Introduction
John Cooper — photo published 1886
JOHN COOPER was born in Woodbury NJ in 1814 to William and Sarah Cooper. He was a descendant of the original William Cooper who came to NJ and for whom Cooper’s Point and the Cooper River are named.
After marrying Mary M. Kaighn in 1843 he opened a grocery store on what is now Kaighn Avenue. In 1845 he opened up the first coal yard in Camden, south of Federal Street. This business soon migrated back to Kaighn Avenue, and was quite successful. Located at 32–34 Kaighn Avenue, it was known as Cooper, Stone & Co., and traded in coal, wood, and hardware for over forty years. The business was carried on into the 1920s by John Cooper’s son William J. Cooper.
John Cooper was also a director for many years of the Kaighn’s Point Ferry, and was one of the principal organizers and first presidents of the Camden National Bank. With his first wife, Mary M. who passed in 1880, he was among the co-founders of the West Jersey Orphanage for Destitute Colored Children.
In the early 1880s John Cooper purchased ground in the 600 block of Cooper Street, and built a home at 633 Cooper, in which he lived until his passing in 1894 with his second wife, C. Louisa Gibberson Cooper, and his sons Howard M. Cooper, a prominent attorney, and William J. Cooper.
John Cooper retired around 1890. He passed away on April 18, 1894.
History of Camden County, New Jersey
George Reeser Prowell — 1886
John Cooper, who for more than forty years has been prominently identified with the business interests of the city of Camden, is a grandson of James Cooper, who resided near Woodbury, Gloucester County, and who became possessed of considerable property in that section, a portion of which, still owned by John Cooper, is the only tract that was thus originally purchased that has remained ever since in the family name. His father, William Cooper, who married Sarah Morgan, daughter of Joseph Morgan, of Delaware County, Pa., was a prosperous farmer for the period in which he lived. He died in 1850, at the advanced age of eighty years. His wife died about two years earlier. They were earnest supporters and consistent members of the Society of Friends, and both occupied the station of elders in the Friends’ Meeting held at Woodbury. They had six children,—Mary, the eldest, married Charles Kaighn, of Camden; Ann married Joseph Tatum, of Gloucester County; James married Lucy Middleton, of Burlington County; William E. married Elizabeth, daughter of Enoch Roberts, of Burlington County; Joseph M., a twin brother of James, who died unmarried, in 1885, at the residence of his brother John, the subject of this sketch, born in 1814.
In 1843 John Cooper married Mary M. Kaighn, daughter of Joseph and Sarah Kaighn, of Camden, and soon after opened a grocery store on what was then known as Market Street (now Kaighn Avenue). It was the only store in that section of Camden. Indeed, there were but few houses there except those in the immediate vicinity of the ferry. In 1845 he opened a coal-yard, being the pioneer in that branch of trade, and the first one to engage in that business in Camden, south of Federal Street. For more than forty years he has been active in business in that part of the city, interested in the development of its mercantile interests, and has been a successful merchant. He has been a director of the Kaighns Point Ferry Company for many years and was one of the promoters of the Camden National Bank, of which he is now vice-president. He is the head of the firm of Cooper, Stone & Co., dealers in coal, wood and hardware, doing business at Front Street and Kaighn Avenue. Both he and his wife, Mary M., were much interested on behalf of the colored population of the city, were among the founders of the West Jersey Orphanage, a home for colored children, and became very active in its management. She left a considerable sum of money to be paid to it after her death. She died in 1880. They had four children,—Howard M., a prominent member of the bar; Sallie K., who married George K. Johnson, Jr.; William J., who is now associated with his father in business; and Ellen, who died in early life. A few years ago Mr. Cooper purchased a lot of ground on Cooper Street, above Seventh, and built thereon a fine residence. He recently married C. Louisa Gibberson, of Philadelphia, and now lives in his Cooper Street mansion.