A surveyor
John Cleves Symmes was the sole proprietor of the Miami Purchase, a vast tract between the Great Miami and Little Miami rivers.
Cooper became a surveyor and traveled to Cincinnati in 1793 as a land agent for Colonel Jonathan Dayton, who, along with Col. Israel Ludlow, Gen. Arthur St. Clair, and Gen. James Wilkenson, was interested in buying the land.
It was Cooper that cut and marked the first roads leading to the Mad River.
Settling in Dayton
The town of Dayton was carved from the much larger Dayton Twp. A group of 36 settlers arrived in April 1796. Cooper joined them a few months later at age 22.
Symmes never paid Congress, and the government decided to take back the land, canceling all deals with the other purchasers, including Col. Jonathan Dayton and his partners. By then, the city had already been named “Dayton” by Israel Ludlow.
The settlers were in danger of losing their land titles.
This is when Cooper stepped in and purchased the pre-emption rights to more than 1,000 acres — at $2 an acre — from the government. He essentially bought the whole town. Without this action, Dayton would have been abandoned.
He then re-sold the land at his cost to new settlers. Little by little, the titles were registered and property rights were assured. Dayton was incorporated in 1805.
Pillar of the community
Cooper served the community as the first justice of the peace and tax assessor, was for many years on city council and served as president of the council for six years. He was also elected seven times as a member of the state legislature.
Cooper built and operated the city’s first distillery, corn mill, grist mill and sawmill. He was literally Dayton’s first businessman.
Dayton library and Cooper Park
Cooper not only gave his time and money to the creation of the city, but also set aside land for schools, churches, and a park.
Of all the land that Cooper gave to the city, only the plot he gave “for a public walk forever” still remains. For awhile it was called Library Park before a resolution was passed that it should be called Cooper Park.
The plot of land, made up of 11 lots, was donated by Cooper to provide a square that “should be enclosed, planted with trees and forever kept as a ‘walk’ for the citizens of Dayton and its visitors.”
In the 1880s, Dayton’s library was expanded, and the park was selected as the site for the new library. The library was dedicated Jan. 24, 1888. That first library at Cooper Park gave way to a new contemporary building when ground was broken in 1960 for expansion and modernization.
In 2016, the doors to the community’s new Main Library, with four times the public space of the old building, opened again in Cooper Park.
Early death
The First Presbyterian Church, of which Cooper was a member, had ordered a new cast-iron church bell from a foundry in Cincinnati.
The bell was transported by barge up the river and delivered to a store in town. The store owner, Horatio Phillips, walked over to Cooper’s home to let him know the bell had arrived.
Cooper took a wheelbarrow from his barn and pushed it to Phillips’ store at Second and Main streets to get the bell. Without asking Phillips for help, Cooper tried to lift the heavy bell. After a struggle, Cooper got the bell in his wheelbarrow and headed towards the church.
He didn’t make it far.
Heading down Second street, Cooper let go of the wheelbarrow and collapsed in the street. A blood vessel in his brain had burst. He was dead at the age of 45.
His death stunned the community. He left behind his wife, Sophia, and 6-year-old son.
The First Presbyterian Church members were so grief-stricken over his death that they decided not to install the new bell.
He is buried at Woodland Cemetery.
Reporting from Roz Young and Rosalie Yoakam contributed to this story.
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