William COOPER, Congress, NY (1754-1809)

COOPER, William, a Representative from New York; born in Philadelphia, Pa., December 2, 1754; lived in Burlington, N.J., until moving in 1789 to Otsego County, N.Y., where he established the town of Cooperstown; appointed first judge of the court of common pleas for Otsego County on February 17, 1791; elected as a Federalist to the Fourth Congress (March 4, 1795-March 3, 1797); again elected to the Sixth Congress (March 4, 1799-March 3, 1801); father of James Fenimore Cooper; died in Albany, N.Y., December 22, 1809; interment in Christ Churchyard, Cooperstown, N.Y.

Bibliography

Taylor, Alan. William Cooper’s Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present