THOMAS COOPER 
The familia r form and kindly face of Station Master Tom Ooopei 
is sadly missed from the Union Pacific; depot at Cheyenne. 
In his death Wyoming' Joses a pioneer who fearlessly led the ad¬ 
vance of settlement and safety. A boy veteran of the Civil war, Tom 
Cooper came to Cheyenne to open the way to settlement to guard and 
protect the traffic of the railway in whose service he has just died 
He saw Wyoming transformed from the wild range of the buffalo 
and the antelope to the paradise of domestic livestock. He has lived 
here to see its widespreading plains and fertile valleys rapidly pass¬ 
ing undr the plow of agriculture. In all these changes; he had the 
satisfaction of knowing that he had rendered invaluable service in 
preparing the way. 
It,is said that Cooper was wonderfully expert, in finding his way 
pver the trackless range. In these first daysi of the frontier there 
were few roads and the landmarks were uncertain and misleading 
.with a weary sameness. Few men could keep in, mind the endless 
panorama of canyons and streams; of buttes and mountains that 
made up the dreary landscape for hundreds of miles. 
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Tom Cooper, however, had the happy faculty of fixing them all 
In liis mind; and of mapping his course unerringly by them to any 
point to which he desired to go. He could discern and recognize the 
identity of mountains when others would be bewildered and lose the 
trail. 
For this reason and for his cool judgment and rugged honesty he 
was a most, trusted scout in the early days when this country was 
being cleared of murderous red men and outlaw whites. Tom Cooper 
was a most conspicuous leader of a class of brave men who might 
well be designated “Heralds of the Homeseeker.” Men who willingly 
risked their lives and sacrificed their comfort to prepare the land 
for habitation and for peaceful industry. j 
These men accomplished, their hazardous mission and are now 
rapidly passing over the divide to the great beyond. They were heroes 
In every sense of that word, for they renderd brave service for the 
future commonwealth that their deeds made possible. The thousands 
bnppy homes in the great state of Wyoming would not exist today 
kit for the pioneering of such dauntless leaders as Tom Cooper. 
'Amidst hardships and arduous toil they cleared the wild west of the 
lumberers of the ground. 
No man bad a wider vision of A¥yoming‘s future than Thomas 
Dooper, who had helped to fit it for its development. He loved his 
State, lie loved his fellowmen and was ever ready with deeds of kind- 
icss and charity wherever an opportunity offered. 
There ought to be a shaft erected upon the sta.tehou.se grounds 
lo the memory of suck men as Thomas Cooper, who so bravely pip 
fteered and paved the way for Wyoming® -settlement. 
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