James P. Cooley Biography


	This biography appears on pages 415-416 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				HON. JAMES P. COOLEY. 

	Hon. James P. Cooley, of Bon Homme county, who died June 9, 1915, 
was an important factor in the development of his section of the state 
in more ways than one, having served as a member of the state 
legislature and as a state senator, and also as president of the 
Security Bank of Tyndall. He was the owner of over four thousand acres 
of land in this state. He was born February 26, 1845, near Rowlandville 
in Cecil county, Maryland, a son of Corbin Cooley, whose birth occurred 
August 12, 1799, in Hartford county, Maryland. He traced his ancestry 
back to one who came to this country on the Mayflower. His grandfather, 
Samuel Cooley, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war and two sons of 
the latter's sons, Daniel and Charles, fought in the War of 1812, being 
at Fort McHenry at the time that Francis Scott Key wrote the Star 
Spangled Banner. Corbin Cooley died in Maryland at the age of seventy 
six years and his passing was deeply regretted, as he was not only a 
prosperous and progressive farmer but also a man of agreeable 
personality and tried integrity. His wife, who was in her maidenhood 
Miss Mary Shaw, was born in Liverpool, England, and most of her 
brothers and sisters were natives of that country. In early life she 
was brought by her parents to the new world, the family home being 
established in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She passed away in Maryland 
at the advanced age of eighty-two years. To Mr. and Mrs. Corbin Cooley 
were born eight children, of whom our subject was the third in order of 
birth and the eldest son. 

	James P. Cooley was reared in Cecil county, Maryland. He 
completed the course in the public schools and was graduated from 
Nottingham Academy. In 1870 he came west, as he believed that better 
opportunities were to be found here than in the east, and spent the 
first two years in Edgar county, Illinois, where a brother wade his 
home. At the end of that time he came to South Dakota and filed on a 
preemption claim in Tabor precinct, Bon Homme county. He broke the 
prairie land and built a small log cabin, in which he kept bachelor's 
hall until his marriage. He later took up a homestead claim and also a 
timber claim and as he prospered bought additional land until the home 
farm comprised more than one thousand acres of land. He also owned 
nearly two thousand acres near Springfield, his holdings aggregating 
over four thousand acres He did not sell any of the grain raised upon 
his land, as he fed it all to stock, storing it in a large elevator 
upon his land until needed. In addition to the grain raised he bought 
many carloads per year and was one of the largest stock feeders in his 
section of the state. He fed and shipped from fifteen to twenty 
carloads of cattle and hogs per year. His cattle sheds and feed lots 
were the largest in the county and he was excellently equipped in every 
respect for the care of stock on a large scale. He derived a handsome 
yearly income from his stock business and was one of the most 
substantial citizens of his county. He dived in a log cabin until 1884 
and then built a small frame house. Nine years later he erected the 
present large residence of the family, to which, however, he made 
additions from time to time until it now contains about twenty rooms. 

	Mr. Cooley was married in March, 1872, to Miss Mary E. McCollum, 
a daughter of John J. and Lovina (Riggs) McCollum, pioneers of Bon 
Homme county, who are mentioned more extensively elsewhere in this 
work. To their union have been born twelve children, ten of whom 
survive, as follows: Jessie, the wife of Edwin Hopkins, of Springfield, 
South Dakota; Emma, who married C. C. Torrence, of Tabor precinct; 
Mary, who formerly taught school in her home locality, but is now at 
home; Lucile, the wife of Lewis Barber, a veterinarian of Tyndall, a 
sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work; Addie, who gave her hand 
in marriage to W. R. Christie, of Omaha, Nebraska; Ralph, who married 
Alta Morgan of Los Angeles, California, and is farming near 
Springfield, South Dakota; and Corbin, Maurice, Charles and George, all 
at home. 

	Mr. Cooley was a democrat and was honored by official preferment, 
as he was a member of the territorial legislature of 1872 and 1873 and 
also served in the state senate for four terms, during the sessions of 
1904 and 1908 and again in 1912 and 1914. For four years he served as 
county commissioner and his record in public office is without a spot, 
no shadow of suspicion ever having been cast upon his integrity or 
ability. He was a large stockholder in the Security Bank of Tyndall and 
was president of that institution, much of its growth and solidity 
being due to his wise management and financial acumen. His marked 
success was the result of good judgment and unceasing industry, and it 
is related that when a young man endeavoring to get a start in this new 
country, he was at work the earliest and quit the latest of any of the 
men of his county. Throughout life he continued an untiring worker, 
although there was no longer the need of bettering his financial 
circumstances, as he was one of the most prosperous residents of his 
part of the state at the time of his death.