THOMAS COOPER was born in Ross County, Ohio, July 26, 1825, and is the youngest of the six children born to James and Jane (Tull) Cooper, both natives of Delaware. James Cooper was a shoemaker and gardener. He was married in his native State, and afterward moved to Ross County, Ohio, where he owned a small farm, and there ,died in 1828. Thomas Cooper, at the age of five, was compelled to look to strangers for a home; until he was thirteen, be was cared for by Mr. E. Clemmons, and then he began working on farms by the month. In August, 1846, be enlisted in Company K, First Regiment United States Mounted Rifles, organized to serve with Fremont in California; but the regiment was assigned to the command of Col. P. F. Smith, and sent to Mexico, where it joined Gen. Scott's army. The regiment was the first to land at Vera Cruz, and was in every battle to the capture of the City of Mexico, which city it was the last to leave. At the close of the war in 1848, Mr. Cooper located in Macoupin County, Ill., where he farmed on shares several years, and where he married, December 25, 1848, Nancy Whitworth. who bore her husband six children- three yet living and died August 4, 1877, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1850, Mr. Cooper moved to Tippecanoe County, and in 1856 to this township. In the fall of 1861, he enlisted in Company I, Forty-sixth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, served through the war, and was mustered out in September, 1865. At Port Gibson, he was wounded in the hip and back, from the effects of which he will never entirely recover. At the close of the war, he purchased his present farm, and in March, 1879, he married Mrs. Angeline (Thompson) Layman, who has borne him two daughters (twins). Mr. Cooper is a Republican, and has filled several official positions; he is a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which his wife is also a member.

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