Bethel Coopwood

Bethel Coopwood (1827–1907) was a soldier in the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War, a lawyer, judge, and historian.

Bethel Coopwood was born on May 1, 1827, in Lawrence County, Alabama. He moved to Texas in 1846. In 1847, he enlisted in Bell's cavalry detachment, of Hay's Regiment of Texas Mounted Volunteers, that served along the Rio Grande frontier in the Mexican–American War. In 1854 he moved to California, where he was admitted to the bar, practicing in Los Angeles. In early 1857, following the killing of Sheriff James R. Barton and two men of his posse, by the Flores Daniel Gang, Coopwood led twenty-six El Monte men, as a division of the posse in the manhunt for the gang. He distinguished himself in the assault on the peak the gang had taken refuge on, up hill, under fire with an injured leg.

In the fall of 1857, at the age of thirty he came to San Bernardino as part of a syndicate that purchased the balance of the Rancho San Bernardino from Ebenezer Hanks for $18,000. Hanks had previously purchased a one-third interest in the grant, with Amasa Lyman and Charles C. Rich leaders of the Mormon colonists of San Bernardino from the original grantee José del Carmen Lugo.

On June 15th 1859 he had married, Josephine Woodward and they eventually had fourteen children. In September, he ran for San Bernardino County District Attorney in 1859, but lost by a narrow margin. Soon afterward, Coopwood sheltered Doctor Alonzo Ainsworth in his own home and along with the help his brother David, Mat Welsh and 5 other men defended the doctor from an anti-Mormon mob from El Monte incited by a rival Doctor Frank Gentry. Bethel along with his brother David, and Mat Welsh, were the three men of Ainsworth's defenders wounded in the shootout with Frank Green and the Gentry faction that was the climax of the September 18th - 20th, 1859 "Ainsworth - Gentry Affair."

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