William "Billy" Cornelius Cooper was born in Halifax County, NC in 1781. It is believed that he was the son of Benjamin Cooper, Sr. who was born about 1754 in Bladen County to Joseph and Mary Cooper. He moved to the Orangeburg District of SC when a child or a young man. In November of 1801, Billy married Polly Banks Warner who had been born in 1783 in the Orangeburg District of SC.

Billy and Polly's first six children who survived to adulthood were born in the Orangeburg District between 1804 and 1811. They moved to Laurens County, SC by 1814 where their sons James Campbell and Joseph D. were born. Benjamin Cooper, Jr and his wife Nancy had moved their family there, too, but soon moved on the Haywood County, NC. Perhaps Billy and Polly moved at the same time to the Bethel area of Haywood County. Billy voted in the 1835 election in Haywood County, and he and some of his sons did some real estate buying and selling.

Between February 1835 and March 1836, their son William Cornelius, Jr. moved west to what is now the Whittier area of Jackson County. A few families had located in Graham County (part of Cherokee County) at that time, and Billy and Polly and other family members joined them around 1839 or soon after. It's likely they settled on the property just purchased by son Ben at the Cherokee land sale in Macon County. Their new home was on Tallulah near the present town of Robbinsville. Billy soon opened a trading post.

Billy was a trader and an interpreter for the Cherokee. In 1844, after he and Joseph D. aided in the Cherokee Removal to Oklahoma, Billy died and was buried somewhere on this hilltop. His sons Thomas and James, both Methodist ministers, may have conducted his funeral. Polly was left a widow for 32 years before she joined him.

The children of William "Billy" Cornelius and Polly Banks Warner Cooper were: John Russell, Thomas Jefferson, Nathaniel Cornelius, Elizabeth, Senton Bennett, Benjamin Franklin, James Campbell, Joseph D. Harriett Mariah, Abraham Davis, Charlotte Lucinda, Mary "Polly" Susannah, and Florence Amanda. There may have been additional children not yet identified or who died at birth. Several of the children moved to the Cades Cove area of Blount County, TN, just over the state line. Others remained in Western North Carolina where many descendants of Billy and Polly still reside. A few moved even further west.