Peter Cooper
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Peter Cooper | |
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 Peter Cooper |
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| Born | February 12, 1791 New York, New York, U.S. |
| Died | April 4, 1883 (aged 92) |
| Occupation | Industrialist, Inventor, Philanthropist |
| Spouse(s) | Sarah Cooper |
Peter Cooper (February 12, 1791 – April 4, 1883) was an American industrialist, inventor, philanthropist, and candidate for President of the United States. He invented the steam locomotive.
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[edit] Biography
Peter Cooper was born in New York City to a Dutch-American family. He had little formal schooling, and he worked in the family trade of hatmaking. He then worked as a coachmaker's apprentice, cabinet maker, and grocer. Then he was involved in the manufacturing and selling of cloth-shearing machines. In 1830 Peter Cooper, interested in railroad due to a substantial real estate investment hopefully appreciating in value with the advent of a railroad into the area[1], designed and built the first locomotive in the United States, the Tom Thumb. On June 20, 1845, Cooper was granted a patent for an improvement to the preparation of gelatin[2] - effectively Jell-O. A home in which he resided is maintained at the Old Bethpage Village Restoration in Nassau County, New York. In 2006, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
[edit] Family
Peter Cooper's son Edward Cooper would serve as mayor of New York as would his daughter Sarah Amelia's husband, Abram S. Hewitt, a man heavily involved in inventions and industrialization like his in-laws.
[edit] Politics
In 1840, Peter Cooper became an alderman in New York City. As a prosperous businessman, he conceived of the idea of having a free institute in New York, similar to the École Polytechnique (Polytechnical School) in Paris. He erected a building and endowed art schools for preparing young men and women of the working classes for business. In 1858, he presented the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art to the City of New York.
In 1854, Cooper was one of five men who met at the house of Cyrus West Field and formed the New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company. He was among those supervising the laying of the first Transatlantic telegraph cable in 1858.
Prior to the Civil War, Cooper was active in the anti-slavery movement and promoted the application of Christian concepts to solve social injustice. He was a strong supporter of the Union cause during the American Civil War and an advocate of the government issue of paper money.
Influenced by the writings of Lydia Maria Child, Cooper became involved in the Indian reform movement, organizing the privately funded United States Indian Commission. This organization, whose members included William E. Dodge and Henry Ward Beecher, was dedicated to the protection and elevation of Native Americans in the United States and the elimination of warfare in the western territories. Cooper's efforts led to the formation of the Board of Indian Commissioners, which oversaw Ulysses S. Grant's Peace Policy. Between 1870 and 1875, Cooper sponsored Indian delegations to Washington D.C., New York City, and other Eastern cities. These delegations met with Indian rights advocates and addressed the public on United States Indian policy. Speakers included: Red Cloud, Little Raven and Alfred B. Meacham and a delegation of Modoc and Klamath Indians.
Cooper was an ardent critic of the gold standard and the debt-based monetary system of bank currency. Throughout the depression from 1873-78, he said that usury was the foremost political problem of the day. He strongly advocated a credit-based, Government-issued currency of United States Notes. He outlined his ideas in his 1883 book Ideas for a Science of Good Government
[edit] Presidential candidacy
Cooper was encouraged to run in the 1876 presidential election for the Greenback Party without any hope of being elected. His running mate was Samuel Fenton Cary. The campaign cost more than $25,000. At the age of 85 years, Cooper is the oldest person ever nominated by any political party for the office of President of the United States in the history of the nation.
The election was won by Rutherford Birchard Hayes of the Republican Party. Cooper was surpassed by another unsuccessful candidate: Samuel Jones Tilden of the Democratic Party.
[edit] Cooper Union
Peter Cooper founded in 1859 the Cooper Union school of New York City which today is recognized as one of the finest USA schools in architecture, engineering and art. Carrying on Peter Cooper's belief that college education should be free, the Cooper Union awards all its students with a full scholarship.
[edit] Death
At the age of 92, Peter Cooper died on April 4, 1883. He is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.
[edit] Sources
- "Cooper, Peter". Mechanical Engineering Biographies Throughout Time. ASME. http://www.asme.org/Communities/History/Resources/Cooper_Peter.cfm. Retrieved 2008-05-01.
- ^ Stauffer, AF & Sagle, LW 1964, B&O Power: 1829-1964, Wayner Publications, p. 11, ISBN: 0944513069
- ^ http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT4084
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Peter Cooper |
- Comprehensive Biography by Nathan C. Walker
- Facts About Peter Cooper and The Cooper Union
- Brief biography
- Find-A-Grave profile for Peter Cooper
- Ideas for a Science of Good Government Addresses, Letters and Articles by Peter Cooper
- Extensive Information about Peter Cooper
- Images of Peter Cooper's Autobiography
- Peter Cooper's Dictated Autobiography
- The death of slavery by Peter Cooper at archive.org
| Party political offices | ||
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| Preceded by (none) |
Greenback Party presidential candidate 1876 (lost) |
Succeeded by James Baird Weaver |
