up into hats. John Cooper had served in the war of the Revolution,
and when it ended, he retired with the rank of lieutenant. He
married Margaret, the daughter of John Campbell, who also had served
in the Continental army, as quartermaster, and who now carried on
the trade of potter and tile-maker on the spot where St. Paul's
Chapel now stands.

To John and Margaret Cooper nine children were born, two daughters
and seven sons, of whom Peter was the fifth, and was named after the
apostle in the belief, as his father expressed it, that he would
come to something. Following the fashion of the time, he was set to
work at his father's trade as soon as he was old enough to work, as
all his brothers had been before him: and in later years he
described himself as a little boy, with his head just reaching the
top of the table where he was set to pulling out the hairs from
rabbit skins to use in making fur hats; and he was kept at the
business until he was fifteen, when, as he used to tell, he had
learned to make every part of a hat. So independent is business
success of what is commonly called education, that it may be of
interest to record that Peter Cooper never went to school for more
than one year, and only in the half of each day of school: his
parents were poor, and could not spare what his labor earned, and
besides his health was delicate, and the confinement of school was
thought more injurious to him than the work in the shop. In
consequence of this restriction Peter Cooper grew to manhood with
very little learning beyond reading, writing, and the rudiments of
arithmetic, and while this was a source of regret to him all his
life, it was in reality the spur that drove him to found an
institution that should take away all excuses for ignorance from the
coming generations of poor boys in his native city.

The elder Cooper would seem to have been a man of small practical
capacity or staying power, for he moved about from place to place,
changing his business in the hope of bettering his condition; now
going to Peekskill to set up a brewery; thence to Catskill, where
he added brick-making to making beer; then to Brooklyn to try
hatting again; and finally to Newburgh, where he returned to
brewing. In all these shiftings of home and business Peter remained
with his father and gave him what help he could; he used in later
life to recall his carrying about the beer-kegs to his father's
customers; but at the age of seventeen