The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1883-04-14
PETER COOPER.
A SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF THE
DEAD PHILANTHROPIST
ding Farewell to their Dead Frlerd
and Benefac.or.

ding Farewell to their Dead Friend
and Benefactor.
The death of this venerable gentleman
and world-renowned philanthropist,
which occurred ON the 4th inst, at this
residence of his son-in-l law, Hon. Abrar
S. Hewitt, in New York. removes from
American public life one of its best
purest and most useful representatives.
Less than two months ago he celebrated
his ninety second birthday, having been
born i'll New York on February -, 1871.
His family physician states that the cause
of his death was pneumonia. contracted
by visiting the Cooper Institute ON last
Saturday evening, when he caught cold.
Mr.. Cooper, when quite a young boy,
removed with his father from New York
city to Peekskill, n Y, where his father
had established a brewery, and young
Cooper's first duty consisted in deliver
ing the beer in casks to the customers.
Afterward the father again moved,
changing his residence to Catskill and
his business to brickmaking. Having
again moved to Brooklyn, he took up
the manufacture of hats. and young
Cooper learned every branch of the trade
The spirit of "hange, however. seemed
strong in the father, for after few years
he went to Newberg, n. V. and returned
to the brewing business.
AT seventeen years of age Peter was
apprenticed to a carriage maker in New
York, receiving the small sum OF s25 per
annum. He lived with his grandmother
and spent his leisure hours in carving
panels and doing any other work he conld
get. lie developed early a taste for me-
chanical invention, AMI during his APP
premiership he invented a machine for
mortising the hubs Of carriage wheels.
which was used very protitably.
After three years Mr. Cooper set up a
grocery on the site of the present Bible
House, opposite the Cooper Union. in
New York. He was very successful in
this business, and at the end of three
years he was able to buy a glue factory,
with all it's machinery and buildings.
and lease of twenty-one years of three
acres of ground between Thirty first and
Thirty fourth streets.
The great corporation of Baltimore
known as the Canton Company, was built
up by Mr.. Cooper. Having been induced
to buy 5000 acres of land near the city
limits of Baltimore, in 1928, for sos, 900,
in partnership with two other men. he
bought out these two for about SIS. COO
making the total cost to him about $40
an acre. On this property he put up iron
works for smelling ore and making char
coal iron, and after some time he sold all
the property except these works to 4
stock company. called the Canton Com
pany, getting about 800, 900 for it, and
taking large part of his pay i'll stock at
the rate of 81 for shares. whose par
value was 500. In very short time he
was able to obtain the enormous price of
$3.50 per share for his stock and large
sum in addition for the iron works. This
venture led Mr.. Cooper lie build an iron
factory. for rolling iron and making wire
on Thirty third street. in New York, but
a few years later he moved the machinery
to Trenton, n j., where he purchased a
large tract of land (about / 900 acras),
and started blast furnaces and rolling
mills on the largest scale. \ part of this
property was transferred to the Trenton
lrcn Company, and another part remained
in his possession.
AS AN INVENTOR.
AS an inventor MIR. Cooper was the
author of a large number of very useful
original devices for saving labor, and of
improvements on * sting machinery.
His earliest attempt at invention has
been mentioned-a machine for mortis.
ing the hubs of wheels. His second in
vention was one for using the rise and
fall OF the tide to store up power. The
machine was intended to pump air into a
reservoir until such Il pressure was OBJ
tanned as would suffice for driving an air
engine in the same manner that IL steam
engine is driven.
Mr.. Cooper also invented an improve
ment of the cloth shearing machine which
he was engaged in manufacturing 1t
was made upon nearly exactly the same
plan as the machine of the present day
for reaping and moving grain and grass.
In 1888 he made an experiment to deter
mine the possibility of running canal
boats by means of an endless chain in
stead of horses and mules. The first trip
made i'll public was very successful, and
for ten days Mr.. Cooper ran the boat to
interest the public i'll the invention.
Governor Clinton was one of the first
passengers, and he was SO well pleased
with the device that he gave Mr.. Cooper
$500 for the patent.
Another invention was torpedo boat,
which Mr.. Cooper intended to send to
the Greeks, in 1924 or 1925, when they
were struggling to obtain their freedom
from the Turks. He planned boat pro
PEELED from the shore, or from vessel.
to all enelny's ship five OF six miles away
The boat was to be propelled by screw,
run by a steam eng inc and guided by a
steel wire. lie tried his plan III the New
York harbor near the Narrows and it
worked very well. The boat was not
completed i'll time to go in the ship
ferers, and was soon after accidentally
destroyed by fire.
TIE CABLE AND THE COOPER UNION.
The two great works with which Mr..
Coopers name will always be connected
are the Atlantic cable and the Cooper
| Mon. In the former he was the associ-
ate and firm supporter of such men as
Maj shall o. Roberts, Moses Tay lor, WEI
son g. Hunt and Cyrus w Field: of the
latter he Was the sole originator and
founder.
When NJ. Cooper WAS about 80 years
old he was president of the North Amer
lean Telegraph Company, owning more
than one-half the lines then i'll use in
America, and he was then elected presi-
dent of tie New York, Newfoundland