Chambers County AlGenWeb - Photographs
************************************************
Copyright. All rights reserved.
http://theusgenweb.org/al/chambers/
************************************************
Johnson Jones Hooper 1815 - 1862
Biography Listed Below Photo
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 Tallopoosa 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.
Contributed by Don Clark Jun 2004 http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00014.html#0003384
Back to Chambers County AlGenweb