- HOPPER, George Henry, who resides in Racine, Wisconsin, and
who is manager of the Hotel
- Racine in that city, is the son of Samuel HOPPER, who was
born in Jefferson county, New York, in 1812, and resided there
all this life of eighty-two years. He was a prosperous dairy
farmer, and was the son of a soldier of the war of 1812-14. George
H. HOPPER's mother's maiden name was Betsy TEN EYEK [TEN EYCK],
and she was a native a Canajoharie, New York. Both the HOPPERs
and the TEN EYEKs are of Holland descent, their ancestors having
been among the earliest and most valued settlers of the state.
- George H. HOPPER was born in Antwerp, New York, May 12th,
1838. His primary education
- was received in what he properly terms the "primitive
district schools" of that time in his native village, and
later he pursued a course of study in the Ives seminary at Antwerp.
He early began to assist his father on the farm and in stock
buying and shipping, often going to New York City to dispose
of carloads of cattle; and in this manner he acquired a familiarity
with business methods which has been of great service to him
in his subsequent career.
- During the dull season on the farm he found employment with
some carpenter in the village; and
- having a fondness for tools, he soon acquired considerable
practical knowledge of the trade without having served an apprenticeship
thereat. This knowledge he also found of great practical value
of him, as, later, in company with an architect, a fellow townsman,
he helped to finish the interior of the Palmer House, the Sherman
House and other public buildings in Chicago, where he lived a
year, having moved there in 1867. These experiences have been
and still are of great value to him, as they rendered him thoroughly
familiar with the quantity and quality of material required for
a given job, and enabled him to judge when work is done, and
what it should cost.
- In 1868 he removed to Rock county, Wisconsin, where he bought
a farm and managed it for five
- years. He then left farming and went to Elroy. Wisconsin,
in the capacity of car accountant for the Chicago & North-Western
Railroad company. This position he resigned in 1878, and took
charge of the railroad eating house in Elroy. This business proved
pleasant and profitable, and he continued it until 1883, when
he removed to Ashland, where he bought and operated the Colby
House. He remained in Ashland eleven years, in the hotel business,
at one time having the Colby and the Chequamegon in Ashland,
and the Bardon House in Hurley, under his care. In 1894 he closed
the Chequamegon, and removed to Racine, where, on the first of
January, 1895, he took the management of the Hotel Racine, which
he is still conducting.
- Though a thorough Republican, Mr. HOPPER has ever figured
at all in politics.
- He has been a Mason since 1863, having held many offices
in the Blue Lodge, and been a charter
- member of the lodge in Elroy, and also a charter member of
the Ashland Commandery of the Knights Templar, and held several
offices in the same. He was elected an officer in the Grand Commandery
of Wisconsin in 1891, and held the offices in that body successively,
and was elected grand commander in 1895, served his term and
is now past grand commander. He is also a thirty-second degree
Mason, and a Shriner. He is one of the most advance Mason in
the order in this state, as he is ones of the most accomplished
and successful hotel managers.
- Mr. HOPPER was married to M. A. WENTWORTH, a Wisconsin girl,
residing near Fort
- Atkinson, November 12th, 1863. They had one daughter, who
died at the age of twenty-two.
-
- [Taken from "Men of Progress: Wisconsin" (c)1897
The Evening Wisconsin Company, Milwaulee, pp. 258-259]
Courtesy of Lori
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