My Genealogy Hound

Garrett Cooper, one of the oldest and most respected citizens of Jefferson County, was born in Craven County, N. C., on April 26, 1826, and is a son of Robert and Isabel (Prescott) Cooper. The parents moved from North Carolina to Tennessee in 1828, and settled in Tipton County, where Garrett was reared and educated. Both parents died at an advanced age. In his early youth, Garrett displayed a fondness for mechanical pursuits that predicted a brilliant future, and when only eighteen or nineteen years of age he received a contract to build several bridges in the State of Tennessee. From that time to the year 1860 he contracted throughout the State for building bridges, cotton gins and other structures, and his fame as such spread rapidly to the surrounding country. Probably no other scientific mechanic in that part of the country enjoyed the reputation that young Cooper had made for himself. Science was a study to which he had applied himself all his life, it was natural to him, and in the construction of bridges, he had few superiors even among the older mechanics. In 1866 he embarked in mercantile life at what was known as Lower Seven Lake, and afterward Cooper Landing, named in his honor when the post office was established at that point. He continued in business until very recently, and from 1866 began to cultivate cotton quite extensively. He now owns 700 acres of very productive land, and at one time had control of Cooper’s Island, having purchased it for $30,000, but a number of very disastrous floods destroyed it. On August 22, 1849, he was married to Miss Ann Kent, of Tipton County, Tenn., a daughter of George W. Kent, who was very prominent in that county. This lady was born May 20, 1833, and died April 13, 1872, and by her marriage with Mr. Cooper became the mother of twelve children, of whom four are yet living: Bob S., Frances V. (wife of a Mr. Neely. of Mississippi County, Ark.), Mary F. and Willie. In 1875 he was married to Miss Mary Kent, a sister of his first wife, this lady having been born in Virginia, on April 21, 1829, and died February 15, 1881. Mr. Cooper is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of which he is trustee, and in politics he is a stanch Democrat. He is now sixty-three years of age, but to look at him, no one would think he was more than fifty. He uses no glasses, nor does he ever expect to, remarking that “I would trade my eyes for none.” During the war he was neutral and consequently excused from service, but he traveled over the country a great deal, and was never molested by either side. Mr. Cooper can be proud of one fact, and that is that during his life he was never arrested for any cause whatsoever. He is a leader in public and private enterprises, and one of the foremost citizens in the county. His popularity is unbounded, and few men are held in higher esteem.