A DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XI, Issue 7, 8 June 1883, Page 21

A DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN.

Petes Coop iSR was born in the city of New York, February 12, 1791, and came of a family distinguished for their unwavering devotion to the cause of American Independence during the dark period of the Revolution. His maternal grandfather, John Campbell, was Mayor of New York, and deputy-quarter-master during the war, and, with genuine patriotism, sacrificed his large private fortune in the cause of his country's freedom. His father was lieutenant in the patriot army, and at the close of the. war returned to New Fork, where he engaged in business. He was assisted by his youthful son, Peter, for some years ; but, not being very successful in his business undertakings was unable to give him any education. Hence Mr. Cooper's varied and profound knowledge was wholly self-acquired. He was the architect of his own fortune. From his seventeenth to his twenty « first year he was engaged in learning the coachmaking trade. His services were so satisfactory that his employer offered to set him up in business, which Mr. Cooper declined 1 because of the obligations it would entail. He next engaged in the manufacture of patent machines for shearing cloth, which laid the foundation of his fortune. He subsequently went into the grocery business, and finally engaged in the flue and isinglass, which he has carried on for more than fifty years. Having early directed his attention to the great iron resources of the country, he erected, in 1803, the Canton Iron Works near Baltimore, and subsequently built a rolling and wire mill in New York city, in which he first successfully applied anthracite to the puddling of iron. In 1815, he erected at Trenton, N, J., the largest rolling mill then in the United States for the manufacture of railroad iron, and was the first to roll wrought iron beams for firepnoE buildings. We also find Mr. Cooper's name identified with the early history of railroads, as he built, after his own designs, the first locomotive engine ever run on this continent, which was operated successfully on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. He has likewise taken great interest in the extension of the electric telegraph, having been for nineteen years President of the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company, President of the American Telegraph Company, Honorary Director of the Atlantic Telegraph Company, and President of the North American Telegraph Association, wtrich represents and controls more than two-thirds of all the . lines in the United States. He was also largely instrumental in launching the Atlantic Cable. Mr. Cooper took an early and active interest in New York canals, inventing an endless chain propeller for utilising elevated water for towing boats in canals, and was a prominent advocate of the construction of the Croton aqueduct. He served in both branches of the New York Common Council, and was Public School Trustee and School Commissioner. But the most cherished object of Mr. Cooper's life, early conceived and faithfully executed, was the establishment of an institution, open day and night, for the practical instruction of the. working classes. Having felt the want of such instruction himself in early life, and observing wjth his acute sagacity that our youth must be trained to industry, under an advancing order of work introduced by v machinery, he established in 1851 the "Cooper Institute' " at the junction of Third and Fourth Avenues New .York city, "To be devoted for ever to the onion of art and science as applied to the useful purposes of life." — Irish World. > • „ .