Thomas Valentine Cooper
American politician
Thomas Valentine Cooper (January 16, 1835 - December 19, 1909) was an American politician from Pennsylvania who served as a Republican member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for Delaware County for the 1870 and 1872 terms. Cooper served as a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate for district 5 from 1873 to 1874 and for district 9 from 1875 to 1889. He was reelected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1901 and served until his death in 1909.
Cooper served as a private and an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War, was a newspaper editor of the Delaware County American newspaper for 54 years and an author of books on political and civil war history.
Early life and military service
Cooper was born in Cadiz, Ohio, to Dr. J.W. and Henrietta (Fields) Cooper.
From 1861 to 1864, Cooper served in the Union Army during the Civil War for three years as a private in Company C, 26th Pennsylvania Infantry and for three months as first lieutenant in the 4th Pennsylvania Reserve Regiment. He served in 13 engagements during the war including Second Bull Run, Chancellorsville, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House.
Career
In 1855, Cooper founded the Media Advertiser newspaper. In 1856, the name was changed to the Media Advertiser and Delaware County American and again in 1859 to the Delaware County American.
The public source identifies “Thomas Valentine Cooper” as american politician. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Thomas, Valentine and Cooper.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q55978995. VIAF identifies the subject as 6517223. The Library of Congress control number is n88667426. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1835, 1909, 1870 and 1872.
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This entry incorporates text from “Thomas Valentine Cooper” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.