Husband Thomas Cunningham Cochran 1 2
Born: 30 Nov 1877 - Sandy Creek Twp, Mercer Co, PA 1 2
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Father: Wilson Henry Cochran (1853-1901) 2 3 4
Mother: Elizabeth Eve Robinson ( - ) 1 2
Marriage: 15 Aug 1906 - Vienna, Trumbull Co, OH 5
Wife Olive Belle Pierson 5
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Father: Charles Alphonso Pierson ( - ) 5
Mother: Mary Strain ( - ) 5
Children
1 M Wilson H. Cochran 5
Born: 27 Sep 1907 5
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2 M Charles E. Cochran 5
Born: 16 Feb 1909 5
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3 F Cornelia E. Cochran 5
Born: 5 Mar 1911 5
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4 F Olive A. Cochran 5
Born: 4 Aug 1914 5
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5 M Thomas C. Cochran, Jr. 6
Born: 4 Jun 1920 6
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General Notes: Husband - Thomas Cunningham Cochran
He won the highest attainable honors in the grade schools, and was graduated from the Mercer High School in 1896, also with the highest honors. During 1896-97 he taught school in Hickory Township, Mercer County, and then matriculated at Westminster College, in Lawrence County, from which he was graduated in 1901, summa cum laude, a Bachelor of Arts. He received the honorary degree, Doctor of Laws, from his alma mater, in 1937, in recognition of notable achievements and public service. Although a brilliant student, he also was prominent in many campus and other extra curricular activities, being a member of the Adelphic Literary Society; editor of “The Holcad”; manager of the football team; chairman of the Lecture Course Committee; member of Pi Rho Phi and Theta Upsilon Omega fraternities. He won the intersociety debate in his sophomore year, and is a life member of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity.
He studied law in the office of his father, while at the same time serving as instructor in Greek and constitutional law at Mercer Academy, 1901-03. Admitted to the Mercer County bar in 1903, he then had his professional offices in Mercer. At various times later, he was admitted to practice before the bars of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania, Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, United States District Court, the United States Circuit Court of Appeals, the Treasury Department of the United States, and the United States Supreme Court.
Mr. Cochran's entrance into public life began with election to the post of district attorney for Mercer County in 1906, an office he filled most capably for three years. Over a long period he was solicitor for Mercer County (1920-27). In 1926 he was nominated by the Republican, Democratic, Prohibition and Socialist parties for election as representative of the Twentieth Congressional District, in Congress. He served four terms in the Seventieth to the Seventy-third Congress, 1927 to 1935, and did exceptionally constructive work with the Ways and Means Committee, after prior service on the Committee on Claims, Committee on Elections, Committee on Roads, Committee on Expenditures in Executive Departments, Committee on Codification of the Laws, Committee on Flood Control, and Committee on Military Affairs. He also, as a delegate from the United States Congress, attended the Conferences of Interparliamentary Union: 1927 in Paris, 1928 in Berlin, 1929 in Geneva, 1930 in London, 1934 in Istanbul (Constantinople), and in 1939 as an observer at the conference in Oslo, Norway.
He was thoroughly at home in the debates on the floor of the House of Representatives in the Nation's capital, and many of his best literary, as well as legislative works have been published in the Congressional Record. Among his chief interests and articles are those concerned with the protective tariff, military affairs, national defense and flood control, although he wrote frequently on a wide variety of topics, and spoken before professional and scientific organizations and public meetings. He was extraordinarily well informed about national and foreign matters, partly as the result of travels in the British Isles, France, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Yugo-Slavia, Greece, Spain, Turkey, Norway, Sweden, Mexico, Haiti, Porto Rico, Panama and Canal Zone, the United States and Canada.
Mr. Cochran was a member of the Mercer County Bar Society, the Pennsylvania State Bar Association, and the American Bar Association. Fraternally he was affiliated with the Free and Accepted Masons, being a member of different bodies of the order. He was a trustee of Westminster College, and much to the fore in civic and humanitarian projects. In party allegiance he was a lifelong Republican. He attended the United Presbyterian Church. Mr. Cochran's taste in literature was cosmopolitan although especially fond of the English-Scottish poets, Shakespeare, Burns, Scott, the homes of whom he visited. His recreations include almost any that are identified with action-the automobile, hiking and motorboat racing. As his responsibilities permited he was devoted to travel. [HNP, 20]
General Notes: Wife - Olive Belle Pierson
She was a graduate of Westminster College, class of 1903, was very prominent in civic and patriotic societies. She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and in 1925 was a delegate to the National Convention held in Washington, District of Columbia.