JOSEPH COOPER’S HOLSTEINS
The story of Joseph Cooper’s prized herd of Holstein dairy cattle begins in Baltimore at the famous Dunloggin Dispersal Sale in 1943. Joe Cooper was there along with his son, Joe W. Cooper, his veterinarian George L. Stringham, and H.P. “High Pockets” Davis, head of the Dairy Department at the University of Nebraska.
(Dunloggin Sale, 1943)
Some time earlier, at Mr. Cooper’s request, Davis had supplied the pedigrees of several Guernsey bulls, including one in Baltimore. When Mr. Cooper asked Davis to meet him at Pennsylvania Station in New York, he assumed it was to catch a train to look at that Guernsey bull. Instead, they traveled to the Dunloggin Dispersal sale. The famed Dunloggin herd at Ellicott City, MD., was dispersed in September of 1943 – at the time the highest selling Holstein herd ever, with those cattle becoming foundation animals in almost every herd they went into.
Mr. Cooper instructed Davis, “You and Dr. Stringham look over the catalog and pick out some animals.” And so they did: 18 head for $51,900. Soon after, he bought an additional group from Winterthur Farms, another fine breeder of Holsteins.
The herd was located on his sprawling farm in Verbank, New York. He lived in Verbank when not at his apartment at the Essex House in New York City or on the road checking his theaters in Colorado, Oklahoma and Nebraska. Mr. Cooper expressed to the Cooper Foundation board his intense interest in improving the dairy herds in Nebraska as well.
“Mr. Cooper outlined at length his thoughts in regard to the possibility of extending the farming operations of the Cooper Foundation, both in Dutchess County, New York, and Lancaster County, Nebraska, with the general thought in mind that it might be advisable at some later date to present certain of these holdings to the University of Nebraska.” – Cooper Foundation board minutes, June 29, 1943
The Cooper board authorized $3,000 in 1943 for the University of Nebraska Foundation to add to the university’s herd. In 1944, they gave another $25,000 for that purpose.
Enter Chris Sanders. He earned his Bachelor of Science at the University of Nebraska in 1938 and had worked at the Dairy Department, until World War II took precedence. He enlisted in the Field Artillery in the South Pacific, was a prisoner of war, and was awarded two Purple Hearts.
(Chris Sanders)
Mr. Cooper, having met Sanders in Lincoln, invited him to visit Verbank to look over his dairy operation. Sanders and his wife Bonnie arrived by train in New York on the morning of March 20, 1946. While waiting for Mr. Cooper’s chauffeur to pick them up, they learned that he had died in the night. They returned to Nebraska. The Cooper Foundation immediately hired Sanders to manage the Cooper herd prior to the dispersal sale, so he and his wife turned around and went back to New York.
COOPER DISPERSAL SALE
The Cooper Dispersal sale was held on September 16, 1946. Thirteen of the 18 head of cattle purchased just three years before at Dunloggin were up for sale. According to Davis, those cattle were among the best Holstein bloodlines in the country. The sale results substantiated that judgement. Cried by well-known auctioneer Austin Backus, the Cooper Dispersal sale set a national record for the breed at $216,025.
(Founding This Herd – Cooper Dispersal Catalogue)
(Cooper Dispersal Advertisement)
(Cooper Dispersal Advertisement)
“The sale aroused wide interest and the tremendous crowd, estimated at over 2,000, came from a large area. We personally met breeders from 19 states, Canada, Argentina, and Chile, and there were doubtless more states represented in the huge audience. The herd was in the pink of condition and beautifully presented. In this respect a thank you should be paid to Farm Manager Chris Sanders and Herdsman Dulan Covie, as well as Dr. George Stringham, who has carefully watched the health of the herd from the beginning. … The sale started at 11:30 a.m. and was finished at 4:30 p.m. with never a dull moment.” – Holstein-Friesian World, October 5, 1946
(Cooper Dispersal Catalogue)
The Cooper Foundation authorized up to $100,000 to the University of Nebraska Foundation, which bought 25 head and had the cows shipped to the University of Nebraska Dairy Department.
“The University of Nebraska Foundation was by far the largest purchaser, buying 25 head for a total of $85,550. This fund was set up years ago but has included in recent years some substantial contributions from Mr. Cooper. It seems very fitting, therefore, that some of these earlier gifts now come back to the Cooper estate through these purchases. The influences of these great animals is likely to be very far reaching in years to come.” –Holstein-Friesian World, October 5, 1946
After the dispersal sale, Sanders joined the Cooper Foundation as its Agricultural Representative, located at the University of Nebraska to develop Nebraska’s dairy industry.
COOPER CALVES FOR 4-H
In addition to building the excellence of the University’s herd, Chris Sanders helped to further a goal of Joe Cooper’s to help young farmers in Nebraska improve their dairy husbandry. Mr. Cooper had encouraged the board to support educational courses for 4-H Dairy Leaders, which they did for many years.
In 1947 Sanders developed a program that would support 4-H youth in purchasing dairy calves to raise.
“Mr. Chris Sanders, who was placed in charge of the agricultural development work for the Foundation, discussed suggestions and proposals for this work in the immediate future and stated that he was working on a detailed program to be submitted to the Trustees for their approval at an early meeting. He suggested that it would be desirable for the Foundation to undertake the purchase of a number of dairy calves for resale to 4-H Club and Future Farmer members sometime during the spring. It was moved by Mr. Beghtol, seconded by Mr. Waugh that the Cooper Foundation purchase approximately 75 heifers of the dairy breeds for resale to 4-H Club and Future Farmer members at an auction to be held in the spring of 1947, and that the net expenses in connection with the purchase and sale together with any loss be paid for by the Foundation.”
– Cooper Foundation board minutes, March 28, 1947
By 1949, it was reported that over half of all blue ribbons for dairy cattle at the State Fair were given to 4-H Club members who had purchased cows through the Cooper Foundation’s program.
(Clayton Streich with his Cooper Calf, Candy Madcap Carnation Ormsby)
One participant in the program, Clayton Streich, recalled the impact it had on their herd:
“In the 1950s my parents farmed near Murdock, and my father started a 4-H Club. The Cooper Foundation would buy calves and auction them to 4-H kids. If you spent too much at the auction, you would get a rebate! I remember Dad saying that we had to go to Grade A milk [based on inspections], otherwise you were limited as to what you could sell.”
I remember the first calf I bought, Candy Madcap Carnation Ormsby, purchased at the Cooper Foundation auction in 1955 for $130.
Candy’s daughter was Candy Madcap Belle. This was taken at the district dairy show in 1962, and we always thought she was the best show animal of them all.
(Cooper Calf, Candy Madcap Belle)
We bought 4 or 5 over the years. We didn’t have registered dairy cows when we started, we had grade cows. Cooper cows were registered and we kept up the papers. That was when artificial insemination was just getting going, so we bred our cows to registered Holstein bulls. When we finally sold the herd in 1964, it was 50% registered and 50% grade.
“From 1936 through 1962, the Cooper Foundation contributed $293,211.50 to the work of 4-H Clubs throughout Nebraska. Mr. Edwin Van Horne, currently a member of the Cooper Foundation board and a member since the inception of the Foundation, also observes the Ak-Sar-Ben Dairy Show was carried on in collaboration with the Omaha Chamber of Commerce for the benefit of Omaha as well as Lincoln and the rest of the state, and in the later stages the entire cost was paid by the Cooper Foundation. As Mr. Van Horne points out, this program was instrumental in ultimately establishing Ak-Sar-Ben’s Dairy Show and in upgrading the quality of milk in Omaha and throughout the state.” – Cooper Foundation board report, 1965
(Valley Grove Burke Pride, a Cooper Calf. This shows her as a cow at the
Nebraska State Fair, probably in 1960)