William Hooper was born April 29, 1832 in Harrowbarrow, Cornwall,
England.
He was the son of John Hooper and Susan Rickard of Harrowbarrow,
Cornwall, England.
William Hooper died August 7, 1902 in Ticonderoga, New York, USA.
and is buried at Mt Hope Cemetery, Ticonderoga, New York. William
was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
William Hooper arrived in New York, April 5, 1854 on the ship
“William Tapscott”.
He was 22 years old and had about 10 pounds in his pockets. His
first employment was with John Patterson, Middletown, Connecticut .
He helped with the erection of the Baldwin plane factory. After this
was completed he was then employed by the Chatham Cobalt & Nickel
Mining Company. He supervised the erection of their mining, pumping
and hoisting machines. He worked at Chatham Cobalt & Nickel Mining
Company about 2 years.
In August of 1854 his wife to-be, Jane Ann Hoskins, arrived in New
York in the company of her father, James Hoskins. Jane’s mother
Elizabeth Hancock Hoskins remained at home in Calstock, England.
Jane and her father arrived August 16, 1854 in New York on the ship
“Sheridan”. Jane was 18 years old at the time. Jane Ann Hoskins and
her father, James Hoskins, made their way to Middletown,
Connecticut. William and Jane were married August 18, 1854 in
Middletown, Connecticut by Pastor Lester Lewis of the First Baptist
Church of Middletown as per William Hooper’s Family Bible.
In June 1856, William and his wife, Jane Ann and infant son, James
Hooper returned to England. William and family remained there less
than a year as his son, James, was sick the whole time .William
worked at the Wheal Tonkin Tin Works, he assisted in the erection of
a large engine at the plant. He also worked nearby putting in
operation an overshot water-wheel and stamp mill which he had
erected when he was almost eighteen years old.
William and family returned to the USA in 1857. He worked in
Hartford, Connecticut for a short time, putting hoisting machinery
in a large wholesale store. The Chatham Cobalt & Nickel Mining
Company asked him to return to his old position and he remained
there for two years until the company closed.
He worked again for John Patterson for a very short time. His next
employment was with the Passaic Copper Mining Company near Newark,
New Jersey to erect their works. The Hunterdon Copper Mining Company
wanted to hire him, so the Passaic Copper Mining Company loaned him
to the Hunterdon Company. William had both of these works
successfully running until the Civil War broke out in 1861. The
works were temporarily suspended but the Passaic Copper Mining
Company continued to pay William his salary to ensure that he would
be there when the works started up again.
After a few months, however, William could not stand being
unemployed. So he went to Warren, New Hampshire to help his
brother-in-law, Samuel Truscott on works at the silver and lead mine
owned by Mr. Baldwin of Boston. The works had been built from his
plans. He worked there for two years. Then he and his brother-in-law
were going to join together at Bath, New Hampshire to erect a
concentrating mill for a copper mine. But at the same time he got an
offer to go and erect and take charge of crushing and concentrating
works for the French Creek Copper Mining Company. He also got an
offer from Horace Trumbull of the Passaic Zinc Works, New Jersey to
come to Ticonderoga, New York to work with the American Graphite
Company. He was assured by R. H. Manning, President of the company
that if the Ticonderoga enterprise failed he would still have a
place at the zinc mine.
In May of 1863, William came to Ticonderoga to erect the graphite
works.
Joseph Dixon and Orestes Cleveland of The Dixon Ticonderoga Company
were the first to mechanize pencil manufacturing: William Hooper, on
behalf of American Graphite Company, devised the machinery that gave
America its first graphite ore concentrating process.
In the History of Essex County, New York edited by H.P.
Smith, published in 1885 - on page 403, the following is said of
William Hooper of Ticonderoga, New York:
“William Hooper is a man of experience in the handling of minerals
and ores. Under his supervision a large factory was built, put in
operation, new processes of working the ore adopted, their principal
features being the result of Mr. Hooper’s experience or inventive
genius, and a very large business built up.”
“The Hooper Concentrator, this machine combines the panning and
sluicing processes, long acknowledged to be the only true practical
principal for concentrating ores, etc”
“In Mar of 1884, the contract to sell Hooper’s ore separator on this
continent was purchased by New York parties who have been associated
with Wall Bros, one of the largest glue manufacturers of Chicago and
they had a large mining interest in the west.
Mr. Hooper’s machine is so far superior to anything else they had
ever seen that they purchased the exclusive right to sell it in
Colorado.” (Ticonderoga Sentinel newspaper Mar 21, 1884)
William Hooper had the capacity to understand the character of all
the various ores and was successful in manipulating them to produce
the best results. He also had the ability to supervise and to top it
all off. William was an inventor; he held 13 USA patents for ore
dressing and mining operations. He was the inventor of the revolving
central discharge jig, In 1870, he patented his slimmer and
concentrator. The machine was used in Colorado, Utah and Mexico. The
machine was made in Ticonderoga, New York.
In the 1880’s, William was superintendent of the American Graphite
Company, Ticonderoga.. Her was also the owner of a foundry, machine
shop and hardware store in Ticonderoga. Mr. D. C. Bascom was his
partner in the hardware store. The foundries of William Hooper & Co.
made a speciality in the manufacture of Hooper’s ore washers,
crushers and other mining and mill machinery. It is said of the
foundries that they used the best materials and that their style and
durability of workmanship were unsurpassed.
William and Jane Ann Hooper had 8 children.
James R. Hooper born 1855 died 1871
Ellen Jane Hooper born June 18, 1857
Jessie Maude Hooper born Oct 3, 1858 died Feb 23,1881
Albert William Hooper born 1860 died 1878
George Henry Hooper born Mar 30, 1862 died Sept 1,1948
Anne Elizabeth Hooper born 1863 died 1864
Frank Cyrus Hooper born Sept 3, 1867 died 1954
Minnie Hooper, born Oct 13,1870 died 1948
Jan 16, 1872, Jane Ann Hoskins Hooper died . Two years later,
William married Lucy Dryer. William and Lucy had no children.
William Hooper became a naturalized citizen of the United States of
America, Oct 3 1876
William Hooper’s USA patents:
1. Patent # 101132
Issue date: March 22,1870
Improved ore-separator
2. Patent # 112919
Issue date: Mar 21,1871
Improvement in ore-separators
3. Patent # 139390
Filing date: Jan 21,1873
Issue date: May 27,1873
Improvement in ore-washers
4. Patent # 184378
Issue date: Nov 14,1876
Improvement in aprons for wet-ore separators
5. Patent # 190326
Filing date: Oct 27,1876
Issue date: May 1,1877
Improvement in apparatus for crushing, grinding and separating ore
6. Patent # 190323
Issue date: May 1,1877
Improvement in wet-ore separators
7. Patent # 196455
Issue date: Oct 23,1877
Improvement in dust-traps for ore-separators
8. Patent # RE9894
Issue date: Oct 18,1881
William Hooper, of Ticonderoga ,N.Y. assignor, by Mesne assignments
to Elias C. Benedict, Henry M. Benedict and Gurdon Conkling,
trustees for the Union Ore Concentrator Company
Jig for separating ore
9. Patent # 337683
Filing date: Aug 31,1885
Issue date: Mar 9,1886
Ore-concentrator
10. Patent # 337684
Issue date: Mar 9,1886
Ore-concentrator
11. Patent # 573594
Filing date: Sept 14,1895
Issue date: Dec 22,1896
Machine for jigging ore
12. Patent # 414706
Filing date: May 24,1889
Issued date: Nov 12,1889
Ore-separator
13. Patent # 633456
Filing date: Feb 10,1898
Issue date: Sept 19,1889
Ore-separator
Sources:
William Hooper’s Family Bible
Passenger and Immigration lists
US Federal Censuses
William Hooper’s Obituary, Ticonderoga Sentinel, Aug 7 1902
The History of Essex County, New York. Edited by H.P . Smith
1885
Birth certificates
Death Certificates
USA Patent Office
National Archives and Records Administration.
Gravestones, Mt. Hope Cemetery, Ticonderoga, N.Y.
