180 Kansas Academy of Science. 



the young couple the same year moved to Iowa, where they spent 

 five years in farming. Evidently this life did not suit him, for on 

 January 1, 1860, he entered railway service, which was to be his 

 occupation for half a century. His first engagement was with the 

 Illinois Central Railroad, and while in that service he found time 

 to publish for several years a newspaper in Centralia, 111. 



When the land department of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa 

 Fe Railway was organized he was employed as its secretary, and re- 

 mained with the banta Fe in different positions until July 1, 1886, 

 when he entered the service of the Rock Island as right of way 

 agent, and after one year took charge of the tax business of this 

 road, where he remained till he had, on his retirement, rounded 

 out fifty years of railroad service. At the end of this period the 

 tax business of the road was moved to Chicago, and Mr. Cooper 

 was retired on a pension. 



During all his eventful life he kept up a keen interest in scien- 

 tific knowledge, and was especially well read in geology and min- 

 eralogy. Having unusual facilities in his railway employment for 

 visiting many localities he bacame a collector of minerals, especially 

 of crystalline forms, of which he gathered, named and classified 

 36,000 specimens. Mineral dealers and colleges became interested 

 in his cabinets, and he sold valuable collections to Washburn Col- 

 lege and to the Kansas State University. Besides these, he left a 

 large private collection here in Topeka, which he contemplated 

 moving to California had his life and health been prolonged. 



About a year ago it seemed necessary for him to go to a hospital 

 ■and undergo an operation for stomach trouble. He bore it well, 

 and it was hoped for a time that he had obtained permanent relief, 

 but he did not fully recover, and then, with the thought that he 

 might be benefited by the milder climate of California, he decided 

 to go there. His wife had died the February before his decease, 

 and the bereavement and the long hot summer proved too great a 

 strain for his low vitality, and after suffering for eleven days from 

 his arrival in Los Angeles he sank to his long sleep in the home 

 of his daughter, Mrs. Virginia C. Hartzell. Besides this daughter 

 his only near surviving relatives are a granddaughter and his twin 

 sister, Mrs. H. A. Merrill, of Grand Rapids, Neb 



Mr. Cooper was a member of the A. A. A. S., a member of the 

 Academy of Science, of which he had been president, a member 

 of the National Geographical Society, and of several fraternal 

 orders. 



