Background
He was born at "Mulberry Hill" near Columbia in Maury County, Tennessee in 1844. His father was Matthew Delamere Cooper (1792-1878) and his mother, Marian Witherspoon (Brown) Cooper (1822-1861), who was his father"s third wife.
He was born at "Mulberry Hill" near Columbia in Maury County, Tennessee in 1844. His father was Matthew Delamere Cooper (1792-1878) and his mother, Marian Witherspoon (Brown) Cooper (1822-1861), who was his father"s third wife.
He attended Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, now known as Washington & Jefferson College.
He served both in the Tennessee House of Representatives and in the Tennessee Senate. During the American Civil War of 1861-1865, he fought in the Confederate States Army. He was captured at Fort Donelson.
After the war, he was elected a Democratic state congressman in 1881 and senator in 1895.
He was also the publisher of the Nashville American, a conservative Democratic daily newspaper. He worked on the gubernatorial of Malcolm R. Patterson, who went on to serve as Governor of Tennessee from 1907 to 1911.
Both Cooper and Patterson were opposed to prohibition. He retaliated, killing Carmack.
Some accounts suggested it was premeditated murder.
Governor Patterson granted a pardon to Cooper and saved him from jail. Shortly after, Robin was granted a second trial and released. However, he was still vilified in the temperance press and shunned by Nashvillians.
The pardoning of Cooper ultimately doomed the political career of Governor Patterson.
Cooper died in 1922.
His half-brother was Judge William Frierson Cooper (1820–1909), a member of the Tennessee Supreme Court who owned the Riverwood Mansion.