Bio of Hopper, William T. - Grady County, Oklahoma Transcribed by: Gene Phillips 18 Jun 2006 Return to Grady County Archives: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/grady/grady.html ========================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ========================================================================== WILLIAM T. HOPPER, one of the largest lumber dealers in the state and also interested in several important financial and agricultural enterprises, made a high reputation as. an Arkansas legislator before he came to Rush Springs, Grady county, in 1900. At that time he established himself in the lumber business with a stock amounting to about $5,000. But during the few years since his energy and pronounced business ability have extended the trade until now the capital and surplus of his company is increased to $50,000, and that his transactions now approach the million dollar mark. As profits also accumulated, he took on promising outside investments, such as brick business houses in Rush Springs; a farm in Tillman county; stock in the First National Bank of Eufaula, and a block of stock in the First National Bank of Rush Springs. Of the institution named, he is one of the organizers and a member of its official board. Mr. Hopper has also participated in the progress of the Democratic party in his section of the state and in the public affairs of his community. He is president of the Democratic Club of Rush Springs, has been mayor of the town, and was unavailingly urged to accept the nomination as delegate to the constitutional convention. He is a self-possessed and entertaining public speaker, is clear and forcible in his statements, and carries an audience with his infectious enthusiasm. He is, therefore, broadly attractive, as well as a substantial factor in the practical progress of his state. William T. Hopper is a native of Murray county, Georgia, in which he was born on the 8th of May, 1872, both his grandfather and father being natives of that state. The families afterward migrated to Mountain Home, Arkansas, which was the home of William T. from his sixth to his twenty- sixth year. He obtained a thorough education, and prior to reaching his majority had considerable experience as a teacher in the common schools of Baxter county. He also had the benefit of a course at the Mountain Home College, and prior to his graduation, at the age of twenty-two, was appointed county superintendent of schools—an unusual honor, even for the versatile southerner. But Mr. Hopper early possessed the faculty of attaining popularity, in whatever community he was placed; in common phrase, he was always a "good mixer." This strongly developed faculty, combined with his fine and substantial talents, early brought him into political prominence, and his disposition and family history drew him to the Democracy. In 1896 his party friends easily sent him to the state legislature, although his opponent was a veteran politician, and although he was one of the youngest members of the lower house he served as chairman of the committee on counties and county lines, and as a member of the military committee and the committee on education. His special training made him a power in the last named body, and he became the most prominent member of the legislature in his support of the uniformity of text books for the public schools. He finally formulated a bill, which the committee accepted and which passed the house, known as the Hopper Uniform Textbook bill, but which was killed in the senate through the influence of the school book trust. When Mr. Hopper left Arkansas in 1898, his term as representative had almost expired, and his first location in Oklahoma was at Eufaula, McIntosh county, where he established himself in merchandise. He lost his establishment by fire, however, and in 1900, soon after the misfortune, he removed to Rush Springs and entered upon his present epoch of substantial prosperity. The father of William T. Hopper, John S., was a Georgia merchant and an Arkansas farmer, and died in Baxter county, the latter state, in 1878, at the age of forty years. The paternal grandfather, who accompanied him, also died in that county at the age of eighty-five. He had married a Miss Coffee, a sister of Colonel J. C. Coffee, a prominent business man and citizen of Mountain Home, Arkansas, and ten children were born to their union, of whom John S. was among the younger. The latter was poorly educated, came to mature years among the slave holding aristocracy of the south, and married Sallie E., a daughter of William Thomas, who, with himself, was a soldier of the Confederacy. Mr. Hopper served as orderly sergeant in the Thirty-Fourth Georgia Regiment until the surrender of Vicksburg, when he was promoted to a captaincy and assigned to a company engaged in the apprehension of deserters, being soon afterward paroled. He died soon after going to Arkansas. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. John S. Hopper were: Rachel E., wife of M. N. Stephens, of Eden, Texas; James C., a resident of Arkansas; Lola, wife of W. H. Knight, also living in that state; Kate, now Mrs. T. S. Duncan, of Tillman county, Oklahoma; (Miss) Johnnie and William T., both of Rush Springs, Oklahoma. On the 24th of December, 1903, William T. Hopper married Miss May Chrisman, daughter of H. C. Chrisman, who had come to Rush Springs from Blum, Texas, as principal of the Rush Springs public schools. Mrs. Hopper was a native of the Lone Star state, and died in Rush Springs on the 3rd of October, 1905, leaving a son, Harold Chrisman Hopper. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Return to Grady County Archives: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/grady/grady.html