Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 November 1879 — CHARLES RINGGOLD COOPER [ARTICLE]

CHARLES RINGGOLD COOPER

Romantic Career and Roguish Crimes of a Yankee. “A retired army officer had an only daughter, who was a charming musician. Mr. Cooper devoted himself to her. He had a stylish team, and the young lady shared his rides. The couple became engaged, and when Mr. Cooper was laid up with small-pox the romantic young lady wrote the tenderest notes to him, and daily sent delicacies made by her own fair hands. Bhe believed him to be immensely wealthy, and listened with delight to his Claude Melnotte descriptions of the home and estat o f his ancestors in England. The rl was really refined, well educated an of good lineage, but he always impressed her with the idea of her inferiority to hinh, and that it was great condescension on his part to notice her. She, like so many American girls, tamely submitted, and did not evince the slightest spunk until he deserted her and married Miss Mothershead, whom he supposed to be wealthy. His forgeries were discovered several days before his marriage, and it seemed cruel to allow the ceremony to proceed when the detectives were outside of Mr. Defrees’ house, and followed him and the bride to the train, taking passage with them and not losing sight of him for an instant. At Havre de Grace the arrest was made. Coqper begged the detectives not to let the arrest be known until he reached Philadelphia and placed his bride in a hotel. To this they agreed. He returned to the poor unsuspecting girl, sat beside her and entertained her most agreeably all the evening. The party proceeded to the Continental Hotel, Philadelphia, where Cooper engaged a room, escorted his bride to it, aud then with the promise of returning soon, left her. She never saw him again. Vainly did she watch and wait during the long hours of the night. In the morning, her uncle, Mr. Defrees, arriv ed and told the dreadful truth to the frightened, horror-stricken girl. He brought her back to his home, which she had left only the day before so bright and happy. Before leaving this lady, I will add that Mr. Defrees quickly obtained a divorce for his much loved niece, and Miss Mothershead returned to Indiana. In a few years she again married, and I believe has been so happy that, except for the frequent turning up of the scoundrel who so cruelly deceived her, she would have forgotten this dreadful episode of her youth. When Cooper left his bride in her chamber at the Continental the detectives were waiting to conduct him to prison. His trial and conviction soon followed. It became known that he was the son of humble parents in Delaware. His mother was a widow, and testified that he was always bad and unprincipled, and used to invent falsehoods to suit his every purpose. She had known nothing about him during or after the war. Cooper received the mild sentence of five years in Moyameneing prison. He served out his time, and has lived the life of a forger ever since. He deceived men with the same facility that he did women. The General’s daughter, whom Cooper jilted, of course felt much chagrinned when she heard that Cooper had married another, but th 3 news of his disgrace so quickly followed that she felt thankful for her escape from a worse humiliation. She immediately dispatched her father to the Navy DeEartment to beg the Secretary to give im an order for the delivery of her letters and souvenirs which might be found among Cooper’s papers which had been seized. I was present when the General came in with the package. Tne young lady sprang from the sofa to receive them, when her mother cried out: '‘Don’t touch them, they may heap fected with small-pox. General, tale them to the kitchen and put them in the range,” but the daughter would inspect the bundle first. Every letter was folded aud briefed like a business document. Each letter was numbered and his comments upon the contents were recorded on the back. One read: “Dear little -* —; how she loves me!” Some of the reflections were not so complimentary, and the young lady finally yielded to her moth* er’s command that the General should consign the package to the fire, nor was she satisfied for several days that they might not be infected with small-pox by the handling of the tender missives which had been sent daily to beguile the tedium of the invalid’s sick room.