Kings County Biographies

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler


This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm



ELIAS T. COSPER
 
Indiana has given to California many popular and successful men, among them the 
prominent lawyer and man of public affairs whose name is above. It was in Noble 
county, that state, that Elias T. Cosper was born, May 12, 1849. He was educated 
in public schools in his native county and at the LaGrange Collegiate Institute 
at Ontario, LaGrange county, Ind., having been graduated from the last�named 
institution about 1870. For a time thereafter he taught school in Indiana, Ohio 
and Iowa, and so successful was he in this calling that he was made 
superintendent of the school at Lima, Ind. By this time his reputation was so 
well established that his services were sought as superintendent of the schools 
of LaGrange county, in which office he served two terms with efficiency and 
honor. Meanwhile he had determined to become a lawyer and was already well read 
in the principles of the profession. Finishing his law studies under the 
preceptorship of J. D. Ferrall of LaGrange, he was admitted to the bar of 
Indiana in 1878. After eight years' successful practice there lie located in 
Tulare, Cal., in 1886, opening an office, afterwards associating J. F. Boller 
with him as partner, and this relationship continued four years. He was elected 
to represent his district in the thirty-third session of the California 
legislative assembly, in which, as well as in the special session in which the 
Hon. Thomas Bard was elected United States senator, he served with distinguished 
ability and credit. Meanwhile he had moved from Tulare to Hanford, where, after 
the expiration of his legislative service, he formed a law partnership with H. 
P. Brown, which existed two years, since when he has been in independent 
practice with offices located in the Emporium building. From the time of his 
settlement at Tulare he was prominent in Republican politics and eventually was 
made chairman of the county Republican central committee, an office which he 
filled for several years while acting as a member of important committees of 
that body.
As a lawyer Mr. Cosper has had to do with a large number of important eases. His 
defense of Ike Daly, the murderer, is a matter of record as well as of history. 
He also appeared in the defense of Frank Smith and of Ward, the burglar, and 
bore a conspicuous part in the water cases of Lovelace versus the Empire 
Insurance Company and the C. A. Reagan and Patrick Talent will contests.
In 1884 Mr. Cosper married Miss Sarah Moore, at LaGrange, Ind. Their son, Volney 
B., of San Francisco, is superintendent of the Sartorious Structural Steel and 
Iron Company's works. Their daughter, Laura M., is the wife of H. L. Bradley of 
San Antonio, Tex. Mr. Cosper became a Mason at LaGrange, Ind., and is a member 
of Hanford Lodge No. 279, F. & A. M. It was at LaGrange, too, that he became an 
Odd Fellow. Here he affiliates with Hanford Lodge No. 264 and with Encampment 
No. 68, and with Truth Rebekah Degree Lodge No. 326. Court Reges of the 
Independent Order of Foresters includes him in its membership. His interests in 
the advancement and development of Hanford early made him a promoter of the 
Chamber of Commerce idea for the town and he is a member of the present local 
body, as he was also of earlier organizations of similar aims. As a communicant 
of the Episcopal church he has at heart the various interests of the local 
organization and has for some time been an active member of its vestry.
 
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - 
Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913
pp. 654-655