Peter Cooper
Peter Cooper | |
---|---|
Born | New York City, U.S. | February 12, 1791
Died | April 4, 1883 New York City, U.S. | (aged 92)
Burial place | Green-Wood Cemetery |
Spouse |
Sarah Raynor Bedell
(m. 1813; died 1869) |
Children | 2, including Edward |
Signature | |
Peter Cooper (February 12, 1791 – April 4, 1883) was an American
Cooper began tinkering at a young age while working in various positions in New York City. He purchased a glue factory in 1821 and used that factory's profits to found the Canton Iron Works, where he earned even larger profits by assembling the Tom Thumb. Cooper's success as a businessman and inventor continued over the ensuing decades, and he became the first mill operator to successfully use
During the Gilded Age, Cooper became an ardent critic of the gold standard and the debt-based monetary system of bank currency, advocating instead for government-issued banknotes. Cooper was nominated for president at the 1876 Greenback National Convention, and the Greenback ticket of Cooper and Samuel Fenton Cary won just under one percent of the popular vote in the 1876 general election. His son Edward and his son-in-law Abram Hewitt, both served as Mayor of New York City.
Early years
Peter Cooper was born in
In 1821, Cooper purchased a glue factory on Sunfish Pond
Business career
Having been convinced that the proposed Baltimore and Ohio Railroad would drive up prices for land in Maryland, Cooper used his profits to buy 3,000 acres (12 km2) of land there in 1828 and began to develop them, draining swampland and flattening hills, during which he discovered iron ore on his property. Seeing the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad as a natural market for iron rails to be made from his ore, he founded the Canton Iron Works in Baltimore, and when the railroad developed technical problems, he put together the Tom Thumb steam locomotive for them in 1829 from various old parts, including musket barrels, and some small-scale steam engines he had fiddled with back in New York. The engine was a rousing success, prompting investors to buy stock in B&O, which enabled the company to buy Cooper's iron rails, making him what would be his first fortune.[6]
Cooper began operating an iron
Cooper also operated a successful glue factory in Gowanda, New York, that produced glue for decades.[9][10] A glue factory was originally started in association with the Gaensslen Tannery, there, in 1874, though the first construction of the glue factory's plant, originally owned by Richard Wilhelm and known as the Eastern Tanners Glue Company, began on May 5, 1904.[10] Gowanda, therefore, was known as America's glue capital.[10]
Cooper owned a number of patents for his inventions, including some for the manufacture of gelatin, and he developed standards for its production. The patents were later sold to a cough syrup manufacturer who developed a pre-packaged form which his wife named "Jell-O".[11]
Cooper later invested in
In 1854, Cooper was one of five men who met at the house of
Invention of first steel rocking chair (1830s)
During the 1830s Cooper designed the first steel chair in America, which was a rocking chair. Cooper produced a functional, minimalist design radically different from the Victorian heavily decorated, ostentatious style of the time. Most rocking chairs had separate rockers fixed to regular chair legs, but Cooper's chair used the curve of its frame to ensure the rocking motion. Cooper's chair was made of steel or wrought iron with upholstery slung across the frame. The model was manufactured at R.W. Winfield & Co. in Britain. The firm exhibited examples of the chair at the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations (Crystal Palace Exhibition) in 1851 and the Great London Exposition of 1862.[17][18]
Political views and career
In 1840, Cooper became an alderman of New York City.
Prior to the Civil War, Cooper was active in the anti-slavery movement and promoted the application of Christian concepts to solve social injustice. He was a strong supporter of the Union cause during the war and an advocate of the government issue of paper money.
Influenced by the writings of Lydia Maria Child, Cooper became involved in the Indian reform movement, organizing the privately funded United States Indian Commission. This organization, whose members included William E. Dodge and Henry Ward Beecher, was dedicated to the protection and elevation of Native Americans in the United States and the elimination of warfare in the western territories.
Cooper's efforts led to the formation of the Board of Indian Commissioners, which oversaw Ulysses S. Grant's Peace Policy. Between 1870 and 1875, Cooper sponsored Indian delegations to Washington, D.C., New York City, and other Eastern cities. These delegations met with Indian rights advocates and addressed the public on United States Indian policy. Speakers included: Red Cloud, Little Raven, and Alfred B. Meacham and a delegation of Modoc and Klamath Indians.
Cooper was an ardent critic of the gold standard and the debt-based monetary system of bank currency. Throughout the depression from 1873 to 1878, he said that usury was the foremost political problem of the day. He strongly advocated a credit-based, Government-issued currency of United States Notes. In 1883 his addresses, letters and articles on public affairs were compiled into a book, Ideas for a Science of Good Government.[19]
Presidential candidacy
Cooper was encouraged to run in the
A political family
In 1813, Cooper married Sarah Bedell (1793–1869). Of their six children, only two survived past the age of four years: a son,
Peter Cooper's granddaughters, Sarah Cooper Hewitt, Eleanor Garnier Hewitt and Amy Hewitt Green founded the
Religious views
Cooper was a
I look to see the day when the teachers of Christianity will rise above all the cramping powers and conflicting creeds and systems of human device, when they will beseech mankind by all the mercies of God to be reconciled to the government of love, the only government that can ever bring the kingdom of heaven into the hearts of mankind either here or hereafter.[24]
Cooper Union
Cooper had for many years held an interest in adult education: he had served as head of the Public School Society, a private organization which ran New York City's free schools using city money,
In 1853, he broke ground for the
The new institution soon became an important part of the community. The Great Hall was a place where the pressing civic controversies of the day could be debated, and, unusually, radical views were not excluded. In addition, the Union's library, unlike the nearby Astor, Mercantile and New York Society Libraries, was open until 10:00 at night, so that working people could make use of them after work hours.[26]
Today Cooper Union[27] is recognized as one of the leading American colleges in the fields of architecture, engineering, and art. Carrying on Peter Cooper's belief that college education should be free, the Cooper Union awarded all its students with a full scholarship until fall 2014, when the college began charging tuition due to the financial impact of construction loans taken before the Great Recession.[28] The college is currently implementing a financial plan to restore full-tuition scholarships for all its undergraduate students by 2029.[29]
Philanthropy
In 1851, Cooper was one of the founders of
Death and legacy
Cooper died on April 4, 1883, at the age of 92 and is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. The lot number of his current burial site is 3932 & C.
Aside from
References
Notes
- ^ a b c d Burrows & Wallace p.563
- ^ Raymond p.1
- ^ Raymond p.14
- ^ Virgintino, Mike (5 December 2016). "Little Old New York: Sunfish Pond". The Patch. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
- ^ Raymond p.19
- ^ a b c Burrows & Wallace p.564
- ^ Raymond p.22
- ^ Burrows & Wallace p.662
- ^ Community gets gift of Hollywood Theater for restoration, Buffalo News - Southern Tier Edition, Buffalo, NY: Berkshire Hathaway, 16 December 1996, O'Brien, B. | Accessdate 2 November 2013.
- ^ a b c Kirby, C.D. (1976). The Early History of Gowanda and The Beautiful Land of the Cattaraugus. Gowanda, NY: Niagara Frontier Publishing Company, Inc./Gowanda Area Bi-Centennial Committee, Inc.
- ^ Topper, Robert Q. "Peter Cooper as Chemical Engineer: The Invention of The Gelatin Dessert" on the Cooper Union website
- ^ a b Burrows & Wallace p.725
- ^ In 1856, Cooper was one of the 9,122 individuals in New York City whose net worth for tax assessment purposes was over $10,000 (~$264,654 in 2023). Burrows & Wallace p.712
- ^ Burrows & Wallace p.675
- ^ Harding, Robert S. and Oswald, Alison "Western Union Telegraph Company Records 1820–1995" Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. The American Telegraph Company would eventually, through mergers and buy outs, become part of Western Union.
- ^ "Local Intelligence.; The Atlantic Telegraph Enterprise. Meeting of Merchants at the Chamber of Commerce—Interesting Addresses by Cyrus W. Field, Peter Cooper, E.E. Morgan, the Mayor, A.A. Low and others—Subscriptions to the Capital Stock of the Company. Peter Cooper's Remarks". New York Times. March 5, 1863. Retrieved 2010-06-23.
Another great advantage would result from the avoidance of any misunderstanding between Great Britain and the United States – one such prevention would more than pay for the cable.
- ^ sysadmin (c. 1953). "Steel Chair Designed by Peter Cooper". Smithsonian Institution Archives. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
- ^ "Winfield, R. W. & Sons; Winfield & Co. (1820-1892) | BIFMO". bifmo.history.ac.uk. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
- ^ Cooper, Peter (1883). Ideas for a Science of Good Government. In Adddresses, Letters and Articles on a Strictly National Currency, Tariff, and Civil Service. New York: Trow's Printing and Bookbinding Co.
- ^ Hughes, Thomas (1886). Life and Times of Peter Cooper. London: MACMILLAN AND CO. pp. 222–226. Retrieved 23 May 2013.
Our fifth child was my son Edward, who is still living....My sixth and last child, was our daughter Sarah Amelia, now Mrs. Hewitt.
- ^ Sarah Cooper (1793–1869) Archived 2012-03-20 at the Wayback Machine. picturehistory.com
- ^ "About the Museum" Archived 2012-12-19 at the Wayback Machine on the Cooper-Hewitt website
- ^ "Timeline 1838 – 1860: The Bellows Era, Part 1: Gaining Prominence". All Souls Historical Society. Archived from the original on 26 June 2022. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
- ^ a b Cooke, George Willis. Unitarianism in America: A History of Its Origin and Development, v.4 Boston: American Unitarian Association, 1902. pp.408-09
- ^ Burrows & Wallace p.780
- ^ a b c Burrows & Wallace p.782
- ^ Gordon, John. "Peter Cooper". philanthropyroundtable.org. The Philanthropy Roundtable. Retrieved 3 October 2014.
- ^ Kaminer, Ariel (April 23, 2013). "College Ends Free Tuition, and an Era". The New York Times.
- ^ "THE COOPER UNION PLAN TO RETURN TO FULL-TUITION SCHOLARSHIPS" (PDF). Cooper Union. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
- ^ "Our City Charities - No, IIL The New-York Juvenile Asylum". The New York Times. January 31, 1860. Retrieved November 21, 2015.
Bibliography
- Mack, Edward C. Peter Cooper, citizen of New York (1949) online
- "Cooper, Peter". Mechanical Engineering Biographies Throughout Time. ASME. Retrieved 2008-05-01.
- Raymond, Rossiter W. (1901). Peter Cooper. New York: Houghton, Mifflin.
peter cooper raymond.
online - ISBN 0-195-11634-8.
External links
- Mechanic to Millionaire: The Peter Cooper Story, as seen on PBS Jan. 2, 2011
- Comprehensive Biography Archived 2013-11-11 at the Wayback Machine by Nathan C. Walker in the Dictionary of Unitarian Universalist Biography
- Facts About Peter Cooper and The Cooper Union
- Information about Peter Cooper from The Cooper Union Library and Archives Archived 2020-01-26 at the Wayback Machine
- Brief biography
- Peter Cooper at Find a Grave
- Extensive Information about Peter Cooper
- Images of Peter Cooper's Autobiography
- Peter Cooper's Dictated Autobiography
- The death of slavery by Peter Cooper at archive.org
Popular culture
- John M. Loretz Jr. dedicated his song, The Hero of Our Day! to Peter Cooper, "America's Great Philanthropist".