My Cooper Ancestors

My great, great, great grandfather, Peter Cooper, was an itinerant Methodist preacher and an early pioneer on the Great Plains.  Peter was a stone mason who emigrated from Preston, Lancashire, England in 1831 to the Bronx, in New York.  Over the next twenty years, Peter progressively moved his growing family west by covered wagon to Pennsylvania then Illinois until they ended up in Council Bluffs Iowa in 1850.  At “The Bluffs,” the Coopers were among the very first settlers to the area, and Peter opened a rock quarry that delivered the first stones used on the Capitol building just across the Missouri River in Omaha, Nebraska.  Peter is famous for having preached the first sermon in what is now, the city of Omaha.

Peter Cooper

Ann (King) Cooper

Peter and his wife Ann eventually produced 8 children, Martha (my great great grandmother), Theophilus, Peter Jr., Isaac, Lydia, Watson, William, and Cornelius.  Martha died at the age of 30 at the Bluffs, Theophilus, William, and Cornelius became involved in prospecting and mining in and around Willcox and Tombstone, Arizona, Peter Jr. and Watson remained close to the family farm in Glenwood, Iowa, Lydia moved away with her husband to the Tacoma area in the State of Washington, and Isaac made his mark in the Territory of Colorado.

Isaac was 23 years old when he made his first foray into Colorado on a prospecting adventure.  He did not “hit paydirt,” but he did explore the hot springs that were used by the local Ute Indian tribes for their recuperative properties.  Isaac’s trip was cut short when the country erupted into Civil War in 1861.

Isaac Cooper

Isaac served in the Union Army during the war, accompanying General Sherman on his “march to the sea” and attaining the rank of 1^st Luitenant.  He was wounded in the shoulder during the conflict and after Lee’s surrender he remained with the family in Iowa long enough to recuperate from his wounds, marry his sweetheart Sarah Hall, and be appointed Asst. Marshal during the taking of the 1870 census.

When Isaac was well enough he headed back to Colorado and made his home at the town of Defiance which, at the time, was nothing more than a few tents and an amalgamation of citizens united for protection from the local Ute Indian tribes.  Isaac laid out a plat of the town and received a patent from the U. S. government.  He thus became the founder of the town, which he renamed Glenwood Springs, Colorado, after his hometown of Glenwood, Iowa.

Isaac built a large hotel on what is now, Cooper Blvd. In Glenwood Springs and was involved in many business ventures there that made him a wealthy man.  Isaac was there in 1887 when Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday arrived shortly after their involvement in the infamous “Gunfight at the OK Corral.”  Doc stayed in Isaac’s hotel and it was there that Doc Holiday died in October of that year.  Coincidentally, two months later in December of 1887, Isaac also passed away at the age of 48 in his own hotel, having never fully recovered from his war wounds.