Samuel Hooper (February 3, 1808 – February 14, 1875) was a businessman and member of Congress from

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

Early life

Hooper was born in

Marblehead, Massachusetts Marblehead is a coastal New England town in Essex County, Massachusetts, along the North Shore. Its population was 20,441 at the 2020 census. The town lies on a small peninsula that extends into the northern part of Massachusetts Bay. Attache ...

. His father, Robert Hooper, was a shipping merchant and later served as president of the Grand Bank of Marblehead. After a common school education, Hooper traveled aboard his father's shipping vessels as

supercargo A supercargo (from Spanish ''sobrecargo'') is a person employed on board a vessel by the owner of cargo carried on the ship. The duties of a supercargo are defined by admiralty law and include managing the cargo owner's trade, selling the merchand ...

. He is known to have visited Cuba, Russia, and Spain. In 1832 Hooper married Ann Sturgis, daughter of

William Sturgis William Sturgis (February 25, 1782 – October 21, 1863) was a Boston merchant in the China trade, the California hide trade and the maritime fur trade. Early life Sturgis was born in Barnstable, Massachusetts, to Hannah Mills and William ...

, and he became a junior partner in the Boston firm of Bryant and Sturgis, merchants in the

California hide trade The California hide trade was a trading system of various products based in cities along the California coastline, operating from the early 1820s to the mid-1840s. In exchange for hides and tallow from cattle owned by California ranchers, sailors ...

, trade with the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Tho ...

, and trade with China.

Business career

In 1841, Hooper partnered with

counting house A counting house, or counting room, was traditionally an office in which the financial books of a business were kept. It was also the place that the business received appointments and correspondence relating to demands for payment. As the use of ...

owner and merchant shipper William Appleton to form William Appleton and Company. Soon the firm was engaged in the California hide trade, trade with the Pacific Northwest, and trade with China. The firm acquired additional partners in 1851 when Appleton joined the Massachusetts congressional delegation. In 1859, Appleton retired from William Appleton and Company. Hooper reorganized the firm with partner Franklin Gordon Dexter, and they adopted the name Samuel Hooper and Company. The firm continued operations after Hooper's death.

Political career

Hooper was elected to the

Massachusetts House of Representatives The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into single-member ...

, serving from 1851 to 1853. He later served in the

Massachusetts Senate The Massachusetts Senate is the upper house of the Massachusetts General Court, the bicameral state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Senate comprises 40 elected members from 40 single-member senatorial districts in the st ...

in 1858. Upon the resignation of his friend and former partner, Congressman William Appleton from the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

, Hooper was elected to fill the seat, representing Massachusetts's fifth district in the

37th Congress The 37th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1861, ...

. He was reelected to the following six congresses representing Massachusetts's fourth district and served as chairman of the

Committee on Ways and Means The Committee on Ways and Means is the chief tax-writing committee of the United States House of Representatives. The committee has jurisdiction over all taxation, tariffs, and other revenue-raising measures, as well as a number of other program ...

1869 to 1871, of the Committee on Banking and Currency from 1871 to 1873 and of the Committee on Coinage, Weights and Measures from 1871 to 1875. From 1861 to 1862, his home in Washington D.C. was the headquarters of General

George B. McClellan George Brinton McClellan (December 3, 1826 – October 29, 1885) was an American soldier, Civil War Union general, civil engineer, railroad executive, and politician who served as the 24th governor of New Jersey. A graduate of West Point, McCl ...

. In 1866, he was a delegate to the Philadelphia Loyalists' Convention. He turned down reelection to the 44th Congress and died less than a month before completion of his final term. He was interred in Oak Hill Cemetery in 1875. Hooper was briefly the father-in-law of

Charles Sumner Charles Sumner (January 6, 1811March 11, 1874) was an American statesman and United States Senator from Massachusetts. As an academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the anti-slavery forces in the state and a leader of th ...

, a powerful senator from Massachusetts. Sumner had married Hooper's widowed daughter-in law, Alice Mason Hooper, but they divorced after a short marriage.

Philanthropy

In 1865 Hooper founded the Hooper School of Mining and Practical Geology at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

with an endowment of $50,000. The gift also established the Sturgis Hooper Professorship in Geology. Named in honor of Hooper's deceased son Sturgis, the professorship received an additional endowment of $30,000 from Hooper's widow in 1881. The city of

Hooper, Nebraska Hooper is a city in Dodge County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 830 at the 2010 census. History Hooper got its start in the year 1871, following construction of the Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley Railroad through the territo ...

, is named after him.
1925 edition
is available for download a
University of Nebraska—Lincoln Digital Commons.
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Publications

Currency or money: its nature and uses and the effects of the circulation of bank-notes for currency (1855)

An Examination of the Theory and the Effect of Laws Regulating the Amount of Specie in Banks (1860)

A defence of the merchants of Boston against aspersions of the Hon. John Z. Goodrich, ex-collector of customs (1866)

References

External links

* * . Manuscript Division,

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

, Washington, D.C. , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Hooper, Samuel 1808 births 1875 deaths 19th-century American politicians Burials at Oak Hill Cemetery (Washington, D.C.) Harvard University people Republican Party Massachusetts state senators Massachusetts Unionists Republican Party members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives People from Marblehead, Massachusetts Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts