Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/774

780 Friendly Society." Every lady on becoming a member of the society chooses one of the girls in the orphanage and makes her the object of her special care and solicitude. Her home is built mainly with bricks and materials from the ruins of Otsego Hall, of which a fine view is given on a previous page. Her published books are &ldquo;Rural Hours&rdquo; (New York, 1850); &ldquo;The Journal of a Naturalist,&rdquo; an English book, edited and annotated by Miss Cooper (1853); &ldquo;Rhyme and Reason of Country Life&rdquo; (1885); and &ldquo;Mt. Vernon to the Children of America&rdquo; (1859).

COOPER, Joseph Alexander, soldier, b. near Somerset, Ky., 25 Nov., 1823. He served during the Mexican war in the 4th Tennessee infantry. When the civil war began he entered the U. S. ser- vice as captain in the 1st Tennessee infantry, be- coming in 1862 colonel of the 6th Tennessee. He served in East Tennessee and Georgia, and in July, 1864, was made a brigadier-general, in which ca- pacity he commanded on the march through Georgia, receiving the brevet of major-general in March, 1865. He held the office of collector of internal revenue in Tennessee from 1869 till 1879, and later, again resumed his farming in Kansas.

COOPER, Mark Antony, statesman, b. in Hancock county, Ga., 20 April, 1800; d. 17 March, 1885. He was graduated at the South Carolina college in 1819, and admitted to the bar in 1821, settling in Eatonton. In 1825, and again in 1836, he served in the campaign against the Seminoles in Florida. In the second campaign he was a ma- jor. He served two terms in congress, and in 1843 was defeated for governor of Georgia. He took a leading jjart in public enterprises, founded the State agricultural society, and develojaed in many ways the resources of his state.

COOPER, Myles, clergyman, b. in England in 1735; d. in Edinburgh, 1 May, 1785, He was graduated at Oxford in 1760, and became a fellow of Queens college. In 1762, at the instance of Tliomas Seeker, archbishop of Canterbury, he came to America to assist President Samuel John- son, of Kings (now Columbia) college, and was ap- pointed professor of mental and moral philosophy in that institution. A year later he succeeded to the presidency. Judge Thomas Jones says that through his means the college was raised in repu- tation superior to all the colleges on the continent, and that under his tuition was produced a num- ber of young men superior in learning and ability to any that America had ever before seen. The son of Mrs. Washington was one of his pupils, and after Mr. Custis left the college. Gen. Washington expressed the conviction that he had been under the care of " a gentleman capable of instructing him in every branch of knowledge." In 1771 he visited England, and returned shortly before the revolutionary war. He was loyal to the crown, and is credited with the authorship of " A Friend- ly Address to all Reasonable Americans on our Political Confusions ; in which the Necessary Con- sequences of violently opposing the King's Troops, and of a General Non-importation, are fairly stat- ed" (New York, 1774). This tract was answered by Alexander Hamilton, then an undergraduate in the college, also by Gen. Charles Lee in a pam- phlet which passed through numerous editions in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. Cooper's tory sentiments were not favorably received by the students, and in August, 1775, a party of re- publicans set off about midnight with the design of " seizing him in his bed, shaving his head, cut- ting off his ears, slitting his nose, stripping him naked, and setting him adrift." The plot was overheard at a public house where the party had stopped for " a proper dose of Madeira," and Presi- dent Cooper was informed just in time to escape through a back window. He took refuge in the house of a friend, where he remained cojicealed during the night, and in the morning was conveyed on Ijoard the English ship-of-war " Kingfisher," in which he sailed for England. He had previous- ly been warned with others to " fly for their Lives, or anticipate their doom by becoming their own executioners," in a published letter signed " Three Millions." On his arrival in England, two excel- lent livings were given him, one in Berkshire, and the other in Edinburgh, where he generally resided. He published " Poems on Several Occasions " (Ox- ford, 1761), and a j^oem in the " Gentleman's Mag- azine" for July, 1776, descriptive of his escape from New York. On 13 Dec, 1776, he delivered a sermon before the University of Oxford " On the Causes of the Present Rebellion in America," which gave rise to much political controversy. He advocated the appointment of bishops for the colo- nies in an " Address to the Episcopalians of Vir- ginia," and also published " The American Que- rist" (1774). The epitaph that he wrote for him- self is characteristic :

He was interred a few miles from Edinburgh, where Episcopal ministers " who die in that city " are all buried, which accounts for his expression " to rest among a chosen few."

COOPER, Peter, philanthropist, b. in New York city, 12 Feb., 1791 ; d. there, 4 April, 1883. His mother was the daughter of John Campbell, a successful potter in New York, who became an alderman of the city and was deputy quartermas- ter during the Revolutionary war. Mr. Campbell contributed liberally to the cause of American free- dom, and received in acknowledgment a large quantity of Continental money. On his father's side Mr. Cooper was of English descent, and both his grandfather and his father served in the Con- tinental army. The latter, wdio became a lieu- tenant during the war, was a hatter, and at the close of the war resumed his business in New York. Peter was born about this period, and he remem- bered the time when, as a boy, he was employed to pull hair out of rabbit-skins, his head being just above the table. He continued to assist his father until he was competent to make every part of a hat. The elder Cooper determined to live in the country, and removed to Peekskill, where he began the brewing of ale, and the son was employed in delivering the kegs. Later, Catskill became the residence of the family, and the hatter's business was resumed, to which was added the making of bricks. Peter was made useful in carrying and handling the bricks for the drying process. These occupations proved unsatisfactory, and another move was made, this time to Brooklyn, where the father and son again made hats for a time, after which they settled in Newburg and erected a brewery. Peter meanwhile acquired such knowl- edge as he could, for his schooling appears to have been limited to half days during a single year. In 1808 he was apprenticed to John Woodward, a car-