William Frierson Cooper

William Frierson Cooper (March 11, 1820 – May 7, 1909) was a lawyer, planter and politician. He was nominated to the Supreme Court of the Confederate States of America by President Jefferson Davis, but the court never sat because of the American Civil War. After the war, he served as the Dean of the Vanderbilt University Law School from 1874 to 1875. He was a judge of the Tennessee Supreme Court from 1878 to 1886.

Early life Cooper was born on March 11, 1820, in Franklin, Tennessee. His father, Matthew D. Cooper, was a merchant who later became a banker in Columbia, Tennessee. While he was at Yale, one of his professors was Alphonso Taft. He was admitted to the bar in 1841.

Cooper was initially reluctant to embrace secession, but he fully supported the Confederate States of America (CSA) once it was established.

Cooper resumed legal practice in Nashville after the war, forming a successful partnership first with Robert L. Caruthers and then with his brother Henry Cooper. He was elected again to the Tennessee Supreme Court in August 1878 and served on the court until 1886. He renamed the property Riverwood because of its location on bluffs on the north side of the Cumberland River.

Death and legacy Cooper died on May 7, 1909, in Brooklyn, New York City. He was buried at the Zion Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Ashwood, Tennessee. Upon his death, Riverwood passed to his half-brother, Duncan Brown Cooper.