John B. Cooper…. Civil War Hero
John B. Cooper, born in Walpole, NH in 1841, was soon orphaned. He came to Newport in 1857 at sixteen years of age and apprenticed at the blacksmith shop of D. B. Chapin. At the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted at Newport with Co. D, marrying Mary O. Moody of Newport two days before leaving for war. At the end of his first enlistment, he recruited members for Co. K, NH Volunteers, and eventually became a Captain in that Regiment. During his service he fought at the major battles of Antietam and Fredericksburg. He became one of Newport’s valued citizens after the war, serving as selectman, Postmaster and Town Moderator (both for over twenty years) and superintendent of the Newport Water Works. He also served as a NH state senator and representative. At the 1938 Memorial Day services, John B. Cooper was honored by the citizens of Newport when a tablet in his honor was erected at the corner of Sunapee and Central Streets, to be know as Cooper Square.
