The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1882-04-13
Peter Cooper.

The ninety-first anniversary of Mr..
Peter Cooper's birth falling on Sunday
this, year it was celebrated Yesterday
February 1D. Mr.. Cooper was hale
and hearty and in the best possible
spirits. In the morning he made his
customary morning visit to the Cooper
Union, and after overseeing the doings
there busted himself with signing leases
for the tenants. Then he returned to
his home at No. 9 Lexington avenue,
and for the rest of the day was cat
home" to all who called to congratulate
him on his entrance upon his 92d year.
These were many, and among them
were the best-known and most highly
priced Newly Workers. He said he had
not at any time in all his long life been
| freer from aches and pains, although in
his time he had suffered from a compli-
cation of troubles, in part due to his
spirit of inquiry into the hidden forces
of nature; and here he related his ex-
perience in an effort to find a power
greater than that of steam. There was
an explosion, and he was severely hurt,
and the experiments were abandoned.
At the time of his birth, in Little Dock
street (now Water street), near Coenties
slip, the region within radius of ten
miles of the City-Hall did not contain
10000 inhabitants; now it has about g.
500, 900.
Mr.. Cooper recalled his apprentice
ship at coachmaking, his success in
making machines for shearing cloth at
the time of the war with Great Britain,
and his struggles as a grocer in little
shop near the noble pile that he has
given the workingmen and women of
New York. He dwelt upon his career
as an inventor, and recalled his Joy in
riding out of Baltimore as the builder of
the first locomotive engine ever built in
the Western Hemisphere.
With yet greater pride he spoke of
the great institution upon which he had
expended more than million dollars,
and this was yesterday nearer his heart
than all things else. He was led to
creating the Cooper Union after q long
experience as an officer of the public
schools OF New York forty yeais ago.
He saw that something was wanting,
and then he resolved to give the city an
institution in which workingmen and
workingwomen might get technology
cal education. With what success Mr..
Cooper has labored for the elevation OF
those for whom his great institution is
intended may be inferred from the
hearty and prolonged cheers that greet
him when he takes his seat on the plat
form at the Saturday evening free lect-
ures of the Cooper Union, or from the
huzzas with which his name is greeted
whenever it is spoken in an assemblage
of workingmen.
When asked by one of his visitors
yesterday what had contributed to his
long life, Mr.. Cooper replied that his
regularity of life and his simplicity of
diet had probably preserved him. He
lives mainly upon milk.
At the annual dinner in Mr.. Cooper s
mansion last evening there sat at the
table Messrs. jackson s. Schultz, Will
lam E. Dodge, John Bigelow. Hamilton
Fish, w. G. Hunt, H. NJ. Schieffelin, A.
A. Low, Major Bryce, Mr.. Beckwith,
Joseph Choate, the Rev. Vincent Col
yer, Judge Brady, P. H. Watson, Will
lam R. Raymond, Prof. Weisse, J. E.
Parsons, Abram S. Hewitt, Edward
Cooper and Peter Cooper.-N. Y. Her
aid.