Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2013, All Rights Reserved U.S. Data Repository Please read U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the US Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ ========================================================================= U.S. Data Repository NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. ========================================================================= Formatted by U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== SOURCE: History of St. Clair County, Mich. A. T. Andreas & Co., Chicago - 1883 [565-566] GAGE M. COOPER, owner and proprietor of Cooper Hotel, P.O. Port Huron, is a native of Broome County, N.Y., and was born in Binghampton, March 21, 1817. When seventeen years of age he started West, and went by Susquehanna River and Juniatta Canal and Portage Railroad over the mountains. At Pittsburgh, went on the first steamboat he ever saw to Wellsville, Ohio, and from there he took his worldly goods on is back, and walked through the western reserve to Kalamazoo, and reached there in 1835; he helped dig the grubs out of the streets of that city, and worked on the Territorial road; in 1838, he began railroading on the Pontiac Railroad, and afterward was on the Central Railroad, and from there went to Cincinnati, and went on the Lexington & Louisvilee Rail- road, and was master mechanic of that line; while there, he decorated the car that carried the remains of HENRY CLAY to Lexington. He returned to this State, and was under foreman of the shops in Detroit, of the Detroit and Manistee Railroad. During the war, he ran an engine on the Great Western Railroad, and after that came to Fort Gratiot, and was locomotive foreman on the Grand Trunk Railroad. He was actively engaged in railroading from 1838 until 1872, and with one exception is the oldest railroad engineer in the State. In 1875 he built the Cooper Hotel, at Grand Trunk Junction, and since then has kept this house. In 1842, he was appointed Postmaster at Royal Oak, Mich., and held that office three years, and held the office of Justice of the Peace two terms. Mr. COOPER has been twice married; his first wife was Miss ELIZA JOHNSON, of Haddam, Conn. She died in 1860, and left three children -- THOMAS J., JAMES F. and ELLA. Mr. COOPER has files of the New York Tribune of 1842-43, and also has an original copy of the New England Weekly Journal, dated April 8, 1728, over one hundred and fifty-four years old. =========================================================================== If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access more information about St. Clair County, Michigan by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/mi/stclair/ ===========================================================================