Sarah Brown Ingersoll Cooper was an American philanthropist and educator. During her career, she worked as a schoolteacher, governess, and was active at various public societies.
Background
Sarah Brown Ingersoll Cooper was born on December 12, 1836 at Cazenovia, New York, United States. She was the daughter of Captain Samuel Clark Ingersoll and Laura (Case) Ingersoll. She was a cousin of Robert G. Ingersoll, and possessed a gift of eloquence almost equal to his.
Education
Sarah graduated from Cazenovia Seminary, one of the earliest coeducational institutions in the country. At the age of fourteen she began school-teaching but soon thereafter entered the Troy Female Seminary for further study.
Career
Sarah worked for some time as governess in the family of Governor Schley. In 1869 Cooper, with her husband and daughter Harriet, located in San Francisco, where she began her career of public work. In 1871 Sarah became a teacher at the Bible Class of the Calvary Presbyterian Church. Following Mr. Cooper’s death in 1885, mother and daughter became constant companions and co-workers, imbued with a devotion passing all ordinary affection. Entirely self-forgetful, no sacrifice was too great for these women. But the strain finally told on Harriet, who developed intermittent attacks of profound melancholia until her mind gave way. After several unsuccessful attempts to take her own and her mother’s life, the daughter succeeded in asphyxiating them both on the eve of her mother’s sixtieth birthday.
Mrs. Cooper’s public work was of wide scope. She was one of five eminent women elected to the Pan-Republican Congress during the Chicago World’s Fair. Returning to San Francisco, she helped to organize the Woman’s Congress, serving as president for two years preceding her death. Her title to national recognition, however, rests primarily on her organization of the Golden Gate Kindergarten Association in 1879, and her founding of some forty- four free kindergartens throughout San Francisco. For this she collected an endowment fund of $300, 000.
Throughout the period Mrs. Cooper was an outstanding figure among five or six of the notable workers in the United States. When, in 1892, the International Kindergarten Union was organized at Saratoga, New York, she was elected its first president as a recognition of her leadership.
Achievements
Religion
Cooper was a member of the Presbyterian church. In 1881 she was expelled from the congregation over her refusal to accept the doctrines of infant damnation and eternal punishment.
Membership
Cooper was president of the Women’s Press Association, treasurer of the World’s Federation of Women’s Clubs, and a director of the Associated Charities. She was also a member of the Golden Gate Kindergarten Association.
Connections
In Atlanta, on September 4, 1855, Cooper married Halsey Fcnimore Cooper, formerly a professor at Cazenovia, sometime editor of the Chattanooga Advertiser, who held during his life various offices under the federal government. He died in 1885.