie) Phillips in 1867 in MS. Mary Ann was born in Subuta Miss, in November of 1848. NC was a farmer, a slave owner, and worked many acres in MS. The Civil War started in 1861 and was over by 1865. The area around NC and Mollie's MS home was destroyed by the war effort and he lost most of his slave labor so they moved, to where Mollie's parents were in Sabine Parish Louisiana, around Belmont, La. Jessie Phillips was Mollie's father, born (1817) in Alabama just as the Alabama Territory was created from the larger, Mississippi Territory. He married Margaret Ann Sullivan in 1846. They moved to MS around 1848 and finally to Sabine Parish in LA by 1865. It is believed that Jessie received a Spanish Land Grant around Belmont LA.