Joseph Alexander Cooper was born November 25, 1823 in Whitley County, Kentucky, son of John and Helen Sage Cooper. The family relocated to a farm in Campbell County, Tennessee the year after his birth. Cooper became a deacon in the Longfield Baptist Church in 1839, and married Mary J. Hutson in April 1846. He enlisted as a private in the Mexican-American War in 1837, and after 1838 he returned to farming until the growing crisis of the Civil War. At this time, Copper joined the East Tennessee Convention, which sided with the Union.

Cooper became a captain of the 1st Tennessee Infantry in late 1861, and continued to fight for the Union until January 1866, when he was appointed a brevet major-general for his service. Soon after being mustered out, Cooper moved to Knox County and began to involve himself in politics. He ran for a congressional seat but lost in the wake of a disagreement with President Andrew Jackson. Cooper was briefly appointed as commander of the Tennessee State Guard, a short-lived militia created to deal with unrest around state elections.

In 1871, at the 37th General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, Cooper was meant to be the Joint Representative for Knox and Sevier Counties, but resigned before the first session could take place. President Ulysses S. Grant had appointed Cooper as the internal revenue collector for the Knoxville District in May 1869, a position he retained for ten years. Following his removal during a power struggle, Cooper left for Stafford County, Kansas, where he once again took up farming as well as serving as moderator of the South Central Baptist Association of Kansas until 1909.

Joseph Cooper died May 20, 1910, and his body was taken back for burial in the Knoxville National Cemetery.

Frank Hyberger served as a private secretary for Governor Dewitt Clinton Senter and as an adjutant general from 1869-1871.