Edward Cooper (mayor)

Edward Cooper (October 26, 1824 – February 25, 1905) was the 83rd Mayor of New York City from 1879 to 1880. He was the only surviving son of industrialist Peter Cooper.[1][2]

Edward Cooper
Mayor of New York City
In office
1879–1880
Preceded bySmith Ely, Jr.
Succeeded byWilliam Russell Grace
Personal details
BornOctober 26, 1824
New York City, U.S.
DiedFebruary 25, 1905(1905-02-25) (aged 80)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Resting placeGreen-Wood Cemetery
Political partyDemocrat
Spouse(s)
Cornelia Redmond
​
​
(m. 1854; died 1894)​
ChildrenEdith Cooper
ParentsPeter Cooper
Sarah Raynor Bedell
EducationColumbia University

Early life

Cooper was born in New York City on October 26, 1824. He was the son of Peter Cooper (1791–1883) and Sarah Raynor (née Bedell) Cooper (1793–1869).[3] His sister Amelia Cooper (1830–1912) was married to Abram Stevens Hewitt (1822–1903), who also served as mayor of New York from 1887 to 1888.[4]

He was the grandson of John O. Cooper (1755–1838), a hatmaker who served in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, and Margaret Campbell (1762–1841).[3]

He attended the New York public schools and Columbia College, afterwards entering the iron business with the aid of his father.[5] He completed his studies in 1842 and in 1845, Columbia awarded him the honorary degree of Master of Arts.[6][7]

Career

In partnership with Abram S. Hewitt, Cooper operated an iron works in Trenton, New Jersey. Edward Cooper also became a metallurgist and inventor, developing several improvements to iron making and metalworking. He declined to patent his inventions, believing that they could better serve the public if he made them widely available. After Peter Cooper's death in 1883, Edward Cooper succeeded to the presidency of the Cooper Union.[8]

Active in politics as a Democrat, Cooper was a delegate to The 1860 Democratic National Convention in Charleston, South Carolina, and the 1876 Democratic National Convention in St. Louis. With Hewitt, Samuel J. Tilden and others, Cooper was recognized as a leader of the Swallowtails, named for the Swallowtail coat. The Swallowtails were prominent Democratic businessmen and professionals who opposed the Tammany Hall Democratic organization and attempted to introduce government reforms and end corruption. Cooper served as a member of the Committee of Seventy, which investigated and prosecuted Tammany Hall corruption. In 1875, Tilden was Governor of New York, and named Cooper to a commission which proposed anti-corruption reforms for inclusion in the New York Constitution.[9]

By the late 1870s, Cooper was part of the Irving Hall Democrats, another organization which opposed Tammany. In 1878, Cooper ran successfully for mayor, supported by anti-Tammany Democrats, Republicans, and independents. He defeated Augustus Schell, who ran with Tammany support. During his two-year term Cooper promoted reform of the city's sanitation service and tenement laws. He was succeeded by William Russell Grace, another anti-Tammany Democrat.[9]

In 1890, Abram S. Hewitt partnered with Edward Cooper and Hamilton M. Twombly in forming the American Sulphur Company. That company then entered into a 50/50 agreement with Herman Frasch and his partners to form the Union Sulphur Company[10]

Society life

In 1892, Cooper and his wife were included in Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred", purported to be an index of New York's best families, published in The New York Times.[11][12] Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.[13]

Personal life

In 1854, Cooper was married to Cornelia Redmond (1829–1894), the daughter of James Morton Redmond and Anne (née Bowne) Redmond. Together, they were the parents of two children, only one of whom lived to maturity:[14]

He died in New York City on February 25, 1905 and was buried at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.[18]

See also

References
  1. Hughes, Thomas (1886). Life and Times of Peter Cooper. London: MacMillan and Co. pp. 222–226. Retrieved 3 August 2012. Our fifth child was my son Edward, who is still living.
  2. Anderson, Lincoln (July 27, 2005). "Square suit cites 'hallowed ground,' theater in round and, um, squirrels". The Villager. 75 (10). New York, New York. Archived from the original on September 2, 2013. Retrieved September 2, 2006. He noted that Peter Cooper recalled seeing a hanging there as a teenager, and that Mayor Edward Cooper, his son, recollected his father having witnessed the lynching at the current site of the fountain.
  3. Guérin, Polly (2012). The Cooper-Hewitt Dynasty of New York. Arcadia Publishing. p. 13. ISBN 9781614237822. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  4. "ABRAM S. HEWITT DEAD; Ex-Mayor Passes Away at His City Residence. His Career as an Ironmaster, Business Man, Statesman, Financier, Educator and Philanthropist". The New York Times. January 19, 1903. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  5. "Mrs. Lloyd Bryce Buys Eighty Acres". The New York Times. 24 August 1899. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
  6. Catalogue of Officers and Graduates of Columbia University from the Foundation of King's College in 1754. Columbia University. 1916. p. 1083.
  7. Columbia university alumni register, 1754-1931. New York: Columbia University. 1932. p. 178. hdl:2027/uc1.b4525470.
  8. "First Annual Report of the Trustees of Cooper Union" (January 1, 1860)
  9. Caliendo, Ralph J. (2010). New York City Mayors. Xlibris Corporation. p. 360. ISBN 9781450088145. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  10. Haynes, Williams (1959). Brimstone, The Stone That Burns. Princeton: D. Van Norstrand Company, Inc. pp. 32–39, 60.
  11. McAllister, Ward (16 February 1892). "THE ONLY FOUR HUNDRED | WARD M'ALLISTER GIVES OUT THE OFFICIAL LIST. HERE ARE THE NAMES, DON'T YOU KNOW, ON THE AUTHORITY OF THEIR GREAT LEADER, YOU UNDER- STAND, AND THEREFORE GENUINE, YOU SEE" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 26 March 2017.
  12. Patterson, Jerry E. (2000). The First Four Hundred: Mrs. Astor's New York in the Gilded Age. Random House Incorporated. p. 225. ISBN 9780847822089. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
  13. Keister, Lisa A. (2005). Getting Rich: America's New Rich and How They Got That Way. Cambridge University Press. p. 36. ISBN 9780521536677. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
  14. "MRS. BRYCE LEFT $6,921,810; Estate Goes to Children and Grandchildren". The New York Times. 3 April 1918. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
  15. "Mrs. Bryce's Estate Left to Family". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 7 June 1916. Retrieved 18 October 2015., page 8
  16. "Mrs. Bryce Left $3,000,000. Husband and Son Principal Beneficiaries Under Will". The New York Times. 7 June 1916. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  17. "A BRIGHT MAY WEDDING; MARRIAGE OF MISS COOPER AND MR. L.S. BRYCE. THE SCENES AND SERVICES AT ALL SOULS' CHURCH RECEPTION AT THE HOUSE OF MR. PETER COOPER A FEW OF THE GUESTS". The New York Times. 1 June 1879. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
  18. "Ex-Mayor Cooper Dies of Apoplectic Stroke – Son of Cooper Union's Founder and Tilden's Close Friend – Fought The Tweed Ring – Brother-in-Law of Abram S. Hewitt, Who Was His Business Partner – Eighty-one Years Old". New York Times. February 25, 1905. p. 1. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
Political offices
Preceded by
Smith Ely, Jr.		 Mayor of New York City
1879–1880		 Succeeded by
William Russell Grace
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