Professor Jacob Cooper (1830-1904)

Jacob was the youngest of the Cooper brothers and, like his two older siblings, was noted for his devotion to hard work and intellectual pursuits. He too was born on the family farm near Somerville, Ohio. We may infer from the following comment on Jacob's preparation for Yale that conditions in the Cooper family were conducive to self-reliance and self-improvement.

With a BA Degree from Yale in 1852, Jacob was of delicate health during his childhood and early adolescent years. Instead of attending preparatory school as he had wished to do, he worked on the farm by day and studied at night. With increasing years his health grew more robust and in his sixteenth year he began the study of Latin, Greek and mathematics with first one and then another of the local clergymen. For some portion of the 1848-49 academic year he enrolled in Hanover College in nearby Hanover, Indiana, but received no degree.

Finally, in September 1850 at the age of twenty he was able to enter the Junior class at Yale where he graduated in July 1852, receiving the BA degree with the highest honors allowed to one who entered as late as the junior year. While at Yale he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and other honor societies.

One of Jacob's classmates at Yale called him "an honor to the college, his class and his age", and added:

His coming among us made more stir in another direction than any other new comer did in our college days . . . He was made fun of to an extent that would rouse the ordinary recipient to wrath . . . It was his clothes . . . They were of wool raised on his father's farm, spun, dyed, loomed and tailored by his own family. . . Cooper's appearance should not have attracted unwelcome and derisive attentions but it made no difference to him. Unruffled, he calmly wore his genuine home made woolen suit.

Ordained as a Presbyterian Minister in 1853. During the year following his graduation from Yale, Jacob studied theology and philology at home and was licensed in the Presbyterian ministry. Like so many brought up in the Quaker faith, Jacob (and Esaias, Elias and Levi Cooper Lane as well) ultimately departed from a strict observance of Quaker discipline while continuing to be influenced by the imbedded moral precepts of their rigorous native religion.

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MD Degree from Medical Department, Saint Louis University in 1853

We were unaware of Jacob having received an MD degree until we found a brief entry in his Diary made on 5 June 1855 clearly stating that he was "a regular M. D." Spurred by this notation in the handwriting of the unimpeachable Jacob, we searched the Annual Announcements of the Medical Department of Saint Louis University. In the Announcement for 1853-54 Jacob Cooper of Ohio is listed as being awarded an MD ad eundem degree on 1 March 1853. He is also listed in later rosters of alumni as an MD graduate of the Medical Department in 1853. We have no evidence that he ever practiced medicine. Instead, he pursued an academic career in classical languages and religion. For the record, however, we can report the interesting detail that each of the three Cooper brothers received an MD ad eundem from the Medical Department of Saint Louis University: Esaias in 1850, Elias in 1851 and Jacob in 1853. ^{[17] [18] [19]}

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PhD Degree from Berlin University in 1854

Jacob entered the University of Berlin in 1853 and earned the degree of PhD in 1854. Also in 1853, he was elected to membership in the Philosophical Society of Berlin at the age of 23.

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MA Degree from Yale In 1855

With the acquisition of a Master's degree from Yale, Jacob was at the age of twenty-five finally prepared for a promising future in academia.

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Professorial Appointments

Jacob began his teaching career in April 1855 upon his election as Professor of Greek at Centre College, Danville, Kentucky. In 1866, he was appointed Professor of Greek at both Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and at Rutgers College, New Brunswick, New Jersey. He chose to go to Rutgers where he held the Chair of Greek until 1893 when he became the Collegiate Church Professor of Logic and Mental Philosophy. He remained at Rutgers until his death in 1904. Because of his prodigious erudition and good works, he was memorialized at Rutgers in prizes, gifts, plaques and buildings.

Honorary Degrees awarded to Professor Cooper by other universities were:

• Doctor of Civil Laws (F.C.L.) by University of Jena in 1873
• Doctor of Laws (LLD) by Tulane University in 1895.

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The Benign Intercessions of Jacob Cooper

Jacob was deeply attached to Elias to whom he wrote periodically with news of the family, always including encouraging words and expressions of affection for his brother such as these: ^[20]

My firmness is not enough to bear up when I recollect the dear days of childhood, the days when we were together on those quiet hills and sported with no care on our youthful hearts, happy in our dear sweet home and as yet having no experience of sorrow. And when we turned our feet homeward we found a house unstricken by the dread destroyer.

We shall later relate how Jacob, who was studying in Europe in 1854, was of great moral support and practical assistance to Elias when he arrived there to visit hospitals and observe the work of prominent surgeons.

Following their return together from Europe in December 1854, Jacob received his appointment to a professorship at Center College. This made it possible for him to marry his fiancée, Caroline Macdill of Oxford Ohio, on 31 May 1855. Elias brought her a beautiful wedding dress from Paris. There was a hint of shyness as well as pride in the warm letter she wrote to Elias to thank "my dear brother" for her wedding dress "pronounced by all to be the most splendid article that ever has been exhibited in the town." ^[21]

On 13 June 1857, Carrie gave birth to a daughter who was named Caroline. During that summer and fall Jacob took great satisfaction in his little family and his teaching at Centre College. The entry in his Diary for 24 November 1857 reads: "My dear Carrie (is) so well at this time and also the baby. . . Joy fills my household. Surely no one could be more happy in their life."

Four days later Carrie became ill with vomiting, fever and weakness. While her condition worsened, her doctor insisted that she was not sick but "that all these symptoms (are) occasioned by her constitutional make-up." The implication that Carrie was exaggerating her complaints disturbed Jacob immensely. He was convinced that she had typhoid fever. Devastated by the inability of her doctor to provide relief, Jacob filled page after tear-stained page of his Diary with words of helpless anguish and urgent prayers for divine intervention. At last, utterly depleted by overwhelming infection, Caroline died on the twenty-second day of her illness. At mid-century, sickness and death from infectious disease stalked young and old They could expect little help, and often suffered much harm, from their physicians - a subject to which we will shortly return. ^[22]

Jacob was no less attached to his nephew, Levi Cooper Lane, than to his brother Elias. In 1902, when Jacob was seventy-two, he reappeared on the scene at a crucial juncture in the affairs of Cooper Medical College. Dr. Lane had recently died and Mrs. Lane, who inherited a large estate from Dr. Lane, sought Professor Cooper's counsel on the terms of her own will. Through no fault of Professor Cooper, the episode that followed had appalling repercussions for the College.

Jacob outlived both his brothers, Esaias and Elias, and his nephew, Levi. In view of the educational and economic limitations of their parents, it is remarkable the degree to which these three brothers, and their nephew, each in his own way, had an exceptional commitment to learning. The following resume of the early stages of the career of the nephew, Levi Cooper Lane, will show that he shared their determination to approach the future with a prepared mind.