BIO: Albert W. Cooper, Wyoming Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church, PA & NY Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by JRB & JO Copyright 2008. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ________________________________________________ Chaffee, Amasa Franklin. History of the Wyoming Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. New York: Eaton & Mains, 1904, pages 304-305. ________________________________________________ Cooper, Albert Westervelt, was born on May 10, 1847, in the township of Whitestown, Oneida County, N.Y. At fifteen years of age he entered Whitestown Seminary, in the village of Whitestown, graduating from the school in 1867. In the fall of the same year he entered the sophomore class in Hillsdale College, Michigan, having borrowed $300 with which to meet the expenses of the course. In 1869 and 1870 he taught in Holbrook and Bartlett's Military High School in Sing Sing, N.Y. In 1870 he passed his examination for entrance into the senior class at Yale College, and graduated with the class of 1871, with the degree of A.B. In the fall of that year he became principal of the Windsor Academy, at Windsor, N.Y. The next year he accepted the principalship of the public schools at Susquehanna, Pa., where he remained two years. Suring the pastorate of Rev. Moses L. Kern, at New York Mills, N.Y., he was converted when not quite eleven years of age. Pastors and friends often predicted that he would become a preacher. This was doubted by Mr. Cooper, until at last the call came from the Church and from God in such a way as to be unmistakable. His pastor, Rev. A. J. Van Cleft, gave him exhorter's license on December 20, 1875. On March 2, 1876, the Binghamton District Conference gave him a local preacher's license, and he was recommended by the same body for admission to Conference. He united with the Conference in 1876. On July 10, 1873, he married Miss Ada A. Smith, of Windsor, N.Y. Two sons have been born to them, Albert Lloyd, who graduated from Wesleyan University in 1901, and who is now teaching in the Scranton Correspondence School; and Jesse Van Cleft, who at this writing (1902) is a senior in the college preparatory course at Wyoming Seminary. His pastoral record is as follows: 1876-77, Franklin Forks; 1878-79, Waverly, Pa.; 1880-82, Damascus; 1883-94, Hampton Street, Scranton; 1895-99, Hawley; 1900-01, Dalton; 1902, Montrose; 1903, Union.