lawyer, politician, Congressman, b. Spring Prairie. He graduated from Northwestern Univ. (1873), Union College of Law, Chicago (LL.B., 1875), was admitted to the bar, and practiced law in Chicago until 1879. Returning to Wisconsin, he set up a law practice in Burlington and in 1880 moved to Racine. A Progressive Republican, he served for several years as district attorney for Racine County and was a member of the state senate (1887-1890) where he wrote the bill that established the Australian ballot. In 1892 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (serving from 1893 to 1919), but was defeated for re-election because of his opposition to the war. Re-elected in 1920, he served from 1921 until his death. In Congress he led a successful fight to obtain a representative assembly for the Philippine Islands (1902), as well as a limitation on the amount of land that could be held in the islands by outside corporations. In 1893 he was a leader in the struggle that blocked attempts of the "Pacific railroads" to gain a reduction of their debt to the U.S. government. He was instrumental in obtaining funds for the Lincoln Memorial and was largely responsible for the naming of Constitution Avenue in the nation's capital. He was a delegate to several Republican national conventions and in the convention of 1924 presented the Progressive platform of that year. Racine Times-Call, Mar. 2, 1931; Milwaukee Sentinel, Mar. 2, 1931; E. B. Usher, Wis. (8 vols., Chicago, 1914); Wis. Blue Book (1927); Who's Who in Amer., 15 (1928); Biog. Dir. Amer. Cong. (1950); H. A. Cooper Papers.

The Wisconsin Historical Society has manuscripts related to this topic. See the catalog description of the Henry Allen Cooper Papers for details.

View newspaper clippings at Wisconsin Local History and Biography Articles.

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[Source: Blue book]