Fayette Co. WV Archives, Biography of Frank Scott Cooper


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History of Virginia, Volume 3, page 157, Lewis Publishing Co.

Dr. Cooper was born at Fayetteville, Fayette County, West Virginia,
March 22, 1878 and is a son of Dr. Calvin S. and Stella (Jones) Cooper.
His paternal grandfather, Dr. John Cooper, was born in what is now the
state of West Virginia, and was a country physician of the old-time type,
who put his profession far above any emolument he might secure for his
services and who in the process of his practice covered an area of many
miles in the vicinity of Fayetteville.  His son, Dr. Calvin S. Cooper
as born at Sewell West Virginia and received his medical education under
the preciptorship of his father, although he also attended a medical
school in Tennessee.  For a time he was engaged in practice in West
Virginia but finally located at Roanoke where he continued to follow
his calling until his death in 1888. He was a Mason and a member of
the Presbyterian Church.  His worthy wife, a member of the Baptist
Church and a native of Amherst County, West Virginia died in 1878
shortly after the birth of her son.  There were two children: Mrs.
Lottie C. Troegle of Huntington West Virginia whose husband is a
retired business man and Dr. Frank Scott of this review.

Frank Scott Cooper was but twelve years of age when he was forced to
become partly self-supporting, his mother having died about the time
of his birth and his father having passed away when the lad was only
ten years old. He acquired a hardly-gained common school education but
seems to have inherited a heritage of love of learning from his father
and grandfather and spent what leisure time he could get in reading and
study, when he was not employed in the coal mines in the vicinity of
his home.

He received some support from his maternal grandfather, llewellyn W.
Jones who was born in Virginia and became a pioneer in Fayette County
West Virginia where he acquired 10,000 acres of land and many slaves
but met a tragic death by drowning in the Mississippi River.  Eventually
Frank Scott Cooper accumulated sufficient funds with which to pursue a
course at the University of west Virginia, following which he spent
three years at the Medical College of Virginia and then entered the
College of Physicians and surgeons at Baltimore Maryland from which
he graduated with the degree of Medicine in 1903.

Having some knowledge of conditions in the coal regions, Dr. Cooper
commended his practice in the coal fields of Giatto West Virginia
where he remained for about six years and in 1907 took up his permanent
residence in Roanoke.  Here he opened an office and followed his profession.
During this time he had become increasingly interested in the automobile
industry and in 1914 gave up the practice of medicine and established an
agency handling Overland, Dodge, Hudson and Essex cars.  This he developed
into the Virginia motor Car Company.

In 1905 Dr. Cooper was united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth Williams who
was born in Bland County Virginia and educated in her native community.
They have three children: Flora, attending the Flora McDonald School in
North Carolina; Frank Scott Jr., a graduate of Mercersburg (Pa) Academy
and presently a student at Princeton University; and Paul S. who is at home.