The ancestors of Fenton Grant Cooney arrived in the U.S. from Ireland sometime before 1789, settling in the states of North Carolina and Virginia. The majority of the Cooneys were Quakers and migrated to Grant County, Indiana prior to 1839 because of their anti-slavery beliefs and the availability of land in the new territory, eventually joining the Methodist Episcopal Church. Some family members relocated to Conneaut, Ashtabula Co., Ohio in about 1900.
