Honorable Rollin C. Cooper. One of the most highly reputed citizens of Griggs county bears the foregoing name. Mr. Cooper is a man of broad ideas, integrity and business uprightness, and being a man of abundant financial strength, has aided materially in the up-building of every public enterprise throughout that region. He has been a resident of Cooperstown for the past twenty years and was the founder of the city, and the city was named In honor of the Cooper Brothers. Since its earliest settlement he has watched its needs, and has worked earnestly for its better interests. He is conducting extensive enterprises in that locality, and aside from operating his farm lands, consisting of seven thousand acres, he also owns and operates a grain elevator and deals extensively in grain.
Mr. Cooper is a native of Washtenaw county, Michigan, and was born September 30, 1845. He was the ninth in order of birth in a family of eleven children born to Thomas and Caroline (Baker) Cooper, both of whom were natives of Vermont. His parents were married in their native state and removed to Michigan in 1832, where the father of our subject engaged in farming, and was one of the pioneer settlers of the state.
Our subject left the home farm when thirteen years of age and went to Minnesota, where he remained a few years, and then went to Colorado, and there engaged in mining several years. He went to Griggs county, North Dakota, in the fall of 1880, and the following year settled at Cooperstown. He platted the town which bears his name, and at once engaged in farming and grain buying. He has added to his acreage from time to time and is now one of the most extensive land owners of the state, and engages in grain raising.
Mr. Cooper was married in Colorado, in 1870, to Miss Emma C. Hutchin, a native of Ohio and a daughter of Henry and Ella Hutchin. Mr. Cooper has served his community in various important positions, and has always been found standing firmly for right and justice, and performing his duties faithfully and with commendable public spirit. He was elected to the house of representatives in 1894, and to the senate in 1898, and served one term in each office. In the house he was chairman of the railroad committee, and was also a member of other committees, and he was a member of the first board of county commissioners of Griggs county, being appointed in that capacity by Governor Ordway during territorial days. He continued to serve on that body until 1898. Mr. Cooper is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and in political sentiment is a Republican.
Source: Compendium of History and Biography of North Dakota 1900 Page 379