Tim Ervin Cooper Biography - Mississippi Genealogy Trails

Tim Ervin Cooper

Courts, Judges, and Lawyers of Mississippi, 1798-1935, By Dunbar Rowland, B.S., LL.B., LL.D., Press of Hederman Press, Jackson, Mississippi, 1935, pgs 114-117

Tim Ervin Cooper, of Jackson, Mississippi, chief justice of the supreme court of Mississippi, was born July 5, 1843, in Copiah county, Mississippi, on a plantation, the son of William A. and Mary E. (Ford) Cooper. William A. Cooper was a lawyer, and combined planting with his profession. He was a native of the State, born in Lawrence county, in 1818. His father, Joseph, was a native of North Carolina, from which State he moved to Mississippi in the early part of the present century. Joseph’s father was a Baptist minister, and came to what is now Mississippi in the latter part of the eighteenth century. He was of English-Irish ancestry. Mary Ford’s father was a lawyer by profession, and at one time was on the circuit bench of Louisiana. Judge Cooper’s maternal grandfather Ervin, was a colonel in the Revolutionary war. The Ervins were also of Scot and Irish descent. William A. Cooper died in 1851, his widow surviving him for a number of years. They were parents of five children: Walter N., Joseph F., Mary, Tim E., and William. After the death of the father the family removed to Jackson, and resided there until 1858, when the widow removed to Georgetown, Kentucky. She remained there until 1860, when Judge Cooper entered the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The War for Southern Independence interrupted his studies, and he left college to return home for the purpose of enlisting in the Confederate army. He became a member of Company K, Eighteenth Mississippi Regiment, Burt Rifles, which had been organized at Corinth in April 1861, and his first engagement was at Manassas, where his regiment fought in D. R. Jones’ brigade. His next battle was at Ball’s Bluff. His regiment was in nearly all the engagements in northern Virginia and the Peninsular campaign. He also fought at Savage Station, Malvern Hill, and at Sharpsburg, where he was taken prisoner with his brother, who was wounded. He was released in time t join his command at Fredericksburg, and participated in that battle, where his regiment was captured. He his succeeded in making his escape, and going to Baltimore, quietly remaining with friends until his regiment was exchanged. When he heard of this he went to the Federal Officer and surrendered for an exchange. He later rejoined his regiment at Fortress Monroe, soon after which his command join Lee in his march into Maryland. This led him to the field at Gettysburg, where he participated in the second day’s fight, being under General Longstreet. After that battle he was promoted to sergeant-major and acted as adjutant of the regiment until the close of the war. From the field of Gettysburg his regiment was ordered to the Western army, and under Bragg was in the battle of Chickamauga, and then at Knoxville against Burnside. After the latter engagement, the regiment was ordered back to Virginia, and he participated in the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and all the engagements of that terrible campaign. He was then in the siege of Petersburg. During this siege he received a furlough home, arriving there in February, 1865. Before he was ready to return to the scene of action, the enemy had cut off his communications and he was unable to rejoin the army before the surrender. Though only seventeen years of age at the time of his enlistment, he made a fine record as a soldier, being always ready for active duty, and discharged his duties with credit to himself and to the confederacy.

After the war young Cooper read law in the office of William Yerger for a time and was then with King & Mayes at Gallatin. He was admitted to practice at the latter place in 1866, and from there went to Monticello, where he began practicing his profession, remaining there some five months. He then moved to Crystal Springs, Mississippi, where he practiced with success until 1872, at which time he opened an office at Hazlehurst, Copiah county, Mississippi. He was not only successful there at the bar, but he established himself as a lawyer of unusual abilities, and attracted the attention of the people of the State. In February, 1881, he was called from his practice to accept the position of associate justice of the supreme court to succeed Judge James Z. George, who had been elected to the United States senate. He was reappointed in 1888, and served until 1894 when he became chief justice of the supreme court, serving in that capacity until his resignation on December 1, 1896. Judge Cooper shortly after his resignation moved to Memphis, Tennessee, and resumed the practice of law, in which he was most successful. In 1907 Judge Cooper relinquished his large and lucrative practice in Memphis and returned to Jackson, where he remained until his death, which occurred on February 8, 1928. Until two years before his death important cases were still brought to him to gain the advantages of his profound legal experience.

Judge Cooper married in Adams county, Mississippi, November 1, 1866, Mary E., daughter of John B. and Ella (Grafton) Dicks, and to them were born nine children: Barber D., Mary Cooper Holder, Rufin Tim E., Ella. M., Mayes, Barlett, John, and Joseph. He was a member of the L.O. O. F/, and K. and P. He had three brothers in the Confederate army, Walter was a member of the eighteenth Mississippi, and served chiefly in army of northern Virginia, and Joseph and William were in the cavalry service.

The following portraiture of Judge Cooper which appears in numerous memoirs of Mississippi, was made while he was on the supreme bench: “Judge Cooper is a man about five feet, eight inches high, with a finely chiseled, intellectual face, well proportioned figure, rather inclined to corpulency (sic) but not to an extent to impair the lightness and activity of his motions. His eyes are blue and full, his hair light brown, his forehead expansive and marked with thought, his bearing is easy, yet dignified and his whole manner indicative of a man possessed of intellectual power. He is a man of noble instincts and liberal in his views, kind and generous in his disposition, with simple, unaffected and true manners. He took his post where nature and education placed him – in the very front rank of the profession. He maintained his ground with lawyers that are classed among the most gifted in the country, while he is still at the period of life where ambition points to and mental activity assures, a higher fame. As an advocate Judge Cooper is forceful d convincing; his command of language is good and his delivery attractive. He makes himself master of all the facts and law points of the case, and then he presents them with great force and effectiveness. His knowledge of the law, his love of justice, his high sense of honor, his poise of mind, qualify him in an eminent degree for the bench where he has the confidence of the bar and the people.”