Cooper, Robert J.

Robert Jinkens Cooper, popularly known as Bob Cooper, was a highly respected pioneer resident who arrived in the Selma section of Fresno County in November 1875. Born in Calaveras County on March 8, 1858, he was the son of early California settlers Robert Bruce Cooper and Alta Zara Lewis, who endured great privations during their migration to the state. As a native son, Bob obtained his education in the public schools of the state and directed his early training entirely toward agricultural pursuits. Upon locating in Fresno County, he used his own hands and team to assist in digging the Centerville and Kingsburg ditch, which was the first successful irrigation system in that part of the county. He purchased a forty-acre plot of land when the region was still a desert waste, applying hard work and wise management to bring the property to a high state of development.

Alongside his brothers, Samuel and Joseph, Bob bought railroad land or took up homesteads in 1876, with all three brothers finding success through their investments at a time when the town of Selma did not yet exist. On the day before Christmas in 1883, he married Kate L. Mann at Visalia, who was born in Contra Costa County to a California pioneer named Elson Mann. The couple endeared themselves to the community through their integrity until her death on April 15, 1919. In his civic and social life, Bob demonstrated a strong pride in the welfare of the people, passing all the chairs of the Selma Parlor Number 107 of the Native Sons of the Golden West and aligning politically as a Republican. His successful cultivation of desert lands through foundational irrigation projects left a lasting historical impact on the agricultural growth of the region.