-Peter Cooper
He ascribed “the possession of the wealth he owned primarily to the habits of patient industry which he had formed at the outset of his career. From his early youth he had avoided, he affirmed, alcoholic liquors and the incurring a debt, and he always made it a rule to endeavor to keep a little ready money on hand. In addition he essayed to advance himself in knowledge, and asserted that it was in the efforts that he was compelled to make in this direction in his youth that he formed the resolution to found an institution at which the young people of the working class could acquire that acquaintance with their business and with science which is absolutely indispensable to success in life.”
The Mountaineer, (Greenville, SC) Wednesday, July 26, 1871; Issue 43; col D
