Edgar L. Cooper

EDGAR L. COOPER has been a business man at Coats a number of years, and is now utilizing his experience and ability in the handling of a large real estate business representing some of the largest land owners in Western Kansas.

Mr. Cooper is of English ancestry, his family having come from England to New Jersey in colonial times. His grandfather, Abraham Cooper, was a native of New Jersey, and joined a considerable colony of New Jersey people who early in the last century went West and established homes along the Mississippi River in Southern Illinois. The colony was so numerous and prominent that when the county was organized it was given the name Jersey. Abraham Cooper entered land from the Government and became one of the prosperous farmers and large land owners in that section, where he spent the rest of his life. Both Edgar L. Cooper and the latter's father, Charles Cooper, were born on the old Jersey County farm. Abraham Cooper married Maria Nevins, a native of New Jersey, who died at Jerseyville, Illinois.

Edgar L. Cooper was born at Jerseyville, Illinois, January 4, 1878. His father, Charles Cooper, was born in the same place in 1848, and for many years was a farmer in that locality. He moved to Kansas in 1905, and lived retired until his death at Coats on January 5, 1907. He was a republican in politics. Charles Cooper married Leora Fitzgerald, who was born at Cuba, Missouri, in 1859. She is still living at Coats. There were only two children, Edgar L. and Alice. The latter died unmarried at the age of twenty-five.

Edgar L. Cooper attended the rural schools of his Illinois county, and in 1902 graduated from the Gem City Business College at Quincy, Illinois. For about a year or so he worked in the master mechanic's office of the Burlington Railroad at Brookfield, Missouri. On August 13, 1903, he arrived at Coats, and has ever since been a factor in the business life of this community. For four years he was in partnership with his uncle, Allen M. Fitzgerald, in the furniture and undertaking business. Their store was then traded for a drug store, and after eighteen months Mr. Cooper sold out. For two years he was in the automobile business, but since 1912 has given his chief attention to real estate. He handles farm properties all over Western Kansas and is agent for the Santa Fe Land Company. He individually owns a good grain farm of 320 acres near Coats. He is also a stockholder and is secretary of the Coats & Southwestern Telephone Company.

Mr. Cooper is an independent voter, and in Masonry is affiliated with Coats Lodge No. 394, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Pratt Chapter No. 51, Royal Arch Masons, and Wichita Consistory No. 2 of the Scottish Rite. On June 6, 1918, at Jerseyville, Illinois, Mr. Cooper married Miss Ruth Cook, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William H. Cook of Jerseyville. Her father was a soldier in the Civil war and for many years was an active farmer but is now living retired.

Page 2345.