Robert Archer Cooper

{{Infobox officeholder

|name = Robert Archer Cooper

|image =Robert Archer Cooper (South Carolina Governor).jpg

|office = Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico

|term = January 29, 1934 – 1947

|appointer = Franklin D. Roosevelt

|predecessor = Ira K. Wells

|successor = David Chávez

|order1 = 93rd Governor of South Carolina

|lieutenant1 = Junius T. Liles
Wilson Godfrey Harvey

|term_start1 = January 21, 1919

|term_end1 = May 20, 1922

|predecessor1 = Richard Irvine Manning III

|successor1 = Wilson Godfrey Harvey

|office2 = Member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from Laurens County

|term2 = January 8, 1901 – January 10, 1905

|birth_name = Robert Archer Cooper

|birth_date = {{birth date|1874|6|12}}

|birth_place = Waterloo, South Carolina

|death_date = {{death date and age|1953|8|7|1874|6|12}}

|death_place =

|party = Democratic

|alma_mater = Polytechnic Institute

|spouse = Mamie Eugenia Machen
Dorcas Calmes

|children = 2, Elizabeth from his marriage with Mamie Eugenia and Robert from his marriage with Dorcas Calmes.

|profession = Lawyer, politician

|signature =

}}

Robert Archer Cooper (June 12, 1874{{spaced ndash}}August 7, 1953) was the 93rd Governor of South Carolina from January 21, 1919 to May 20, 1922.[http://www.prd.uscourts.gov/?q=node/196 United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico-Robert Archer Cooper (1874-1953)]

Biography

Born in Waterloo Township, Laurens County, Cooper graduated with a law degree from Polytechnic Institute in San Germán, Puerto Rico. He was admitted to the bar in 1898 and practiced law in Laurens. In 1900, Cooper was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives until 1904, when he was elected the solicitor of the Eighth Judicial Circuit of South Carolina.

Cooper entered the gubernatorial election of 1918 and won the general election without opposition to become the 93rd governor of South Carolina. He continued the progressive policies of his predecessor, Richard Irvine Manning III, by presiding over new labor laws,[https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/labor-legislation-1912-32-3905/labor-legislation-1919-476856 Title: Labor Legislation of 1919 : Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, No. 277, P.295-296][https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/labor-legislation-1912-32-3905/labor-legislation-1921-492990 Title: Labor Legislation of 1921 : Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, No. 308, P.235][https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/labor-legislation-1912-32-3905/labor-legislation-1922-493001 Title: Labor Legislation of 1922 : Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, No. 330, P.35-37] establishing a seven-month school term, mandating compulsory school attendance, expanding health care, and improving the state roadways. These initiatives were paid for by stricter enforcement of existing tax laws and re-evaluating state property. Cooper was elected to a second term in 1920.

He resigned from the governorship in 1922 to accept an appointment to the Federal Farm Loan Board that lasted five years. After this, Cooper returned to the practice of law but was called by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to serve as the General Counsel of the Commodity Credit Corporation. Roosevelt later appointed him in 1934 as Judge of the District Court for Puerto Rico, during which he presided over the trial and retrial for sedition of Pedro Albizu Campos and eight other members of Albizu's Puerto Rican nationalist group Cadets of the Republic. The day after Judge Cooper sentenced the defendants to the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta, an unsuccessful assassination attempt was made against him."Bullets Miss U. S. Judge in San Juan— Attempt Made on Life of Robert A. Cooper Who Sentenced Campos", The Plain Dealer (Cleveland), June 9, 1937, p.1[http://www.pr-secretfiles.net/binders/SJ-100-3_23_023_157.pdf "FBI Files"; "Puerto Rico Nationalist Party"; SJ 100-3; Vol. 23; pages 104-134.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131101090251/http://www.pr-secretfiles.net/binders/SJ-100-3_23_023_157.pdf |date=2013-11-01 }} Cooper held the Puerto Rican position until 1947. Cooper died on August 7, 1953, and was buried at the Laurens City Cemetery in Laurens.

Legacy

His house at Laurens is included in the South Harper Historic District and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.{{NRISref|version=2010a}}

References

Guillermo A. Baralt, History of the Federal Court in Puerto Rico: 1899-1999 (2004) (also published in Spanish as Historia del Tribunal Federal de Puerto Rico)

External links

[http://www.sciway.net/hist/governors/cooper.html SCIway Biography of Robert Archer Cooper]
[http://www.nga.org/cms/home/governors/past-governors-bios/page_south_carolina/col2-content/main-content-list/title_cooper_robert.html NGA Biography of Robert Archer Cooper]

{{s-ttl|title=Democratic nominee for Governor of South Carolina|years=1918, 1920}}

{{succession box

|before=Richard Irvine Manning III

|title=Governor of South Carolina

|years=1919 - 1922

|after=Wilson Godfrey Harvey}}

{{succession box |title=Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico| before=Ira K. Wells | years=1934–1947 | after= David Chávez

}}

Category:1874 births

Category:1953 deaths

Category:19th-century American lawyers

Category:People from Laurens County, South Carolina