Stearns Co MN Biographies

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Stearns County Minnesota Biographies
Collins, Loren
Loren Warren Collins resides at St. Cloud; is a widower; was born in Lowell, Mass., 1838; settled upon Eden Prairie, Hennepin County, in 1854. Enlisted August 9th, 1862, in the Seventh Minnesota; served through the war; brevetted captain March 30, 1865. Was county attorney for ten years in Stearns County; member of the house of representatives in 1881-1883; one of the managers conducting the impeachment proceedings against District Court judge Cox; was appointed judge of the Seventh Judicial District, April 17, 1883; was appointed associate judge of the Supreme Court, Nov. 12, 1887, to fill a vacancy caused by the death of justice Berry; elected 1888, re-elected 1894, 1900. Upon the death of Senator Davis, in December, 1900, he was tendered an appointment to the United States Senate by Governor Lind, but declined. [Minnesota Territorial Pioneers - Biographical Sketches of Territorial Pioneers - Contributed by Jo Ann Scott]

Cooper, John
John Cooper. Many of the hundreds of thousands visiting our famous state fairs for the past score of years are familiar indeed with the above half-tone of President John Cooper of the State Agricultural Society, who is also a member of the executive committee of the Minnesota Territorial Pioneers' Association. Mr. Cooper was born in the city of Philadelphia, Jan. 1, 1836, where his father, James Cooper, a house carpenter, followed the occupation of building and contracting, moving later to Bradford County, in the northern part of the State of Pennsylvania, going there as agent for Charles Barkly of London, England, owner of a large tract of agricultural and mineral lands. Here the family resided until 1856, opening up and operating a large farm of their own and developing the mineral wealth of the Barkly property. Later, when the property was sold to the Lehigh Valley Ry. Co., its present owner, the family sold their farm and came west with the tide of immigration and finally settled in the then Territory of Minnesota.

The subject of this sketch landed in St. Paul, Minn., on the steamer Northern Belle, on the 26th day of October, 1856, settled in the town of Bethel, Anoka County, where he opened up a farm of his own, and which he operated until the breaking out of the war, when he enlisted in the Eighth Regiment Volunteer Infantry of Minnesota, upon its organization, and served with it until the close of the war. During the first year of his service, and while his regiment was scattered to the frontier posts, doing guard duty, protecting the settlers from Indian raids, he was stationed at St. Cloud in the commissary department, under special detail, to which town he returned at the close of the war, and which has ever since been his home.

For several years, while the northern part of Minnesota was being settled, he managed the Grand Central Hotel for Mr. J. E. Hayward, the proprietor, who was also a heavy operator in lumber and timber lands. While thus engaged Mr. Cooper made a very large acquaintance among the sturdy business men who have figured so extensively in the early settlement and later development of the northern part of Minnesota. It will be seen that Mr. Cooper has spent his entire early life on the frontier, with but little opportunity for a theoretical education but with abundant opportunity for that practical education that one acquires or absorbs by associations with practical men and things of everyday life, which he has by no means neglected.

While a resident of Minnesota he has been engaged in many kinds of business, such as farming, pure-bread stock breading, lumbering, dealing exclusively in real estate, farm and timber lands, and has never made a failure of anything undertaken. He has always been a public-spirited man, taking an active interest in all public affairs. He served in his home city on the board of education, as member of city council, is a director of the First National Bank of his city and has been connected with many other financial institutions. Was elected by the Legislature as a member of the board of the state reformatory, located at St. Cloud, serving eleven years, a part of the time its president. He served seven years in the U. S. Internal Revenue Service; was elected in 1888 as a presidential elector, and cast his vote for President Harrison. He is now a member of the State Forestry Board, also a member of the Farmers' Institute Board. He served nine years on the State Agricultural Board in its earlier history, during which time the present location was secured and built, and he has recently been re-elected and is serving his fourth consecutive term as president of the society. Mr. Cooper is neither a politician or an office seeker, but accepts the places tendered him, believing he owes to the state and community in which he lives the gratuitous service that the public requires of him, trusting in the rewards due for conscientious effort to faithfully perform such service rather than pay for his services.

Mr. Cooper was married June 18, 1873, to Mrs. Malinda Hayward. They have no children save two adopted sons, Charles A. and Arthur C., both grown to manhood and residents of St. Cloud. [Minnesota Territorial Pioneers - Biographical Sketches of Territorial Pioneers - Contributed by Jo Ann Scott]

Cooper, Malinda
Malinda Cooper, the subject if this sketch, was born in the town of Wesley, Maine, on the 15th day of February, A. D. 1831, and came to Minnesota in the spring of A. D. 1856,with her husband, John Hayward, settling in Stearns County, where she has ever since resided. Her husband died in 1870; and she was married to John Cooper June 18, A. b. 1873. Mrs. Cooper was one of a large family consisting of nine girls and three boys. Her father, Benj. Gray, came with his entire family to Minnesota in A. D. 1855, settling in the town of Otsego, in Wright County, and later in St. Cloud, where he died October, 1881; his wife's death following his in March, 1884. The entire family were active members of and earnest workers in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mrs. Cooper, owing to failure in health, has for the past eight years spent much of her time in their temporary home in California, where she is at the present time. [Minnesota Territorial Pioneers - Biographical Sketches of Territorial Pioneers - Contributed by Jo Ann Scott]