CHARLES E. COPE, the well known hotel proprietor of Atlantic City, and the Water Gap, was born at New Hope, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, December 28, 1852, and is descended of the paternal side from Yost COPE, one of the earliest German settlers in Bucks County.

George B. COPE, father of Charles E., was born and reared in Plumstead township, Bucks county. Soon after his marriage he engaged in business in New Hope, Bucks county, where he was a successful merchant and general business man, being engaged for some years in boat building and other local industries. He was a Democrat in politics, and for many years took an active part in the councils of his party. He was elected to the office of treasurer of Bucks county, and served for three years. He later removed to Burlington, New Jersey, and engaged extensively in cranberry growing. He died at the age of seventy years. His wife was Frances M. CROOK, of an old New Hope family, and they were the parents of ten children of whom eight survive: Ella, widow of Edgar HAAS, of Solebury; Charles E., the subject of this sketch; G. Frank, of Summit’s Point, New Jersey; Clara, widow of Sexton WOODWARD, of Philadelphia; Annetta, wife of Blanchard WHITE, an attorney of Pemberton, New Jersey; Catherine, wife of Dr. SEAGRAVES, of Pemberton; Bertha, wife of William WATTS, a hotel proprietor at Atlantic City; J. Pardy, of Atlantic City.

Charles E. COPE was reared at New Hope and acquired his education at the public schools and the State Normal School at Millersville, Pennsylvania. At the age of twenty years he left his father’s cranberry farm and returned to Bucks county, where he took up the butchering business, first in Pineville, later at Forest Grove, and Buckingham, and finally in Doylestown, where he conducted a meat market for some years. Selling out his business he conducted the Upper Hotel at Buckingham for two years, and then removed to the Water Gap, where he conducted a summer resort for three years. His father dying about this time and leaving him his partially developed cranberry farm, encumbered, Charles as the eldest son was called home to take matters in charge. Needing money to develop the property, Mr. COPE went to Atlantic City and engaged in the hotel business, and from his earnings there developed the cranberry bog, thus placing the property upon an earning basis, so that in three or four years cranberries were produced by the carload, and a large income was provided for the widowed mother and her children. Mr. COPE then deeded the property over to his mother, and has since continued the hotel business at Atlantic City and the Water Gap. He assisted his brothers to start in business for themselves, and both of them have been successful, Frank the elder having retired from active business. Mr. COPE has been the proprietor of the "Clifton," "San Marcus," "Albermarie," "Kenilworth," the "Grand Atlantic," and the "Jackson" hotels at Atlantic City and still retains the latter, as well as the Kittatinning House at the Delaware Water Gap, both of which he conducts. In 1898 he purchased a tract of land at Wycombe, Bucks county, upon which he has erected several houses and business places.

Mr. COPE married, in 1879, Emma THOMPSON, daughter of the late Abraham Thompson, of Wrightstown, for many years a prominent farmer of that township, and who filled the office of county commissioner several years ago. He belonged to an old family in that vicinity, of Scotch-Irish extraction. Mr. and Mrs. COPE have no children. He is a member of Doylestown Lodge, No. 245, F. & A.M., Atlantic City Lodge, B. P. O. E. Pequod Tribe, I.O.R.M., and Atlantic City Lodge, I.O.O.F.

Test taken from page 349 of:

Davis, William W. H., A.M., History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania [New York-Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1905] Volume III