Cooper, Phillip H.
Phillip H. Cooper
Keene, NH
In 1891, 24-year old George Henry Cooper married 23 year old Minnie Ebbitts in his hometown of Worcester, MA. Shortly afterward, the couple moved to Keene, New Hampshire. George Cooper had worked in hotels in Worcester and was ready to make a new start in life in southwest New Hampshire.
One year later, in 1892, the Coopers welcomed their son Philip Henry Cooper on February 3, 1892. George had found work as a furniture maker in town but was working towards opening his own business. In August 1893, Cooper’s Cafe opened at Elliot Block near Central Square in downtown Keene. The cafe boasted freshly baked pies, cakes and donuts; and, it offered to deliver muffins to customers who ordered the day before.
Multiple ads ran in the Keene Sentinel between 1893 and 1895, advertising oysters, boiled dinners, and ice cream parties by reservation. George was also a member of the Keene Banjo Club during his short time in Keene. The family soon grew to include a daughter Ruth in 1894. The Coopers, however, soon moved back to Worcester, MA. The cafe was sold to someone else by 1895 and had become the Hub Cafe. And son Joseph R. Cooper was born in MA around that time. In 1896, wife Minnie (Ebbitts) Cooper died in Worcester of tuberculosis at the age of 26.
George H. Cooper next appears in historical record in 1903 in Worcester, MA, when he married for a second time to Grace Maud Rollins. He was working for a house cleaning company at the time. Within a few years, he and his wife had moved to Hartford, CT and had more children: Grace and Elizabeth.
George worked as a waiter in a cafe while Grace kept house. In 1910, George’s daughter was also living with them. Sixteen year old Ruth Dorcus had recently divorced. She may have stayed with her father, George Cooper, until his death in 1912. He is buried in Worcester, MA.
George’s son, Philip Henry Cooper also appears to have lived in Hartford, CT. In 1917, his World War I draft registration card reveals that he was single and worked as a janitor for Hartford Electric Light Company. The record also listed Philip’s race as Ethiopian.
After an unknown period of time in Connecticut, Philip H. Cooper returned to Worcester, MA, where he lived for some time with his siblings Grace and George and his aunt Ada B. Rollins. At some point, Philip found work as a repairman for a railroad engine company and this became his career of choice for the rest of his life.
Philip’s sister Grace moved to the Bronx, NY, to attend nursing school. While working at the Lincoln Hospital in New York City, she died of pneumonia in 1936. Her brother Philip was the executor of her estate.
By 1940, Philip H. Cooper was in his 40s and renting a room at 192 Chandler Street in Worcester. He worked 56 hours a week doing engine repair for the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad. The 1940 census documents Philip as a single man. During the 1940s, Philip married Alice M. Hazard and they had the following children: Joanna R. (1940), Lois Jane (1943), Margo E. (1945), Leonard P. (1947) and Vernon H. (1948).
On March 12, 1970, Philip Henry Cooper died in Worcester, MA. He is buried in the Hope Cemetery.
SOURCE MATERIALS
Find-A-Grave
Keene Sentinel newspaper, 16 Aug 1893, page 4- https://keene.advantage-preservation.com/
Keene Sentinel newspaper, 25 Oct 1893, p.3- https://keene.advantage-preservation.com/
Keene Sentinel newspaper, 13 Nov 1893, p.3- https://keene.advantage-preservation.com/
Keene Sentinel newspaper, 22 Jan 1895, p.6- https://keene.advantage-preservation.com/
Massachusetts Census, Worcester, 1865- Ancestry.com
Massachusetts Birth Records, Worcester, 1866- Ancestry.com
Massachusetts Birth Records, Wilmot, 1869- Ancestry.com
Massachusetts Death Records, Worcester, 1912, 1920- Ancestry.com
Massachusetts Marriage Records, Winchendon, 1866- Ancestry.com
Massachusetts Marriage Records, Worcester, 1891, 1892, 1903- Ancestry.com
New Hampshire Birth Records, Keene, 1892- Ancestry.com
New Hampshire Marriage Records, Troy, 1960- Ancestry.com
U.S. Federal Census, 1880, 1910, 1930, 1940, 1950- Ancestry.com
World War II Draft Registration Card, 1942- Ancestry.com
GENEALOGICAL SUMMARY
GEORGE H. COOPER was born in Worcester, MA, in 1868, son of Henry Cooper and Elizabeth Esau. In 1891, he married 1st MINNIE EBBETTS (b.1869). They had: Philip Henry (1892-1970), Joseph R. (b.1893), and Ruth (b.1894). George married 2nd GRACE MAUD ROLLINS in Worcester, MA in 1903. He died in 1912 in Worcester, MA.
PHILIP HENRY COOPER was born February 3, 1892 in Keene, NH. He married ALICE M. Phillip Cooper died on March 12, 1970 in Worcester, MA.