COOPER, JOHNSTON ALEXANDER (1871-1963)

COOPER, JOHNSTON ALEXANDER, Anglican missionary, Derby and Blackville, 1910-12; b. South Clones, Queens Co., N.B., 10 Jul 1871, s/o James William Cooper and Mary Ann Graham; m. 1st, 1901, Gertrude May Cooper, of Gagetown, N.B., and 2nd, 1938, Annie Ashford Stewart, d/o Hugh Stewart and Susan Ashford, of Newcastle; d. Bathurst, 19 Jul 1963.

When he was first married in 1901, Johnston A. Cooper was working as a "nail maker" in Saint John. He was later trained for the Anglican priesthood at Wycliffe College, Toronto, completing the program at age thirty-nine. He was ordained a deacon in 1910 by the bishop of Toronto and appointed to the mission of Derby and Blackville. Like the other Anglican clergymen based there in that period he was responsible for three churches: St Peter's at Derby, Trinity at Blackville, and St Agnes at Gray Rapids. To the extent possible, he also acted as visiting missionary in the parishes of Ludlow and Blissfield.

Cooper was ordained a priest in 1911, and in 1912 he was appointed rector of Bathurst. He strove to enhance his scholarly standing in 1916 by taking a BD from a diploma mill in Iowa known as Oskaloosa College. He retained the Bathurst rectorship until his retirement in 1956, at age eighty-five. For several years he also served as rural dean of Chatham. In 1954 he was made an honorary canon of Christ Church Cathedral. In recognition of the useful part which he played in a number of community organizations he was made a Freeman of the town of Bathurst in 1950. His only named survivor in 1963 was his second wife, Annie A. Stewart.