James Cooper Lackland, 1791–1862

James Cooper Lackland was born on 27 August 1791 in Montgomery County, Maryland, son of James Lackland and Catherine Lynn. He died on 28 July 1862 in St. Charles County, Missouri. James married Matilda Crabb, daughter of Jeremiah Crabb and Elizabeth Ridgely Griffith on 23 December 1817 in Montgomery County, Maryland. Matilda was born on 12 May 1795 and died on 15 June 1860 in St. Charles County. Her father was a judge in Montgomery County, one of the early members of the Montgomery County Bar and a delegate to the Lower House of the Maryland Assembly. James C. Lackland was a lieutenant in the War of 1812 and served at the Battle of Bladensburg. On 8 September 1813 he was listed as a second lieutenant under Thomas Wheeler and stationed in the harbor of Annapolis; by August 1814, he was listed under Captain John Heeter in the 44th Regiment, as first lieutenant on duty at Frederick Town. In 1852, he applied for and received bounty land for his service.

James Lackland was a superintendent on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal from 1830–1832. He arrived in Missouri on 6 December 1833 on the steamboat Dove, and on 13 December, he was signing a lease from James H. Farris, for a farm with wheat growing, and a house for immediate occupancy near Florissant in north St. Louis County. The following month, he purchased from Y. L. Tesson a horse mill, with the horse and “all apparatus thereunto,” on the premises of Joseph Lorain in the town of Florissant. By 1835, he removed to St. Charles, where he became the owner and operator of a steam sawmill, with Hugh H. and Benjamin R. Wardlaw after 1837, and then with William M. Mills, and finally Augustus T. Lackland. James was also a practicing attorney and named two of his children after well-known lawyers in Montgomery County: Augustus Taney, 1787–1823 and Ben Forrest, 1792–1840.

It is fortunate that he had lawyers in the family, as it appears, he was involved in several suits with the railroads, regarding access and use of his mills in St. Charles.

Children of James Cooper Lackland and Matilda Crabb:

• • Richard Crabb Lackland, b. 25 March 1819; d. in 1835 in St. Louis
  • James Cooper Lackland Jr., b. 10 July 1820, d. in 1835 in St. Louis
  • Jeremiah Crabb Lackland, b. 27 January 1822, d. in 1835 in St. Louis
  • Augustus Taney Lackland, b. 18 November 1823, d. after 1894 in St. Charles County
  • Ben Forrest Lackland, b. 12 August 1825, d. 23 October 1847 in St Charles
  • Eli Ranson Lackland, b. 25 March 1827, d. 29 June 1897 in St. Louis City
  • Norman Lackland, b. 30 January 1829, d. 2 May 1903 in Chicago
  • Henry Clay Lackland, b. 26 August 1830, d. 3 November 1903 in St. Charles
  • Charles Montgomery Lackland, b. 25 August 1833, d. 29 October 1915 in Audrain County, Missouri
  • Emeline Lackland, b. in Missouri and d. in infancy
  • Matilda Lackland, b. in Missouri and d. in infancy

(Sources available upon request.)
Written by Patricia Andersen
January 2021

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Last Modified: 15-Apr-2021 13:35