Hotel Racine
Manager George Hopper
(from Men of Progress, a book of biographical sketches)
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, 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
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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 never 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
[image: GEORGE
HENRY HOPPER.]
degree Mason,
and a Shriner. He is one of the most advanced Mason in the order
in this state, as he is one 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.
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