John Cooper, a longtime member and trustee of Allen Chapel, served as the presiding officer for the celebration of the Ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment in April 1870. Cooper had been born in Virginia, circa 1827. Whether he was born free, had been emancipated, or had escaped his bondage is not clear from the historical record, but it appears he had settled in Portsmouth as early as 1849, when he found employment in a Front Street hotel. Cooper first appeared in the Portsmouth, Ohio Census in 1860, where his occupation was listed as servant. At the time of the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, Cooper managed a popular restaurant in the Biggs House on Front Street, the city's most luxurious hotel. In 1875, Cooper would open his own restaurant on Second Street in what was then known as the Huston Stone Front, but which had been originally built by Milton Kennedy in 1853.