Thomas Cooper (1830-1914), 23rd Mayor of Pekin

From the 1879 "History of Tazewell county," page 709 --

Thomas Cooper, County Treasurer, and a pioneer of Tazewell Co., was born Feb. 2, 1830, in Hamilton Co., Ohio, and came to this county way back in the early days of the county's history, in 1844, when but a lad of fourteen years. His parents, William and Mary (Beal) Cooper, were natives, the former of Virginia, and the latter of Pennsylvania. At the rather tender age of 19, Mr. Cooper, in compliance with the scriptural injunction, "took unto himself a wife," and in 1849 was bound in the bonds of matrimony to Miss M. A. Strickland. Five children blessed the union. Mr. Cooper at the age of 16, enlisted in the Mexican War, in which he did gallant service, and fought under that brave old hero Gen. Winfield Scott. In January, 1879, he, as a delegate, accompanied the " Merchant's and Manufacturer's Industrial Deputation of the Northwest," to Mexico, thereby giving him an opportunity to see that land, where thirty-three years before he had helped to vanquish that great Mexican chieftain, Santa Anna.

Obituary notice from the Decatur Review, 8 June 1914, page 10 --

G.A.R Mexican War

Colonel Thomas Cooper, former mayor of Pekin, died at his home in Pekin Friday. He was the father of Mrs. Ellen Augustine of Decatur and she was at his bedside at the time of his death. Colonel Cooper was a veteran of the Mexican War.