Cooper Foundation Founder, Joseph H. Cooper

Born December 1,1885; died March 19, 1946.

We know very little about Joe Cooper’s early life. Until recently we knew only that that he immigrated to the United States as a young man, traveling without his family. Some records indicated his birthplace as Russia, while his theater managers believed he was from Poland. A history of his business and the foundation written by Cooper Foundation trustee J. Lee Rankin in 1981 indicated that he came to the U.S. from the “Russian Ukraine.”

We knew that most of Joe Cooper’s family also immigrated to the U.S., but we didn’t know when or if they came together. J. Lee Rankin’s history says that Mr. Cooper was separated from his parents for some time, but it is not specific.

With census records and other genealogical resources, we were recently able to put together some pieces of information that gave us more insight into Mr. Cooper’s immigrant journey.

(Bertha & Wolf Coopersmith)

Mr. Cooper’s family was from an area known as the Pale of Settlement in the western Russian empire that was designated for Jews, who were mostly forbidden to live outside that area. The Pale of Settlement included all of modern-day Belarus, Lithuania and Moldova, much of Ukraine and Poland, and small parts of Latvia. It was an area of little economic opportunity for its residents and many emigrated to other countries in the late 19th century. We knew that Joe Cooper came to the United States as a young person, but until recently did not know the date.

Census records show that his mother and father (Bertha and Wolf Coopersmith), and two siblings (Anna and Henry) were living together in Philadelphia, with their immigration year listed as 1897, from Russia. Anna and Henry were one and five years old the year they arrived. Joe Cooper was 12 in 1897, and not living with his parents. For his parents, their Mother Tongue was described as “Jewish” (later census records would show it as “Yiddish”). Wolf’s occupation was “Proprietor, Butter Store”.

(S.S. Potsdam Manifest)

Five years after his parents emigrated to Philadelphia, young Joseph Coopersmith sailed alone on the S.S. Potsdam, leaving Rotterdam, Netherlands on December 20, 1902. He arrived at the Port of New York on December 31, 1902. He was a 17-year-old student (although his age was listed as 19).

The ship’s manifest showed that he was headed to Philadelphia, with passage paid for by his father Wolf Coopersmith. He arrived in the United States on the eve of 1903, speaking no English and further disadvantaged by significant visual impairment from severe myopia. He had one dollar.

(Manifest Detail)

We have always been curious about the name Coopersmith. All of Joe Cooper’s family used that name in the United States, but only he shortened it to Cooper.

(Sol Coopersmith, Joe’s brother)

He had many siblings, some of whom arrived before him and some after. We are not certain of all their ages but know that Sol was born in 1871, Harry in 1892, and Anna in 1896. Estate papers also listed siblings Jack, Charles, David, Etta, and Bessie Coopersmith.

It is Sol’s petition for naturalization that gives us more insight into the family name. Saul arrived at Boston, Massachusetts on April 10, 1921 from Danzig, Poland with his wife and two children. He applied for naturalization on April 25, 1927, and at that time changed his name from Shia Kipierszmid to Sol Coopersmith.

(Petition for Naturalization)

Joe Cooper had one child with his wife Gertrude Gillespie Cooper. Joseph W. Cooper was born in 1929. They lived in New York City, and then later Mrs. Cooper moved to Westchester County, New York.

While Mr. and Mrs. Cooper never divorced, they separated when their son was young. Although Joe W. lived with his mother a good amount of time, Joe Cooper retained full custody and made all decisions regarding young Joe’s care, schooling, medical needs, and every other aspect of his son’s life. By all accounts, the father and son were devoted to each other.

(Joseph W. Cooper, Joe’s son)

Joe Cooper died in March of 1946, at the Essex House hotel in New York City, where he had a residence. He was buried on land he owned in upstate New York (then referred to as “Moore’s Mill” and now as Verbank). His former estate nearby is now Camp Young Judea on Sprout Lake.

Sometime after his father’s death, Joseph W. Cooper moved to Europe and remained there for the rest of his life. He died in Barcelona, Spain in 1998.