CRAWFORD COUNTY OHIO - BIO: JOHN HOPLEY (1881)
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>From the The Ohio Biographies Project
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~usbios/Ohio/mnpg.html
a part of The U.S. Biographies Project
http://members.tripod.com/~debmurray/usbios/usbiog.html

Transcribed by Bonnie Walsh.

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CRAWFORD COUNTY
HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY AND OHIO
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, p.743-744
CHICAGO
BASKIN & BATTEY, HISTORICAL PUBLISHERS
186 DEARBORN STREET
1881

BUCYRUS TOWNSHIP, CRAWFORD COUNTY, OHIO

JOHN HOPLEY, editor and proprietor of Bucyrus Journal Bucyrus, Ohio.
Mr. Hopley, whose portrait appears in this work, came to Bucyrus in
the spring of 1856, to fill the position of Superintendent of the
Union Schools. He is by birth an Englishman, although he was
naturalized many years ago, and has long been thoroughly identified
with the interests of his adopted country. His paternal ancestors were
substantial farmers in the county of Suffolk, England. His father was
a Surgeon in the English Navy, and in private life., first a
practicing surgeon at Whitstable, a small sea-coast village in Kent
and afterward at Lewes, in Sussex, one of the most venerable towns in
England. His mother's ancestors were for many generations
distinguished dignitaries in the Church of England, and he has the
genealogical tables of their descent for hundreds of years back. Mr.
Hopley was born at Whitstableon May 21, 1821, but his parents removed
to Lewes while he was yet an infant. He finished his education at the
Royal Naval Colleg in many of the sports of the playground, he was
never an idler at his studies. He was a constant contestant for the
head of his various classes, frequently standing first and acting as
head-monitor for weeks together. He thus early acquired the art of
teaching which afterward contributed to his reputation as a teacher in
this country. About the close of his term as a student in the Royal
Naval College, he was made a teacher and continued in the institution
for some years in this capacity. In 1842 soon after he became of age
he came to the United States with his mother's brother, John R. Prat,
Esq., of Zanesville, Ohio, and went into his store as clerk. He
continued clerking until the fall of 18444, when he commenced to teach
school with a view to reading law. But he was earnest in whatever he
undertook, and the better he became known as a teacher, the larger
were the schools he taught and the more time he devoted to then thus
making, his progress through the elementary law books 
very slow. In 1845, he removed to Logan, Hocking Co. where he induced
the School Directors to establish graded schools. These were among the
first in Ohio and they were, a great success. In 1848 he married at
Logan, Miss Georgiana Rochester, fourth daughter of John Rochester
Esq., and. desiring to study the nature of society under the system of
slavery, he went to the South to teach. He had schools at Yellow
Creek, in Montgomery Co., Tenn., also near Elkton, Todd Co.. Ky.,. and
also at New Providence, near Clarksville, Tenn. from which place at
the close of 1852, he returned to Logan, and taught there for three
years. The present system of school supervision had been inaugurated
in his absence and he resumed his duties at Logan as Supervisor of the
schools, which however were scattered over the village as closely
together as rooms, far from suitable, could be obtained for them. In
1855, he removed to Columbus to take the position of teacher of
Mathematics and of Commercial Arithmetic, in what was then known ae.
After, however about six mouths of labor in this new sphere, he found
the College so-called, a very unstable institution and he left it to
take charge of a fractional term of the Wellsville Union Schools, from
which place he removed with his family to Bucyrus, arriving on
Saturday, 12th of April, 1856. The schools were at that time
comparatively in their infancy as union schools, and were far from
being in a prosperous condition. Mr. Hopley, however prosecuted his
new duties with his usual thoroughness industry and zeal, and soon
made them the wonder and admiration of his fellow citizens. In 1858,
he formed a partnership in the practice of law with A. M. Jackson.
Esq., for a year and was admitted to the bar. At the expiration of the
term, he opened an office by himself and practiced with encouraging
success until the close of July, 1862 when he went to England in
company with Mr. Thomas Alsop, on professional business. Upon his
return in October, he found the law practice almost destroyed for the
time being; scarcely any cases were tried. In nearly all either one of
the parties, or some important witness was in the army. In this
emergency, he obtained from Mr. Chase, the Secretary of the Treasury,
an appointment to a clerkship in the office of the Second Auditor of
the Treasury. Soon after by special order of the Secretary, he was
transferred to the Secretary's own office. He then had a desk in the
library of the Treasury, and commenced a thorough study of finances,
employing his pen effectively in sustaining the financial policy of
the Secretary, and the establishment of national banks. When the
national bank bill became a law, he was transferred to the Banking and
Currency Bureau. Hon. Hugh McCulloch was then Comptroller of the
Currency, and he placed Mr. Hopley in charge of the statistical
division of the bureau. This included the examination of the regular
report, required by law of the banks and of the reports made by the
Bank Examiners. In this position, it frequently became shed members of
Congress with such data their speeches on financial questions as made
them distinguished. In 1864, he resigned to accept a position in a
large bank in New York. In 1866, he returned to Washington in a
private capacity for his employer, and was appointed National Bank
Examiner for all the Southern States except Delaware, Maryland and
Virginia. Kansas was afterward added and he entered upon his duties in
the fall of 1866. Having completed the examination of the list of
banks, he returned to Bucyrus and in September, 1867, he purchased the
half-interest in the Bucyrus Journal, of the senior editor, J. G.
Robinson. Esq., for $2,000. It was at that time conducted by the
brothers Messrs. James and Ralph Robinson. In May 1868 it was arranged
for Mr. Ralph Robinson to sell out to John Markee, Esq., whom Mr.
Hopley the same day purchased the other half-interest for $2,000.
Although he entered upon journalism only as a temporary resource,
preliminary to returning to the practice of the law. Yet he soon
became absorbed in his new profession to the exclusion of everything
else. In August 1870, he entered upon the duties of Postmaster, and
retained the office until January 1, 1879. He still continues to edit
the Journal. His family is as follows: Charles Rochester, John Edward,
Thomas (who died in infancy), Thomas Prat, Mary Catherine, Georgiana
Eliza, Harriet Evaline, James Richard., Frank Lewes and Joseph
William, ten in all, of whom nine are yet living.