than twelve years of age and, being the second oldest in a family of seven children, was obliged to assist in the support of his younger sisters and brothers. He remained with his mother until twenty-three years of age and in the spring of 1881 launched his ship on the sea of life, coming west to Iowa and arriving in Colo, Story county, with but five cents in his pocket. Immediately making preparations to follow an agricultural career, he began the operation of a rented farm in New Albany township the following summer and was thus actively engaged in the work of the fields there for a period of fifteen years. In the spring of 1890 he bought eighty acres of his present farm and two years later purchased an adjoining tract of similar size, taking up his abode thereon in the spring of 1895. The farm embraces the northwest quarter of section 5, Collins township, and has remained his place of residence for the past sixteen years. The property was unimproved when it came into his possession and all of the buildings thereon stand as monuments to his enterprise and industry. Mr. Cooper makes a specialty of raising Duroc Jersey hogs and for several years past has been feeding at least one carload each of cattle and hogs. He is widely recognized as one of the substantial agriculturists of the community and his success is all the more creditable by reason of the fact that it is attributable entirely to his own efforts.
On the 4th of March, 1883, Mr. Cooper was united in marriage to Miss Hattie Black, of Lee county, Illinois, her parents being James and Sarah (Wynn) Black, both natives of Ireland. Unto our subject and his wife have been born six children, four of whom are still living, as follows : Edith, the wife of Jesse Fry, who cultivates eighty acres of her father's farm; and Hattie, Fern and Leo, all at home.
In politics Mr. Cooper is a republican, while fraternally he is identified with Crescent Camp, No. 2358, M. W. A. Both he and his wife belong to Sunbeam Lodge, No. 181, Mystic Workers of the World. During his residence in Story county he has made an excellent record for upright manhood and honorable citizenship and may well be classed with the representative men of the community.
CHARLES D. Barker.
Charles D. Barker, a prominent and wealthy agriculturist of Union township, is the owner of three hundred and twenty acres of Story county's most valuable land. His birth occurred in the state of New York on the 7th of August, 1855, his father being Jesse Barker, a sketch of whom appears on another page of this work. He was reared at home and in the common schools acquired his education. When about twenty-three years of age he started out as an agriculturist on his own account, cultivating rented land for a short time. About 1880 he purchased eighty acres of his present home