Randolph  County,  Indiana

Jesse  L. Hoppes


            The office of biography is not to give voice to a man's modest estimate of himself and his accomplishments, but rather to leave upon the record the verdict establishing his character by the consensus of opinion on the part of his neighbors and fellow citizens. The life of Jesse L. Hoppes, who, although yet young in years, is one of the leading business men of Farmland, Randolph county, where he owns and conducts a well appointed and modern drug store, has been such as to elicit just praise from those who know him best, owing to the fact he has always been loyal to the trusts reposed in him and has been upright in his dealings with his fellow-men, at the same time lending his support to the advancement of any cause looking to the welfare of the community at large.
            Mr. Hoppes was born in Jay county, Indiana, January 22, 1881. He is a son of Sylvester and Emaline (Daugherty) Hoppes, whose family consisted of five children, namely: James P., a farmer near Redkey, Indiana, married Molly Jenkins, of the same neighborhood, and they have one child, Mabel; John O., of Traverse City, Michigan, is employed at the asylum there; he married Ida Cates, of Wayne City; Anna Belle, who lives near Redkey, married Neil Carter, a farmer, and they have one child, Lucy Belle; William O., a druggist at Redkey, married Della Meanda, which union has been without issue; Jesse L., subject of this sketch, is the youngest.
            Sylvester Hoppes is a native of Ohio, and when a youth he moved with the family from Fayette county, that state to near Redkey, Jay county, Indiana, where our subject's Grandfather Hoppes settled in pioneer days, and there his son Sylvester grew to manhood and took up farming, which he always followed. The Hoppes family is of German descent. The parents of the mother of our subject moved from Ohio to the vicinity of Redkey when she was a small child, and there established their permanent home. It was in that vicinity that the parents of our subject were married and began housekeeping; they are both still living
            Jesse L. Hoppes grew to manhood on the home farm and he received excellent educational advantages, having passed through the public schools at Redkey, then the Marion Normal and subsequently Purdue University at Lafayette, Indiana, where he made an excellent record and from which he was graduated with the class of 1908. He took a course in pharmacy and received his degree in the same.
            Mr. Hoppes was married September 20, 1905 to Florence Bell Swhier, a daughter of G. W. Swhier, a retired farmer, whose family consists of eight children, all surviving at this writing. To our subject and wife one child has been born, Marjorie May, whose birth occurred on October 22, 1909. Mrs. Hoppes is also well educated, having been graduated from the Purdue University.
            Mr. Hoppes went to Marion, Indiana, as a drug clerk, and he later came to Farmland where he clerked a year in a drug store, then bought a fourth interest in the Bly Botkin Drug Company, whereupon he assumed management of the same. A year later he purchased the entire business, which he has conducted to the present time with great success, enjoying one of the largest trades of any drug store in the county, and carrying an extensive and carefully selected stock of drugs and drug sundries. His store is neat and well kept, one of the best in every way in this locality, in fact, would be a credit to a city much larger than Farmland. Mr. Hoppes understands every phase of the business and honesty, carefulness and promptness as well as unfailing courtesy are his watchwords.
            Politically, he is a Democrat, and fraternally, is a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Masonic order. He attends the Christian church. His maternal grandfather Daugherty was a minister in the Methodist church.
            Personally, Mr. Hoppes is a gentleman of pleasing address who makes and retains friends easily.
Past and Present of Randolph County, Indiana, 1914.
Contributed by Gina Richardson

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