[2] Born in Copiah County, Mississippi, Cooper entered the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

His studies were interrupted by the American Civil War, and aged seventeen he enlisted in the Confederate States Army.

After the war, he studied law in the office of Judge Yerger and then with Messrs. King and Mayes at Gallatin.

There he developed "a large and lucrative practice", and was appointed to the supreme court in 1881, succeeding Chief Justice George.

[3] Cooper died at his home in Jackson, Mississippi, at the age of 86, following a year of declining health.