California Death Index Records, 1905-1939: Name: Thomas B Cooper Birth Year: abt 1837 Death Date: 27 Nov 1928 Age at Death: 91 Death Place: Sacramento, California, USA.

91-year-old Thomas Benton Cooper was interred, per the Chico Cemetery Association Records, in the plot noted, on November 30, 1928.
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Appeal-Democrat (Marysville, California) 30 Nov 1928, Friday Page 1: Thomas B. Cooper, 'Oldest Settler' Of Valley, Is Dead. Thomas Benton Cooper, 91, adjudged by a committee of the Native Sons of the Golden West assisted by the Marysville Democrat in 1926 as being the oldest living pioneer in northern California, died in Sacramento Tuesday.

He was the father of Ben Cooper, Sacramento Northern railroad agent at Yuba City, and Mrs. Paul DeMott of Yuba City. Cooper frequently visited in Marysville and Yuba City.

Cooper came to California in 1845, two years before the discovery of gold and four years before California became a part of the Union. He was nine years old at the time. He was a cousin of Kit Carson, the famous trail breaker for immigrant trains. He also was a descendant of Daniel Boone.

He Knew Sutter. In his youth, Cooper counted among his friends Capt. John A. Sutter, James Marshall, the discoverer of gold and John Bidwell. When he first saw the Sacramento valley, there was one adobe building on the Theodore Cordua ranch, the site of Marysville.

Cooper was born in Howard County, Missouri. When the Cooper family came to California, they located at Winters on the land grant, of the elder Cooper's son-in-law, John Wolfskill. Wolfskill had come to California in 1841 and had located at Los Angeles, where he worked for the wage of a barrel of whisky a year.

Was Early Day Miner. The Coopers later left Winters and went to Napa. Afterward they went to the site of Benicia; Cooper's father, Wolfskill and Thomas O. Larkin laid out the town of Benicia.

The father and sons of the Cooper family joined in the search for gold in 1849 and mined in the river beds east of Marysville, making from $50 to $500 a day.

After entering the stock business in Colusa county, Thomas Benton Cooper moved to Modoc county due to enactment of the fencing law of the early 70's. He engaged in the stock business in Modoc for 14 years, but returned to the Sacramento valley because he did not like the cold climate of the northern county.

Wife Died in 1921. Cooper met the woman who was to be his bride at the Western hotel in Marysville in 1874. She was Ettie Montgomery. They were married two years later at Colusa, Mrs. Cooper died Nov. 18, 1921.

Funeral services for Cooper were held at Sacramento Friday. The body was taken to Chico for burial.