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Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott
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Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott
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History of Anoka County
And the Towns of Champlin and Dayton
In Hennepin County, Minnesota
by Albert M. Goodrich
pub. 1905 - Hennepin Publishing Co., Minneapolis


              page 202
              
                JAMES COOPER was born near Belfast, Ireland, June 24, 1805.
              He came to America about 1834, locating at Quebec, where he
              worked at shipbuilding about three yeas, removing thence to
              Philadelphia, where he lived for some four years. About 1841
              he established a colony of residents of Philadelphia in what
              was then a wilderness in Bradford county, Pennsylvania, where
              he built a saw mill to manufacture the lumber for the houses
              of the colonists. There he lived some fifteen years. In Octo-
              ber, 1856, he came to Minnesota, and took a pre-emption claim
              in sections 29 and 32 in what is now the town of Bethel. The
              next spring he brought his family to their new home, which
              they reached June 24, 1857. About 1863 he was appointed post-
              master at Bethel, which office he held some fifteen years.
              About 1876 HUGH SPENCE started a store near Mr. COOPER'S house
              and the place began to be known as COOPER'S Corners. The store
              afterward passed into Mr. COOPER'S hands and he conducted it
              until his death, April 2, 1893. He was married in 1831 to
              ISABEL NEILL, who died in 1849. Children: RACHEL (died at two
              yeas of age), SARAH (Mrs. WILLIAM TENNISON, died 1883), JOHN
              (St. Cloud, Minn.), WILLIAM (died 1882), ISABEL (Mrs. BENJAMIN
              GRINNOLS, Fairhaven, Stearns Co.), ELIZABETH (Mrs. GEORGE
              SECOY, died about 1868), MARGARET A. (Mrs. T. C. HYATT, Fair-
              haven), and JAMES H. Mr. COOPER'S second wife was NANCY
              MINARD, who died in 1865, leaving two children, ROXIE (Mrs.
              STEPHEN DYER), and SAMUEL F.  His third wife was REBECCA P.
              MILLIGAN, who died in June, 1900, leaving three children:
              EVALINE A. (Mrs. C. H. GANGELHOFF, Long Lake, Hennepin Co.),
              MARY B. (Long Lake) and LAURA J. (Mrs. GEORGE W. WYATT).
              
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