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 “Rural Hours” (New York, 1850); “The Journal of a Naturalist,” an English book, edited and annotated by Miss Cooper (1853); “Rhyme and Reason of Country Life” (1885); and “Mt. Vernon to the Children of America” (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 :
"Here lies a priest of English blood :
Who, living, lik'd whate'er was good —
Good company, good wine, good name.
Yet never hunted after fame.
But as the first he still preferr'd,
So here he chose to be interr'd ;
And, unobscured from crowds, withdrew
To rest among a chosen few.
In humble hopes that sovereign love
Will raise him to be blest above."
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-
