Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/394

 COONEY

COOPER

3d district of Xew York in the 52d congress, and was re-elected to the 53d congress from the 4th district, serving on the committee on appropria- tions. After his retirement from congress he was appointed by Mr. Cleveland to bring about a settlement of the debt due from the Union Pa- cific railroad to the government. In November, 1895, he became president of the Manufacturers' trust company of Brooklyn.

COONEV, James, representative, was born in Ireland, July 18, 1848; son of John and Mary (Kelly) Cooney. He was taken by his parents to the United States in 1852 and attended the public schools and the Missouri state university. After teaching school a few years he removed to Marshall, Mo., in 1875, and was licensed to practise law. In 1880 he was chosen as probate judge of the county and in 1882 and 1884 was made prosecuting attorney. He w^as a Dem- ocratic representative in the 55th, 56th and 57tli congresses, 1897-1903, from the seventh district of Missouri.

COOPER, Ellwood, horticulturist, was born in Sadsbury, Pa., May 24, 1829: son of Morris and Phebe (Barnaby) Cooper; grandson of Jeremiah and Leah (Morris) Cooper; and great-grandson of John Cooper and of Lewis Morris. He engaged in business in the West Indies, in New York city, and after 1870 in Santa Barbara, Cal., where he devoted his attention to the cultiva- tion of semi-tropical fruits and succeeded with oranges, lemons, olives, grapes, English wahiuts and almonds. He was the first manufacturer of olive oil in the United States and invented the machinery used in his oil works and in the preparation of English walnuts and almonds for market. He was trustee of Santa Barbara college, and for three years its president. He was elected president of the California state board of horticulture in 1885. He introduced predaceous insects and parasites to destroy and keep in check noxious insects that disturb the fruits and fruit trees, and full reports of his ex- j^eriments were published by the state board of horticulture. He published: Statistics of Trade trith Huyti (1868) ; Forest Culture and Eucalyptus Trees (1876) ; A Treatise on Olive Culture (1882) ; and various reports.

COOPER, Ezekiel, pioneer Methodist, was born in Caroline county, Md., Feb. 22, 1763. He was converted to Methodism vmder the preaching of the Rev. Freeborn Garretson, was assigned to preach on the circuit under Bishop Asbury in 1784, and tliree years later was admitted to the conference. He had the entire circuit of Long Island, N.Y., in 1785; East New Jersey in 1786; Trenton, N.J., in 1787, Baltimore in 1788, and afterward Annapolis, Md., and Alexandria, Va. He was presiding elder of the Boston district.

1792-93 and subsequently of the districts of New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia and Wilmington, successively. In 1798 he was appointed editor and general agent of the Methodist book concern in Philadelphia, to succeed its founder, John Dickins, and served until 1802. He increased its capital stock to 650,000 and gave it a tremendous impetus toward its later success. He removed with the depositary to New York city, and in 1804 was stationed in that city as preacher. He then resumed itinerant labors. At the fourth regular general conference, convened in Balti- more, May 7, 1804, he proposed the following reso- lution which was adopted: •"That a committee be formed, one from each conference, to take the different motions and report concerning slav- ery." In 1S.21 he was placed on the superannu- ary list and lived to be the oldest itinerant in the ministry of the church either in England or America. The last letter known to have been written by Jolin Wesley was addressed to Ezekiel Cooper, Feb. 1, 1791. He died in Philadelphia, Pa., Feb. 21, 1847.

COOPER, Frederic Taber, educator, was born in New York, N.Y., May 27, 1864; son of Varnuni Eugene and Mary Hurlbut (Taber) Cooper; grandson of Hiram and Eliza (Colburn) Cooper, and of Thomas Tillinghast and Cornelia (Caverly) Taber; great-grandson of Calvin Cooper ; great ^ grandson of Nathaniel Cooper and great^ grand- sou of Nathaniel Cooper, who came to America from England and settled in Northbridge, Mass., about 1730. On his mother's side his descent is traced to Thomas Taber, who was married in 1672 to Mary Thompson, granddaughter of Francis Cooke of the JIayffoicer. He was gradu- ated from Harvard in 1886, attended lectures at the Harvard law school during his senior year, received the degree of LL.B. from Columbia in 1887, and was admitted to the bar in 1888. He was married in 1887 to Edith, daughter of Amasa A. Redfield of New York, lawyer and author. He abandoned the legal profession, was associate in- structor in Latin in Colimibia, 1891-94, and in 1895 was made professor of Sanskrit and assistant professor of Latin in the University of the city of New York. He became a member of the Har- vard club of New York city in 1889, of the Amer- ican Oriental society in 1891, of the American philological association in 1896, and of the New York academy of sciences in 1897. Columbia college conferred upon him the degree of A.M. in 1891, and tliat of Ph. D. in 1895. He is the author of Word Formation in the Eonian Sermo Pleheius (1895) ; and of contributions to period- ical literature, to the International Cyclopaedia, to Harper's Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities, and to the Library of the World's Best Literature.