Jake Hopp
In the newspaper office Mr. Hopp in his ink-spotted apron spread the sample cards on the
counter for them to see... It was so hard to
choose among them that finally Mr. Hopp said,
"Well, take your time. I'll go on getting out the
paper." – Little Town on the Prairie
Jacob Willson Hopp was born in Clayton County, Iowa, on January 13, 1858, the son of John and Sara Hopp. Jake was the middle of five brothers, three of whom apprenticed as printers. In 1879, Jake's brother George followed the railroad to the new town of Brookings, Dakota Territory, where he began publication of the Brookings Press. Jake settled in De Smet (Kingsbury County) Dakota Territory in 1880 and set up shop as a printer. Brother Henry filed on a claim near De Smet, and brother Thomas lived at Lake Preston and worked on the Lake Preston Times.
Laura Ingalls Wilder first mentioned Mr. Hopp in
Little Town on the Prairie, Chapter 16,
"Name Cards," writing that Laura accompanied
Minnie Johnson to the printing office to pick out
personalized name (calling) cards. Later, Laura purchased
her own name cards from Mr. Hopp as well. George Hopp
began the De Smet News, soon taken over by
Jake, who published the weekly newspaper
until the summer of 1884. Following the sale of
his interest in the newspaper, Jake entered into
the furniture business with Charles Tinkham. Two
years later, Jake bought back the newspaper and
returned to the printing business.
June 11, 1883, Jake Hopp married Susie Power, older sister of "Little House"® character Mary Power. Two years earlier, Jake and Susie had filed on adjoining claims southwest of De Smet; a portion of Jake's preemption claim on the NW 4-110-56 is where the De Smet Cemetery is located, and Susie's homestead claim was the SW Section 5. Their marriage announcement in the De Smet News read:
Jake has done
it now. We mean Jake Hopp, our brother
of the News. No longer can we condole
with each other upon the hard fate that kept us in dreary loneliness, for he
has escaped and we are left. On
Thursday last he departed this life and entered the state of matrimony, in
company with Miss Susie Power, of De Smet. The event occurred at Kasson, Minn.
Goodbye Jake. May your shadow
never grow less.
Around 1890, Jake and Susie Hopp moved to Genesee (Latah County) Idaho, where Jake and his brother-in-law Charley Power published the Genesee News and ran a printing office. In the early 1900s, Jake and Susie moved to Sumas, Washington, then to Bellingham (Whatcom County) Washington; they were later joined there by Mary and Edwin Sanford. For many years, the Sanford and Hopp families lived next door to each other on Chestnut Street. In Bellingham, Jake was very active in local politics although he never held public office. He ran a company which manufactured concrete pipe used in construction.
Susie Hopp died in July 1907; she and Jake had no children. In 1910, Jake married Alice Leitch. On a 1926 car trip to California, Jake became ill and died unexpectedly. Jake and Susie Hopp are buried in Bayview Cemetery in Bellingham. Alice Hopp died in 1932; her body was sent to her former home in Illinois for burial.
