252 THE PORTRAIT GALLERY 
Shorthorns were first recorded by him in 1870. He took a 
prominent part in the establishment of the American Shorthorn 
Breeders’ Association, and was its second president, serving from 
1884 to 1900. He survived the floods of Booth, Bates and 
Scotch popularity by making his tenet the best animal regard- 
less of the fashionableness of its bloodlines. 
Mr. Coss was very successful financially, a part of his wealth 
arising from the gradual incorporation of his farm into the limits 
of Kankakee. He died at the age of seventy-nine, on April 14, 
1910. Perhaps his most outstanding trait was his courtliness of 
manner and his gentlemanly character. Mr. Copp was a man of 
high spiritual nature respected and beloved by all who knew him, 
and he rightly earned the title accorded him by a Kankakee 
friend, in a published appreciation, “one of God’s Gentlemen.” 
