Ritchie County, West Virginia          Biography of Victor F. COOPER

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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 60

VICTOR F. COOPER has been a member of the Ritchie
County bar for fifteen years, is one of the able business lawyers
of the county, and has taken a growing interest in the affairs
of his community at Harrisville.

Mr. Cooper was born on his father's farm in Gilmer Coun-
ty, West Virginia, May 4, 1873, son of Charles S. and Mary
J. (Hall) Cooper, natives of the same county, where they were
married November 7, 1867. His father was born April 29,
1844, and his mother was born March 10, 1845, and died
July 21, 1886. She was a member of the Baptist Church at
Auburn. Charles S. Cooper was a resident of Gilmer County
at the time of his death. He acquired a common and sub-
scription school education, and after his marriage began
clearing away the woods from a tract of land and eventually
improved and cultivated a farm of one hundred and seven
acres. He was a member of the Roseville Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, and a democrat. Of eleven children, nine are
living: Miss Cora, a graduate of the State Normal School at
Glenville, who also took work in the State University and has
been a successful teacher; Malana, a graduate of the Glenville
State Normal School and was a teacher until her marriage
to Homer Adams; Victor F., who is the third in age; Homer
E., a graduate of Columbia University, receiving his Ph. D.
degree from that University and is an instructor in the Uni-
versity of Pittsburgh; Everett R., a graduate of the Glenville
Normal and of the College of Physicians and Surgeons at
Baltimore, now practicing medicine at Troy, West Virginia;
Edna, wife of Porter G. Nutter, of Gilmer County; Sidney
W., a civil engineer in Missouri; Eric J., living on the home
farm with his father; and Grover C., a graduate of the Glen-
ville State Normal, formerly a teacher and now a mail clerk
on the B. & 0. Railway. Those deceased were Okey J., who
was a merchant at Newberne, West Virginia, and Price W.,
a graduate of West Virginia University, who died in the
Philippines, where he was a teacher.

Victor F. Cooper lived on the farm until he was twenty-one,
and while there he helped in the clearing and improving as
well as the routine work of the fields. He acquired a common
school education, taught school, graduated from the Glenville
State Normal, and for four years was superintendent of free
schools in Gilmer County. He is also a graduate of the Law
School of West Virginia University, and since his admission
to the bar in 1907 has been in practice at Harrisville. Besides
general practice, he is attorney for the People's Bank of
Harrisville, is local attorney for the Baltimore & Ohio Rail-
way, and attorney tor the Farmers and Merchants Bank of
Pennsboro, the Auburn Exchange Bank and the Pennsboro
Wholesale Grocery Company.

On September 15, 1908, Mr. Cooper married Miss Phrana
Zink. She is a graduate of the Peabody Normal College and
of the West Liberty State Normal School of West Virginia,
and has been a very successful teacher and is now teaching
one of the departments in the Harrisville schools. Mr. and
Mrs. Cooper have two children: Marcella and Victor Z.
Mrs. Cooper is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
He is affiliated with Gilmer County Lodge No. 118, A. F.
and A. M., and is a past chancellor of Auburn Lodge No. 47,
Knights of Pythias.