Cooper, Sarah Ingersoll (1835–1896)

American educator and first president of the International Kindergarten Union. Born Sarah Brown Ingersoll in Cazenovia, New York, on December 12, 1835; died in San Francisco, California, on December 10, 1896; cousin of orator and agnostic Robert C. Ingersoll; attended Cazenovia Seminary, 1850–53; Troy Female Seminary, 1854; married Halsey F. Cooper (a newspaper editor), in 1855 (died 1885); children: two daughters, including Harriet Cooper (d. 1896).

Sarah Ingersoll Cooper was a schoolteacher and governess before her marriage to the editor of Tennessee's Chattanooga Advertiser, Robert C. Ingersoll. In 1869, after she had suffered several years of poor health and the loss of a daughter, the family moved to San Francisco, where Sarah began a popular Bible study class in her Presbyterian church. In 1881, however, she was expelled from the congregation over her refusal to accept the doctrines of infant damnation and eternal punishment. She removed herself and her Bible class to the Congregational Church, where in 1879 she and members of the class opened the Jackson Street Kindergarten. The success of the venture led to other kindergartens and ultimately to the organization of the Golden Gate Kindergarten Association, which, under Cooper's direction, guided the incorporation of 40 kindergartens in the San Francisco area, enrolling nearly 3,600 children. Numerous kindergartens based on Cooper's model sprang up across the country and abroad. In 1891, the Association opened the Golden Gate Kindergarten Free Normal Training School, and in 1892 Cooper helped found and was elected the first president of the International Kindergarten Union.

Involved in many other civic and charitable organizations, Cooper was in demand as a public speaker. She spoke at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 and was one of five women delegates to the Pan-Republic Congress. In 1895, she was elected first president of the Woman's Congress. Following the suicide of Cooper's husband in 1885, her daughter Harriet Cooper became her constant companion and secretary. In 1896, Harriet suffered a deep depression during which she made several unsuccessful attempts to take both her own and her mother's lives. On December 10, 1896, Harriet turned on the gas in their San Francisco apartment and asphyxiated them both.