Edward Cooper (mayor)

Edward Cooper
83rd 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
Cornelia Redmond
(m. 1854; died 1894)
ChildrenEdith Cooper
Parent(s)Peter Cooper
Sarah Raynor Bedell
EducationColumbia University

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

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). 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.

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).

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

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.

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.

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.[self-published source]

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

Society life

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

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, one of whom lived to maturity:

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

See also


This page was last updated at 2024-02-20 11:04 UTC. Update now. View original page.

All our content comes from Wikipedia and under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.


Top

If mathematical, chemical, physical and other formulas are not displayed correctly on this page, please useFirefox or Safari