History of Michigan, / by Charles Moore. [Vol. 2]

HISTORY OF MICHIGAN

817

village of Park River sprang up. The family lived at Park River until
the fall of I890, when the father brought his family to Michigan, taking
up his residence temporarily at Marlette, where he secured employment
for his teams, and the following September brought his family to Albion,
which continued his home until his death on April 4, I904. His wife
survived him six years, or until February 7, I9Io, and both are buried
in Riverside cemetery at Albion. Among their children are two other
sons, Wilfred A., engaged in farming in Jackson county, and Oscar H.
Cooper, a member of the cartage firm of Wilfinger, Cooper & Pettibone
of Albion.
With a farm training during his early youth Adrian F. Cooper was
educated in the public school at Park River, North Dakota, spent one
year in the high school at Marlette, Michigan, and from there entered
the preparatory department of Albion College, from which institution
he was graduated in I896. Before entering college he taught district
school for one term at the age of seventeen, and after graduation from
college again resumed teaching, and spent four years in that occupation
in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Houghton county, at Dollar Bay
and Chassell. While teaching he devoted his spare time to the study of
law and during vacations read law in the office of M. D. Weeks at Albion. In 900o he quit teaching and entered the law office of Kramer &
Greenfield of Chicago as a law clerk, but returned to Michigan in I901
and took the bar examination and was admitted to practice May Ioth of
that year. With the exception of a brief time spent in Jackson, his legal
career has been identified with Albion since January I, 90o2. In that
city he formed a co-partnership with his former tutor, and the firm of
Weeks & Cooper has been one of the strongest in Calhoun county. In
addition to his law business Mr. Cooper has built a number of substantial
modern tenant houses from the proceeds of his law practice.
Mr. Cooper has for a number of years been one of the leading Republicans in the southern part of the state, and is now serving his fourth
year as Republican county chairman. The first office to which he was
elected was that of circuit court commissioner, which he held for two
terms. In 1903 he was elected city clerk of Albion and was re-elected the
following year, and in I909 was elected mayor of the city, and succeeded himself for a second term in that office. He has served seven
terms as city attorney of Albion. He also served as secretary and treasurer of the Albion Business Men's Association, has been president and
secretary of the Alumni Association of Albion College, and for four years
he was a member of the board of directors of the Association, and a
member of the board of Athletic Control of Albion College. His fraternal affiliations are chiefly with the Masonic Order and include membership in Murat Lodge No. 14, A. F. & A. M., Albion Chapter No. 32,
R. A. M., Albion Council No. 57, R. & S. M., and he is a past Worthy
Patron of the Eastern Star. His church is the Methodist Episcopal.
On October 3I, I906, he was united in marriage with Miss Emma L.
Worden, of Reading, Michigan, whose acquaintance he had made while
she was a student in the Albion College conservatory of music. Mrs.
Cooper's father, George W. Worden, was a prominent merchant of Reading, where he was engaged in the hardware and implement business, and
formerly was an extensive buyer of grain and other farm produce. Her
mother, whose maiden name was Ella L. Chester, was a daughter of Eeson
T. Chester, one of the early settlers of Hillsdale county, a prominent and
ardent Democrat, and a man of large business interests, owner of a bank
at the village of Camden, and of the flour mills and saw mills of that
place, was also government land agent for many years, and was the largest
individual land owner in the township of Camden. Mr. and Mrs. Cooper