The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1883-04-13
A GREAT PHIIANTHROPIST.
Details Of the Busy Life Of PctcrCoop


The death of Peter Cooper, the venerable
New York pbilanthropist, resulted from q
cold, which turned into pneumonia. In con
sequence of his advanced age, being in his
ninety-third year, he was unable to make q
successful fight against the disease, and sue
cumbed TO its attack after a short illness.
Shortly before his death Mr.. Cooper was sur
rounded by all the members of his family
his son, ex-Mayor Edward Cooper, and wife,
tbs s~on-in-law, Hon. Abram S. Hewitt, and
wife, and their six children. He motioned
TO his daughter, Mrs. Hewitt, to come to his
side, and whispered a loving farewell. Then
lie spoke to his son and then to the children.
Ills words were scarcely audible except to
those to whom he spoke There
was not a dry eye among those
who surrounded the deathbed. AS soon
rs his death was made known the flags
on all the public buildings in the city were
put at half mast and the various exchanges
and State legislature passed resolutions of
regret and respect to his memory.
Peter Cooper was born in New York city
February II, 1871. His maternal grand
father, John Campbell, q resident of New
York, was deputy quartermaster-general
during the war of the Revolution, and ex-
pended a considerable fortune in the service
of his country. His father was a lieutenant
in the army in the struggle for independ-
ence. After the close of the war he estab-
lished a hat factory, in which young Peter
worked. The family was large, and Peter
had to work hard being able to attend school
only half of each day of one single year. In
his seventeenth year he was placed with
John Woodward to learn coachmaking, and
GprvpH ont hiS nDraptioocLip ~ ,n,,ch IN
the satisfaction of his master that the latter
offered to set him up in business, which offer
Cooper declined. He followed his trade for
awhile and then engaged in the manufacture
of patent machines for shearing cloth,
which were in great demand during the war
of 1912, but lost all value on the declaration
of peace. He finally engaged in the manu-
facture of cabinet ware; then engaged in
the grocery. business in New York,
and finally in the manufacture of glue
and isinglass, which he carried on more than
forty years. In 1880 he erected large iron
works at Canton, near Baltimore, but dis
posing of these he erected a rolling and wire
mill i'll New York, i'll which he first success
fully applied anthracite coal to the pudding
of iron. He removed the machinery in
1S45 to Trenton, n. j., where he erected the
largest rolling mill at that time in the United
States for the manufacture of railroad IRON.
Here, subsequently, he was the first to roll
wrought iron beams for tireproof buildings.
Mr.. Cooper's name was identified with the
early history of some of the most notable in
ventions and improvements of the past hun
dred years. While in Baltimore he built,
after his own designs, the first locomotive
engine turned out on this continent, and il
was operated successfully On the Baltimore
and Ohio railroad. He invested a large
capital in the extension of the electric tele-
graph. Mr.. Cooper served in both branches
of the New York common council.
The institution which will land Peter
Cooper's name down to a grateful and appre-
ciating posterity is the Cooper Institute
Early in life he had felt The difficulties that
young people meet in seeking education in
art and science. He determined to aid those
who should come after him by placing with
in the reach of any one in his native city the
means of getting such education as each
person might most need. The building for
the Cooper Union was begun i'll 1865, on its
present site at the junction of Third and
Fourth avenues and Eighth street. The first
cost, amounting to more than 100000 and
all the expenses of the Union, have been de-
frayed by Mr.. Cooper. The plan of the
Union is based largely upon the working of
the Polytechnic school of Paris. There are
free schools for instruction in the aesthetic
and industrial arts and in scientific depart
ments beyond the teaching given in the pub
lie schools. Thare are regular courses of
lectures on subjects of art, science,
political and social economy, and
literature anu more IMAM twenty
professors and instructors are employed at
an annual expense of SEC, 900. This great
expense is met by the endowment bestowed
by Mr.. Cooper and by the rental of business
stores in the building. which is, of course,
equally his gift. Nowhere in the world can
n finer monument to any mans memory be
foundt than this unostentatious building in
the midst of a thickly settled city in which
thousands now living and thousands yet to
come will always bear in grateful remem
brance the name of the benefactor who
helped them to educate themselves and lay
the foundation of their success and happi.
ness.
Mr.. Cooper was an enthusiastic supporter
of the paternal theory in government. He
believed that the national government
ought to provide for the comfort and pros
perity of the whole population, SO that there
should be no more suffering and want. He
favored the encouragement of emigration
by government grants of money and land
and he believed strongly in the
wisdom of public improvements on
a large scale at government expense
1t was due to his opinions on finance that he
became a nominal candidate for the presi
dency in 1876. He had no idea that he would
be elected, no personal wish to assume the
Office; nor would he have wished it, even
had there been any probability of his elee
ton. Referring to his candidacy, he wrote
need not say that this sacrifice of peac,
and rest is like the surrender of what rem
nant of life may have"
Mr.. Cooper was saving, without being par
%simonious; shrewd, without being sharp
careful, without being timid. He had ac-
quisitiveness strongly developed, but what
he acquired was put to good use. Homes
and open in all his doings, just and toler
ant in all his judgments, courteous and con
siderate in his conversation, he was a mar
respected by all the world. His religious
views were never thrust upon any one, anC
his philanthropic works were never con
fined to aiding the believers of any p%articu
lar doctrine.
Such a nan and such a life belong mo-
alone to one city nor to one State-he is
representative of civilization. 1t is such mel
as he whose lives and whose influence built
up the strength of the land.
Mr.. Cooper was always n careful and pru
dent business man. He was strongly OPP
posed to the methods of many merchants
who launched out into extravaganza enter
prises on borrowed money for which the!
paid exorbitant rates of interest. Ono,
while talking about a project with an &C
quaintance, the latter said he would have t,
borrow the money for six months, paying
interest at the rate of three per centum pc