Background
Cooper was born in Windsor County, Vermont on April 20, 1821.
Cooper was born in Windsor County, Vermont on April 20, 1821.
He studied three years (1840-1843) at Wesleyan University, but left during his senior year. In 1844 he moved to Illinois, then in May 1845 to Spring Prairie, Wisconsin, where he ran a pharmacy and studied medicine under Doctor Jesse Carr Mills of that town, eventually going into medical practice with Mills.
He was the father of Congressman Henry Allen Cooper. He was not a candidate for re-election, and was succeeded by Oscar Bartlett (another Freesoiler). The house into which they moved had been built by an abolitionist named Silas Peck, with features to help it serve as a station on the Underground Railroad.
Soon after the Coopers moved in, it was used to shelter fugitive slave Joshua Glover on his way to Canada.
The house was still standing in the 21st century. Cooper became active in politics in his new home town.
He held that office until resigning in 1874. Cooper retired from medicine in the early 1880s.
Cooper was a member of the Assembly in 1852, succeeding fellow Freesoiler Adam East. Ray.
