Cooper, George C. bio

History of Fulton County, Illinois; together with Sketches of its Cities, Villages and Townships, Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History; Portraits of Prominent Persons and Biographies of Representative Citizens. Chas. C. Chapman & Co., Peoria, Illinois, 1879, page 850, Pleasant Township
G. C. Cooper, sec. 23; farmer, owning 410 acres of fine land; was born in Pennsylvania Sept. 1, 1818; came to this State in 1848, settling in Fulton county; in 1851 he married Sarah D. Beadles, who was born in Illinois, Feb. 24, 1833; they have had 9 children, 8 living at present, namely: Nancy J., wife of C. Crail, Lucinda, Corinne, Sarah E., George, Lucy, Margaret, Anna and an infant, deceased. Mr. Cooper as a farmer has risen from almost nothing to affluence.
transcribed by Nan Krull

Portrait and Biographical Album of Fulton County, Illinois: containing full page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county: together with portraits and biographies of all the presidents of the United States, and governors of the state; Biographical Pub. Co., Chicago, IL; 1890; page 753-754; Transcribed by Margaret Rose Whitehurst
George C. Cooper, one of the pioneers of Fulton County, now makes his home on section 23, Pleasant Township, and has the confidence and esteem of the people throughout this section of the country. His birth occurred on the 1st of September, 1818, in Washington County, Pa., and he is the son of George and Nancy (Bond) Cooper, natives of Pennsylvania. The Cooper family is an old and aristocratic one, and numbered among the earliest settlers in Washington County, near the Monongahela River.
Our subject is the third son in his father’s family, and removed with his parents to Wayne County, Ohio, settling about six miles northeast of Wooster. When twelve years of age our subject’s parents removed with their family to Holmes County, Ohio, and there they died. Mr. Cooper received his education in the subscription schools of his neighborhood, and having been deprived by death of his father when only fourteen years old, he was naturally forced to commence taking care of himself at a very early age, and it also fell to him to take charge of the farm and look after the family. This responsibility soon developed his talent for money-making, and taught him taught him splendid lessons in perseverance and self-denial. When twenty-one years old he sustained the sad loss of his mother.
Mr. Cooper came to Fulton County in 1848, and being in poor financial circumstances, he worked at what he could find, and at the same time rented a farm and carried on that business. He was married July 3, 1851, to Miss Sarah Beadles, who was born in Fulton County, February 24, 1833, and was the daughter of Rice and Polly (Warren) Beadles, both natives of Virginia. Her parents came to Fulton County from the Blue Grass State in 1830, settling first in Bernadotte Township, and afterward moving to Pleasant Township.
The mother died here in 1852, and the father afterward removed to the State of Missouri, where he died in 1878. To them were born twelve children, the following of whom are living: Sarah, (Mrs. Cooper); Lewis; William W., who lives at Table Grove, Ill.; James lives in Missouri; Mary is the wife of John Adams, and lives in Kansas; America is the wife of Benjamin Hutton, and resides in Bernadotte Township; Margaret, who married James Jordan, lives in Kansas. By the father’s second marriage one child was born Berry D., who makes his home in Missouri.
To our subject and wife have been born nine children, eight of whom are living at the present writing, viz: Nancy J., wife of Soren Knowles, of Missouri; Lucinda, who is the wife of William Shawgo, lives in Fulton County; Corwin, of this place; Sarah E., George; Lucy, wife of Andrew Shawgo, makes her home in Peoria; Margaret, and Anna. After his marriage our subject settled in Woodland Township, near the present site of Summum Village, and in the fall of 1857 located in Pleasant Township on his present farm. He owns five hundred and forty acres of valuable land, and is generally conceded to be a model farmer. Politically he is a member of the Republican party. Both he and his worthy wife as old age comes creeping on apace, are enjoying the consciousness of years well and profitably spent, and surrounded by loving children and warm personal friends are going down the declining pathway of life gracefully and peacefully.
On another page of this volume will be noticed a lithographic portrait of Mr. Cooper.