Duncan Brown Cooper
{{short description|American journalist, publisher, politician}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Duncan Brown Cooper
| image = Duncan-brown-cooper.jpg
| image_size =
| caption = Cooper, c. 1908
| birth_name =
| birth_date = April 21, 1844
| birth_place = Columbia, Tennessee, U.S.
| death_date = November 4, 1922 (aged 78)
| death_place =
| death_cause =
| restingplace = Zion Presbyterian Church
| alma mater = Jefferson College (now known as Washington & Jefferson College)
| occupation = Journalist, politician
| party =
| spouse = Florence Fleming (1865-1870; her death)
Mary Polk Jones (18??-1893; her death)
| parents = Matthew Delamere Cooper
Marian Witherspoon Brown
| children = 8
| relatives = William Frierson Cooper (half-brother)
Lucius E. Burch (brother-in-law)
Lucius E. Burch, Jr. (nephew)
}}
Duncan Brown Cooper (April 21, 1844 – November 4, 1922) was an American journalist, publisher and Democratic politician.{{cite web|first=Timothy P.|last=Ezzell|url=http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=310|title=Duncan Brown Cooper|website=The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture|date=December 25, 2009}} He served in both the Tennessee House of Representatives and in the Tennessee Senate.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1922/11/06/archives/col-duncan-b-cooper-dies-death-recalls-his-conviction-for-slaying.html|title=COL. DUNCAN B. COOPER DIES; Death Recalls His Conviction for Slaying Former Tennessee Senator|newspaper=The New York Times|date=November 5, 2002}}{{cite web|url=http://www.tn.gov/tsla/history/manuscripts/findingaids/72-153.pdf|website=Tennessee State Library and Archives|title=COOPER, DUNCAN BROWN (1844-1922) Papers|access-date=2013-04-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150717105301/http://www.tn.gov/tsla/history/manuscripts/findingaids/72-153.pdf|archive-date=2015-07-17|url-status=dead}}
In 1908, he became involved in a feud with a political opponent and newspaper competitor, Edward W. Carmack. Cooper warned Carmack that if his name appeared again in Carmack's newspaper, The Tennessean, he would retaliate. Cooper and his son did in fact retaliate after Carmack ignored the warning and continued to attack and satirize Cooper. Carmack was shot and killed shortly thereafter.{{citation needed|date=October 2022}}
In the court case that followed Carmack's murder, Cooper and his son were convicted of second degree murder, and Duncan Cooper was given a sentence of 20 years in prison. His son was granted a new trial on appeal, but the prosecution decided against pursuing the case.{{citation needed|date=October 2022}}
Early life
Duncan Brown Cooper was born at "Mulberry Hill" near Columbia, Maury County, Tennessee in 1844. He attended Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, now known as Washington & Jefferson College.
His father was Matthew Delamere Cooper (1792–1878) and his mother, Marian Witherspoon (Brown) Cooper (1822–1861), was his father's third wife. His half-brother was William Frierson Cooper (1820–1909), who became a member of the Tennessee Supreme Court and owned the Riverwood Mansion. His sister, Sarah, married Dr. Lucius Burch, a Dean of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Their son was Lucius E. Burch, Jr.
Career
File:Cooper-murder-trial-tennessee-1909.png
During the American Civil War, Cooper fought in the Confederate States Army. He was captured at Fort Donelson in Tennessee in 1862. He returned to Nashville after the war and became involved in politics. After the Reconstruction era, Cooper was elected as a Democratic state representative in 1881 and state senator in 1895. He was also the publisher of the Nashville American, a conservative Democratic daily newspaper.
Cooper worked on the 1908 gubernatorial campaign of Malcolm R. Patterson, who was elected and served as Governor of Tennessee from 1907 to 1911. Both Cooper and Patterson were opposed to prohibition. Patterson's gubernatorial opponent, Edward W. Carmack, was the editor of The Tennessean. He grew embittered and published scathing articles about Cooper.{{cite book|first=Joe|last=Coker|title=Liquor in the Land of the Lost Cause: Southern White Evangelicals and the Prohibition Movement|location=Lexington, Kentucky|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|date=2007|page=74|isbn=978-0813172804|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SGVZuyHe1r0C&q=%22duncan+B.+Cooper%22&pg=PA74|via=Google Books}}
On November 9, 1908, Cooper and his son Robin encountered Carmack on a Nashville street. Out of fear, Carmack fired first on the father and son, wounding the son. Robin Cooper retaliated, killing Carmack.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4_NxE3TPiJsC&q=%22duncan+B.+Cooper%22&pg=PA98|via=Google Books|first=Jackie|last=Sheckler Finch|title=Insider's Guide to Nashville|publisher=Globe Pequot Press|date=2009|page=8|edition=7th|location=Guilford, Connecticut|isbn=978-0-7627-4867-9}}{{cite book|first=William R.|last=Majors|title=Editorial Wild Oats: Edward Ward Carmack and Tennessee Politics|publisher=Mercer University Press|date=1984|pages=[https://archive.org/details/editorialwildoat0000majo/page/147 147]-148|isbn=9780865541337|url=https://archive.org/details/editorialwildoat0000majo|url-access=registration|quote=duncan B. Cooper|via=Internet Archive}}{{cite book|first=William A.|last=Harper|title=How You Played the Game: The Life of Grantland Rice|publisher=University of Missouri Press|date=1999|page=[https://archive.org/details/howyouplayedgame00harp/page/114 114]|isbn=9780826212047|via=Internet Archive|url=https://archive.org/details/howyouplayedgame00harp|url-access=registration}}
During the first trial, both Cooper and his son Robin were convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Governor Patterson granted a pardon to Cooper and saved him from jail. Shortly after, Robin was granted a second trial on appeal. He was released after the prosecutor decided not to retry the case. However, he was still vilified in the temperance press and shunned by Nashvillians. Governor Patterson found that he had damaged his political career by pardoning Cooper. Also, Patterson's veto of a popular prohibition bill in 1909 and his attempts to control the state Democratic primaries in 1910 created a division in the party that allowed Ben W. Hooper to become the first Republican governor elected in the state in nearly 30 years.{{cite web|first=Timothy|last=Ezzell|url=http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=1042|title=Malcolm R. Patterson|website=Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture|accessdate=April 1, 2014}}
Personal life
Death
Cooper died in 1922, aged 78.{{Cite web |url=http://www.riverwoodmansion.com/nhistory.html |title=Riverwood Mansion, History |access-date=2013-04-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130407013255/http://www.riverwoodmansion.com/nhistory.html |archive-date=2013-04-07 |url-status=dead|website=Riverwood Mansion}} He was buried in the cemetery of Zion Presbyterian Church in Columbia, Tennessee.
Bibliography
- {{cite book|first=James|last=Summerville|title=The Carmack-Cooper Shooting: Tennessee Politics Turns Violent, November 9, 1908|date=1994|publisher=McFarland & Company|isbn=9780786400126|via=Google Books|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ISBN0786400129}}
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Duncan Brown}}
Category:People from Maury County, Tennessee
Category:Journalists from Nashville, Tennessee
Category:Politicians from Nashville, Tennessee
Category:Democratic Party members of the Tennessee House of Representatives
Category:Democratic Party Tennessee state senators
Category:American newspaper publishers (people)
Category:Prohibition in the United States
Category:American politicians convicted of murder
Category:Tennessee politicians convicted of crimes
Category:People convicted of murder by Tennessee