Chambers County AlArchives Photo person.....Hooper, Johnson Jones 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Don L. Clark donlc_99@yahoo.com June 11, 2004, 9:56 am

Source: Don L. Clark
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Born in Wilmington, North Carolina on June 9, 1815, the son of Archibald 
Maclaine and Charlotte De Berniere Hooper, Johnson Jones Hooper would migrate 
at the age of twenty to join his brother's law firm (George De Berniere Hooper) 
in LaFayette, Alabama. It is  here in 1840 that Hooper helped take the census 
for adjoining Tallapoosa County. The experiences he encountered with the 
backwoods frontier families  served as material for his first story in William 
T. Porter's "Spirit of the Times", "Taking the Census in Alabama", in 1843. After 
the success of this story, Porter encouraged Hooper to write more humorous 
sketches for the Spirit, a New York publication.
On December 15, 1842, Hooper married Mary M. Brantley of LaFayette, the 
daughter of Green D. and Elizabeth Brantley.  The 1850 Census of Chambers 
County lists Johnson J. Hooper, age 34, wife Mary M., age 25, and sons William 
A. and Adolphus S.  Hooper's occupation is listed as attorney at law and he 
owned one slave.  

Hooper would become nationally recognized in his day as the creator of 
fictional character Simon Suggs. His first Simon Suggs stories appeared in the 
"East Alabamian", of which Hooper was editor, in 1844.  At this time the Hoopers 
were living at what would later be known as the old Samuel Spence home on 
Jefferson Street.  In the Preface of his first book Hooper gives his residence 
as  LaFayette, Chambers County, Ala.  March 1845.  

Hooper was a passionate Confederate and was deeply affected by the politics of 
his day.   He was an avid enemy of the Democrats and wavered between his 
support of the Southern Whigs and the Know Nothing parties -- often using Suggs 
as an agent of propaganda for his own political views.  He established the 
"Montgomery Mail" in the 1850s and edited it until 1861.  Hooper was appointed 
Secretary to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States and moved with 
the Congress from Montgomery to Richmond, Virginia. 

One June 7, 1862, Hooper died two days before his 47th birthday.  Shortly 
before his death he had converted to the Catholic faith and was buried in 
Shockoe Hill, Richmond's Catholic Cemetery.  For 88 years his grave had no 
marker, but in 1950, eleven of Hooper's modern day admirers bought and erected 
a suitable monument over his remains. 

 Although Hooper spent most of his life as an editor and politician, he is best 
remembered for his humorous sketches in the Spirit and his books, Some 
Adventures of Simon Suggs, Late of the Tallapoosa Volunteers and The Widow 
Rugby's Husband. 


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