I have just returned from a 5-day trip to Santa Barbara and Fresno. I had my 2007 Antelope Valley Fair entries printed in Santa Barbara and spent some time hanging out with my good friend and likely future business partner/employer, Rachel Gomez. I’m placing 11 entries in the professional category this year. All but one were printed on an Epson 4800 inkjet printer at Brooks Institute of Photography. The remaining one, I wet-printed myself in the darkroom at Antelope Valley College. I’ll post the images I’ve entered once the Fair is over. If you want to see what I’ve entered before then, you’re just gonna have to haul your ass almost all the way to Kern County to find out.
Fresno was quite interesting this time around. On Thursday, my grandmother moved into the retirement community her two sisters have lived in the last several years. In fact, her apartment is right around the corner from her younger sister’s. Anyway, my father and aunts were busy clearing out the house my grandparents bought in 1951. I had noticed this book in the bookcase by the front door years ago, but hadn’t really looked through it until this weekend, and now it’s mine because no one else really had much interest. The book is The Crisis of Faith by Stanley Romaine Hopper. And yes, there is a relation. Stanley Romaine Hopper is my great-grandfather’s younger half-brother, making him my great-great-half-uncle (or, as my maternal grandfather, a horse trader, would say, “not related”). The dust jacket contained some information that I never knew, such as the S.T.B. degree S. R. Hopper received from Boston University before spending a year at Harvard. This, in turn, took me on a googlequest through this wonderful series of tubes. One of the more recent and interesting webpages that discusses his work is a paper on The Society for the Arts, Religion, and Contemporary Culture website.
I also came across the Hopper Family Home Page, which enabled me to trace my lineage all the way back to my great-great-great-great-grandfather, Robert Hopper, born in Ireland around 1770. That website makes some interesting claims that cannot be verified, specifically, that Robert Hopper (and therefore myself as well) was directly descended from Mary, Queen of Scots, or Queen Anne, and that there were other relations to various Irish, Scottish, and English nobility with the name of Hopper and/or Happer. What can be verified is that he was a Private in the U.S. Army during the War of 1812 and died from his wounds at the end of that year. Much more verifiable information is available about my great-great-grandfather, Captain Sam. Samuel Duff Hopper was the 7th of 9 children. He was wounded at the 1st Battle of Fort Wagner, the battle depicted at the end of the 1989 film, Glory (though he was with a regiment from Ohio, not Massachusetts). After the Civil War, he briefly owned some kind of store in Kearney, Nebraska (where a significant portion of my mother’s side of the family is from). My great-grandfather, Bernal Merza Hopper, was his 2nd child. His 5th child was the painter, Shirley Marie Russell, and his 6th child was Dr. Stanley Romaine Hopper. Oh, and there is no Edward Hopper or Dennis Hopper in the master list of individuals on that site, so if I am related to either the famous painter or actor, it’s not at all a close relation.
It seems I’ve broken some kind of family tradition by not joining the Army. My grandfather was in the Army, his grandfather was in the Army, and his grandfather before him was also in the Army. Of course, the intensity of the family service has been winding down, like Sigourney Weaver’s hair in the first 3 Alien movies. My great-great-great-great-grandfather died from his wounds in the Army. My great-great-grandfather was wounded in combat, but lived for several more decades. My grandfather… I don’t think he was ever in combat.
The family line, according to The Hopper Family Home Page entry on Robert Hopper:
Robert Hopper (1770-1812), married to Jane Duff
i. William W. Hopper (1790-1862)
ii. Samuel Hopper (1792-1831)
iii. Martha Hopper (1794-unknown)
iv. Polly Hopper (1795-unknown)
v. Robert Hopper (1797-1879)
vi. Jane Hopper (1800-unknown)
vii. John Hopper (1802-1886)
viii. James Hopper (1804-1865)
ix. Betsy Hopper (1806-1872)
x. Mary Hopper (1807-unknown)
William W. Hopper (1790-1862) married to Phoebe Lewis
i. Jane Elizabeth Hopper (1825-1907)
ii. Robert Washington Hopper (1829-1924).
iii. Ellen Eliza Hopper (1831-1907)
iv. Mary Catherine Hopper (1832-1864)
v. James Lewis Hopper (1834-1862)
vi. William Waters Hopper (1836-1926)
vii. Samuel Duff Hopper (1838-1934)
viii. John Wesley Hopper (1841-1864)
ix. Phoebe Annie Hopper (1844-1921)
Samuel Duff Hopper (1838-1934) married to Rachel Lucinda Foster
i. Leona May Hopper (1871-1969)
ii. Bernal Merza Hopper (1878-1949)
iii. Maximilian Duff Hopper (1880-1978)
iv. Zulema Ellen Hopper (1882-1959)
v. Shirley Ximena Hopper (1886-1985)
Samuel Duff Hopper (1838-1934) married to Rachel D. (Emma) Foster
i. Stanley Romaine Hopper (1907-1991)
Bernal Merza Hopper (1878-1949) married to Bessie Wells
i. Morris Hopper (1905-1969)
ii. Wallace Hopper (1907-2002)
iii. Rowland Wells Hopper (1911-2006)
Rowland Wells Hopper (1911-2006) married to Sarah ———-
i. Neil Hopper (1945-present)
ii. Janet Hopper (1946-present)
iii. Lynne Hopper (1950-present)
Neil Hopper (1945-present) married to Judith ——-
i. Daisy Hopper (1977-present)
ii. Damian Hopper (1980-present)
