COOPER, Emory

COOPER, TUCKER, BOUTELL, KUAPP, GOLDTHORP, BRENEMAN, DEBELL, ABBEY, PAGE

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 2/2/2014 at 13:33:25

HISTORY of CERRO GORDO COUNTY, IOWA
WHEELER, J.H. Vol. II. Pp. 744-45. Lewis Pub. Co. Chicago. 1910

BIOGRAPHY ~ EMORY COOPER

The subject of this sketch [Emory Cooper] is representative of one of the pioneer families of Cerro Gordo county, Iowa - the Coopers. Josephus Cooper, the father of Emory, was born and reared in Virginia. At the age of twenty-one years he left the "Old Dominion" and came west as far as Illinois, where he subsequently married Miss Ibbey Tucker, and where, In Stephenson county, he was for several years engaged in farming. From there he came to Iowa, spend some time in Dubuque, Bremer and Floyd counties, and in the spring of 1865 took up his residence in Cerro Gordo county. Here, on section 1, Lime Creek township, he bought one hundred and sixty acres of land, and on this place passed the rest of his life and died, his death occurring in 1879, at the age of sixty-four years. His wife died in Floyd county, Iowa, in 1860, at the age of thirty years. They were the parents of three sons and five daughters, namely: Jesse M., born in 1848, resides in Worth county, Iowa; Emory, whose name introduces this sketch; J. C., born in 1860, now owns and occupies the one hundred and sixty acres in Lime Creek township which his father purchased on coming to the county, as above stated; Aletha Jane, who died in 1908, in Minnesota, at the age of sixty years; Emeline, born in 1840, is the widow of J. A. Boutell, and resides in Worth county, Iowa; Betsey Ann, born in 1842, became the wife of Jacob Kuapp, and she died in the '70s, leaving two children; Eliza, born in 1844, died in the '70s; and Rebecca born in 1853, is the wife of Albert Goldthorp, and a resident of Lime Creek township.

Emory Cooper was born in 1851 in Stephenson county, Illinois. He was reared there and in Iowa, having accompanied his parents on their removal to this state, and with other members of the family he landed in Lime Creek township, Cerro Gordo county, March 5, 1865. Here he has since lived, with the exception of about ten years spent in Worth county, this state. He remained a member of the home circle until he was twenty-six years of age, when he went to Worth county and settled down to farming on his own account. He bought and sold a farm there, and he has since bought and sold several farms in Cerro Gordo county; also at one time he owned two hundred acres of land in Minnesota. After his father's death he was administrator of the estate. Now, partially retired from active work, he resides on a fine little farm of twenty-two acres in section 1, Lime Creek township, which has been his home since 1898.

In Worth county, Iowa, in 1878, Mr. Cooper married Miss Maggie Breneman, a native of Clarion county, Pennsylvania, born October 8, 1852, a daughter of George and Ebeline (Campbell) Breneman, and third in a family of four, the others being: Mattie, wife of George Debell, died at Washburn, Wisconsin, May 1, 1906, at the age of fifty-eight years; Anna, wife of A. C. Abbey, of Northwood, Iowa, and D. E. Breneman, born in 1857, is a millwright, and foreman in a saw mill at Bemidji, Minnesota. Mrs. Cooper's parents went to Minnesota in 1856 and settle in Houston county where they died some years ago, the date of the father's death being 1885. Mrs. Cooper came as a young woman from Minnesota to Iowa, and was soon afterward married here. She and Mr. Cooper have one son, Clinton E., born in Cerro Gordo county in 1882. He married Miss Ethel Page, at Plymouth, Iowa, and they have a little daughter, Alice Laura, born May 26, 1906.

Mr. Cooper's father voted the Republican ticket and was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and in both politics and religion the son follows in the footsteps of the father. He is a member of the fraternal organization of Yeoman.

NOTE: Emory Cooper died in 1917. Margaret "Maggie" (Breneman) Cooper died in 1929. They were interred at Oakwood Cemetery, Plymouth IA.

Transcription and note by Sharon R. Becker, January of 2014