Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 April 1883 — PETER COOPER. [ARTICLE]

PETER COOPER.

Incidents in the Life of the Great Philanthropist. We give below excerpts from the history of one of the great and good men of the country. We only regret that the review of a life so interesting is so disoonreqted, but we believe those who pattern after him will hardly lead an unprofitar He life: Peter Cooper was b<>rn in New York city, February 12,1791, and he was therefore in his ninety-third year at the time of his death. When he was bom the now great metropolis was but a little city of 27,000 inhabitants. The war of the revolution was of the near past, and Wash-

ington was still living. Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr were both practicing law, and General Washington, as President of the United States, held his office in the old City Hall in Wall street. He remembered Washington’s funeral passing through New York, and hearing his mother speak of a cheval-de-frise erected at what is now Duane street to keep off the Indians.' He was in Albany when Commodore Perry passed through, after his famous victory on Lake Erie in the war of 1812, and remembered the triumphant arches erected in his honor. Soon afterward he made the trip from Albany to New York on Robert Fulton’s steamboat, the Clermont, then the “wonder of the age,” He had previously had business relations with Fulton, both being interested in a scheme of Mr. Cooper’s devising to propel ferryboats between New York and {Brooklyn by means of compressed air. When he was seventeen years of age he was apprenticed to a coachmaker for four years, receiving |25 a year. During this time he employed his evenings in an upper room in Broadway in study and in making experiments. It was then that his inventive genius was developed which led him into those pursuits in which he achieved so great success. The first practical result ot these experiments was the invention of a machine for mortising hubs. His employer was so much pleased with this that he offered to start him' in business; but young Cooper declined this because he preferred to rely on his own energies. He then went to Hempstead, L. L, where he was employed by a manufacturer of cloth-shearing machines at $1.50 a day. At the end of three years he had saved enough to buy the patenteight bf New York State and began manufacturing on his own account The first purchaser of a machine was Matthew Vassar,the founder of Vassar College,who also bought the right of a county. On returning hoyse about this time Peter Cooper found his father involved in financial difficulties, to extricate him from which he surrendered all of his hardearned savings.

In 1828 Mr. Cooper went to Baltimore and became identified with the origin of two great enterprises, which, more than all others have contributed to the growth of that city—Canton, and the Baltimore 4 Ohio railroad. He was induced by two persons to buy a third interest in 8,070 acres of land near the city; but he was deceived by them aud was obliged to pay for the whole. Instead of lamenting his misfortune he went out prospecting,found a bed of iron ore, and built furnaces and a rolling-mill. From these works sprang the great industries bf Canton. It was'at these works that the United States ironclad Monitor was plated.

The crowning work of his life is the great Cooper Institute, erected in New Tork at the junction of Third and Fourth avenues, between Seventh and Eight streets, covering the entire square, and costing, entire, about $2,000,000. This building is devoted, by a deed of trust, fwith all its seats, issues and profits, to the instruction and elevation of the working classes of the oity of New Tork. It schools of arts, science and letters, libraries, reading-rooms and cabinets and there re able professors and teachers employed at an expense of over $50,000 a year. Here men and women may perfect their knowledge in any department of practical science or art. As • work of beneyolence it is unsurpassed, and upon it the founder’s fame will ever endure. On the occasion of his ninetieth birthday, in 1881, he added SIOO,OOO to fuhdg of the institute. The readingroom and library are resorted to by about

1,500 readers. The evening schools are attended by 2,000 pupils, mostly by young mechanics, who study engineering, mining, metallury, analytic and synthetic chemistry, etc. He first conceived the idea of the Cooper institute when a member of Common Council, some fifty years ago. Hethen heard a gentleman describe the polytechnic school? in Paris and the eagerness evinced by the French youth to obtain instruction there, many of them living on crusts of bread day by day to obtain a coveted education. In an interview a short time since, in reply to the question "How did you get rich” he said: "In the first place, I learned three I learned to be a brewer, a ooaohmaker, and a machinest, all before I wqs twenty-one years old. I worked three years at SLSO a day; and saved enough out of that to get a start in 1 ife I was making machine?. to shear cloth Then I bought the patent right of the machine and made them for sale. That was before the war of 1812.’’ And then he was asked: "What general rule he had adopted in business. ’ "One was that I determined to give the world an equivalent in some form of use. ful labor for all that I consumed in it I went on and enlarged my business, all the while keeping out of debt I cannot recollect a time when I could not pay what lowed any day. I would not spend money before I earned it Another pile I had was to keep dear of banks. I never asked them for accomodation. I never got them to discount notes, because I did not wish to incur an obligation without a certainty of being able to pay it. In that way I managed to keep clear of panics. My rule was ‘pay as you go.’ Mr. Cooper was originally a Democrat, but abandoned that parqy at the beginning of the war. He was opposed to the financial policy of the Republican party, after the era of reconstruction, and was nominated for President by the Greenback party, in 1876. In religion he was a Unitarian. His wife died in 1869, and buttwoof his children—ex-Mayor Edward Cooper and Mrs. Abram 8. Hewtt Mr.' Cooper lived in plain and rather old-fashioned style, notwithstanding his great wealth. A love of show never affected him, and he was alwavs ready to receive with hearty hospitality all friends of humanity. One evening some unexpected visitors called on him. It happened when, as the old gentleman said, the servants were all out “However, ’he said, “my wife got tea and I set the table while the folks were in the parlor, and upon the whole it was one. of the happiest times we ever had.” The evening of his life was made beautiful by his genial nature, which never permittsd him to worry. He Icved mankind and knew, in return, that he was loved of many.