Ransom Cooper

Ransom Cooper, Prosecuting Attorney of Osceola County and member of the firm of Cooper & Winsor, attorneys, real-estate and loan agents at Reed City, was born May 12, 1854, near Corunna, Shiawassee Co., Mich. His father, andrew H. Cooper, was a native of New York, and a farmer by vocation. the son was but six months old at the date of his father's death. After that event his mother, Sarah (McGilvrey) Cooper, returned to Sterling, Cayuga Co., N.Y., where she lived with her children seven years, returning when Mr. Cooper, of this sketch, was seven years old, to Caro, Tuscola Co., Mich. She died in 1879.

Ransom was a pupil in the common schools of Tuscola County until he was 17 years old. He became a teacher, which pursuit he followed until he was 20, when he entered the Literary Department of the University at Ann Arbor, where he studied two years. He went thence to Port Austin, Huron Co., Mich., where he followed the business of teaching three years, meanwhile studying law under the instructions of the Hom. Richard Winsor and his partner, Horace G. Snover, a leading law firm of the Huron Peninsula. He was admitted to the practice of law at the Bar of Michigan at Bad Axe, Huron County, in august, 1879, and in the following month established his legal business at Reed City. He formed a partnership under the style of Colgrove & Cooper, which relation continued one year, when the present firm was established by the substitution of L. B. Winsor, and its connections are still operative. The house has founded a substantial law business, deals to a satisfactory extent in real estate, and represents the following fire insurance companues: Liverpool & London & Globe, American, British, Phoenix of Brooklyn, and the Orient.Mr. Cooper was nominated on the Republican ticket in the fall of 1880 for Prosecuting Attorney, and made a successful campaign against the candidate of the opposition element, scoring a triumph of 700 majority. He was re-elected in 1882, without opposition.

Mr. Cooper is a member of the Masonic fraternity. He is prominently interested in local school matters.His marriage to Lillian B. Colgrove occurred Dec. 31, 1878, at Charlotte, Eaton Co., Mich. Edith Belle, only child, was born at Reed City, Nov. 20, 1882.Mrs. Cooper was born March 20, 1857, and is the daughter of Charles H. and Catherine Colgrove.

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