U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Cooper, Maria (d. 1854) ------------------------------------------------------------------- Aler's History of Martinsburg and Berkeley County, West Virginia by F. Vernon Aler, 1888 Printed for the Author by The Mail Publishing Company, Hagerstown, MD. CHAPTER VIII. Historical Pen Sketches of the Early Residents of Berkeley County by the late Hon. Chas. James Faulkner. Pages 126-127, MARIA COOPER. Born in Berkeley County; a lady of great intelligence, brilliant conversational powers, and of great religious fervor and piety. No person was ever more universally loved and esteemed in this community; and of the hundred and eleven estimable persons who fell victims to the cholera pestilence in the fall of 1754, there was not one whose death was so universally lamented. She left a will, bequeathing a large portion of her estate to charitable purposes. Among seven other bequests contained in her will was one for the founding of an academy in Martinsburg; but this, with all the other bequests in her will for charitable purposes, was declared by the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, to be invalid and thus, an institution which in anticipation of this fund, and to do honor to her memory, was incorporated as the Martinsburg Cooper Academy, perished under the illiberal policy and stern decree of the court. She published some time before her death a small work composed of original and selected matter, that gave evidence of high literary taste, and which proved that she was as graceful in composition as she was brilliant in conversation. She died in October, 1854, of an attack of the cholera. ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access other biographies for Berkeley County, WV by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/wv/berkeley/bios.html -------------------------------------------------------------------