Lake County IN Archives Biographies.....Kopelke, Johannes 1854 - 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/in/infiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 8, 2006, 4:50 pm

Author: T. H. Ball (1904)

HON. JOHANNES KOPELKE.

Hon. Johannes Kopelke, of Crown Point, is a lawyer of established reputation for
ability and legal learning in northwestern Indiana, is an ex-senator of the
state and has taken a prominent part in local and state politics, and throughout
his career in this city of nearly thirty years has been a leader of public
opinion and progress and more than once has been the aggressive spirit in
carrying out reforms and suppressing abuses and in promoting and supporting the
highest interests of social and institutional life.

    He was born at Buchwald, near Neustettin, Prussia, June 14, 1854. His
father, Ferdinand Kopelke, was an Evangelical Lutheran minister. His mother was
Sophia Erbguth, and her grandmother was a sister of the famous Prussian General
York, who took the first step leading to the final overthrow of Napoleon in
1813, and was afterward made a count and field marshal by the king of Prussia.

    Mr. Kopelke gained his early education in the people's schools of Germany,
and from these entered a gymnasium, wher [sic] he continued the education which
in America is offered by the high schools and colleges. From 1865 to 1871 he had
a thorough grounding in the literary branches, especially the languages, in this
typical German educational institution, and in the latter year, when seventeen
years old, he came to the United States. He obtained his professional training
in the law at t1he University of Michigan, which he attended from 1874 to 1876,
graduating in the spring of the latter year. He has been fond of study from his
boyhood days to the present, and while in the gymnasium he gained many prizes
for scholarship, and was also a member of the society called "Thought Chips,"
composed of the members of the first class or "Prima."

    In April, 1876, Mr. Kopelke came to Crown Point and entered upon the career
which has since been productive of so much honor to himself and benefit to the
community. His German scholarship attracted the attention of Hon. Thaddeus S.
Fancher, a distinguished member of the bar at Crown Point, who offered young
Kopelke a partnership in his large practice, which the latter accepted and
continued until 1879, and since then he has managed his increasing legal
interests alone. He has enjoyed a large private practice, and his connection
with litigation of a public nature has won him no small degree of fame in this
part of the state. One of his cases to attract the most attention was the one
involving the constitutionality of the fee and salary law, in i8gi. He was also,
as the assistant of Attorney General Ketcham, connected with the famous fight
made to suppress racing and gambling institutions at Robey. For a number of
years he has had all the professional business he could well manage, and his
time and energies have often been called to other matters. For a time he held
the rank of major on the staff of Governor Gray.

    Mr. Kopelke allied himself with the Republican party when he first began
casting his vote, but in 1882, he found his opinions to consist more
harmoniously with those of the Democracy, and he has been a stanch advocate of
that party ever since. In 1884 he was chosen presidential elector from the Tenth
Indiana district, and thus cast one of the votes which placed Grover Cleveland
in the presidential office. In 1891 he was elected to represent Lake and Porter
counties in the state senate, and his career as a legislator was especially
noteworthy in its results. He served on the judiciary and other important
committees during both sessions of his term of office. He became prominent as
the originator and promoter of measures for the welfare of the state, and he
also carried through some remedial legislation regarding matters of practice and
procedure. He was active in procuring the new charter for the city of
Indianapolis, and his influence was strongly felt in behalf of the tax law which
redeemed the state from bankruptcy. Senator Kopelke was the Democratic nominee
for the office of appellate judge in 1898, but the state went strongly
Republican that year.

    Mr. Kopelke is an Episcopalian in religious faith. He has never married. His
long identification with Crown Point makes him one of the most highly esteemed
citizens, and his life has been praiseworthy and fruitful in good results from
whatever standpoint it is regarded.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

ENCYCLOPEDIA
OF
Genealogy and Biography
OF
LAKE COUNTY, INDIANA,
WITH A COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY 
1834—1904

A Record of the Achievements of Its People in the Making of a Commonwealth and
the Founding of a Nation.

REV. T. H. BALL
OF CROWN POINT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
ILLUSTRATED
CHICAGO   NEW YORK
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1904


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/in/lake/bios/kopelke422gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/infiles/

File size: 5.3 Kb