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Below is a family biography included in History of Union County, Iowa published by S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., in 1908.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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A. M. Cooper, who follows general farming on section 25, New Hope township, was born in Highland county, Ohio, August 6, 1851. There he was reared to the age of fifteen years, when he accompanied his parents on their removal to Iowa and has since made his home in this state, covering a period of forty-two years. The family located in Henry county, where the father purchased land, becoming the owner of a farm of four hundred acres which he carefully and systematically cultivated until he became a prosperous farmer. He spent his last years upon the old homestead, where he died in 1896, and his wife survived him for two years.

In his youth A. M. Cooper assisted in the arduous task of developing a new farm in Henry county. His early educational privileges were afforded by the common schools and were supplemented by study in Salem College. He remained with his father until he attained his majority and assisted him in tilling the soil and carrying on the farm work, thus receiving practical training in the best methods of raising and caring for the crops. On the 13th of February, 1879, he was married, in Henry county, to Miss Alice Way, whose birth occurred March 28, 1852, in Center county, Pennsylvania, in which state she was reared and educated. Prior to her marriage she successfully engaged in teaching.

Mr. and Mrs. Cooper began their domestic life in Henry county, where he followed farming for a number of years, after which he sold his property there and removed to Hamilton county, Iowa, where he purchased a place of two hundred acres. For a year he cultivated that farm and then sold out, removing to Vernon county, Missouri, in 1894. In that locality he purchased one hundred and sixty acres, constituting a well improved farm, which he tilled, fenced and developed. Turning his attention to stock raising, he purchased young steers, which he raised and fattened on pasture and later sold. He continued to carry on farming in the state of Missouri until 1900, when he sold his property there and removed to Union county, Iowa, purchasing a place in New Hope township. A year later he sold this property and bought one hundred and twenty acres of the farm upon which he now resides on section 25, New Hope township. He has since purchased eighty acres north of Lorimor, which he keeps for pasture. Mr. Cooper has recently completed a new cement block house, which is one of the finest residences of the county. It is a two-story structure, twenty-eight feet square, and is the only cement block house in the township.

Mr. and Mrs. Cooper have two sons and a daughter: Orvil R., who is a railroad station agent and telegraph operator at Omaha, Nebraska; Robert W., who assists his father in carrying on the home farm; and Mary E., who is now a student in the Lorimor high school.

Politically Mr. Cooper is a republican and though he has never been a politician in the sense of office seeking, he has served as school director and the cause of education finds in him a stalwart champion. Both he and his wife were reared in the faith of the Society of Friends. Mr. Cooper is now a member of the Fraternal Aid Insurance and is well known in this community as a successful business man and farmer. He has been a resident of Iowa much of the time for over forty years and has helped to improve and develop the state. His own prosperity has resulted from well directed energy and unremitting diligence and his life record proves what may be accomplished by one who is not afraid of earnest, unremitting labor.

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This family biography is one of 247 biographies included in The History of Union County, Iowa published in 1908.  For the complete description, click here: Union County, Iowa History and Genealogy

View additional Union County, Iowa family biographies: Union County, Iowa Biographies

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