Mary Elizabeth Sackett

James S. Cooley was the founder of the Cooley Hardware Store in 1851, owned and managed by various members of the family for many years. The business originated under the name of J.S.Cooley & Co. Frank Gage was associated with the firm, but after a year or two retired, and his interest was sold to Nathaniel Nourse Cooley, who in 1867 retired because of ill health, and James S. Cooley became the sole proprietor, until in 1878 his son, Augustine Sackett Cooley, became a partner. In 1883 Albert Eugene Cooley, nephew of James S. Cooley, became a partner, and about this time the firm became known as J.S.Cooley, Son & Co.
"In December, 1888, the man to whose sagacity and enterprise the business success of the company was due departed this earth, esteemed by the community. Fortunately, the younger partners upon whose shoulders the business fell, were men fully equal to the enlarged responsibility, and it is no exaggeration to say that Messrs. A.S. and A.E. Cooley have more than maintained the reputation for fairmindedness begun by the founder of the business. The business now is recognized as one of the most successful and extensive enterprises of the kind in western New York. Not only do they keep an immense stock of light and heavy hardware, including all the latest novelties in tools and household appliances, but they also carry a large line of the most approved designs in stoves and ranges, with kerosene and gasoline stoves, etc. They also have a great assortment of farming implements, tinware, copper and ironware. They keep a large force engaged in manufacturing these because the name is everywhere recognized as a guarantee of material and workmanship. They are building up a wholesale and jobbing trade that promises to attain large proportions. It is such enterprises that insure the continued prosperity and growth of the village (Ontario County Times, Canandaigua, 1893).
James S. Cooley, after a business career extending over a period of nearly forty years, left a record without blot or blemish, and marked throughout by strictest integrity. He was an enterprising, public spirited citizen, honest and conscientious in all his dealings, a kind husband and father, an obliging neighbor, and one who was always ready to extend a helping hand to those in need. He was a member of the Congregational church, and was justly esteemed as one whose consistent Christian character was worthily exemplified in his every-day life (Ontario County Times, Canandaigua, Dec. 21, 1888).

Source:
Cooley, Mortimer. The Cooley genealogy: the descendants of Ensign Benjamin Cooley, an early settler of Springfield and Longmeadow, Massachusetts. Tuttle, Rutland, Vt (1941). (Researched by Chris Sackett).