Joel Willis Hopkins

Joel, the second son, in his early manhood clerked in his Uncle Thomas Hopkins's general store at Ripley, Ohio, but came with his parents to Illinois and helped make the new home, remaining with them and caring for them in their old age.

JOEL WILLIS HOPKINS was active in the public affairs of his county, state, and nation. No history of Putnam County could be written without taking into account his great influence in molding the character of its people, shaping their policy and promoting their interests in lines of progress, good order, moral, and religious development. At one time he was a member of the State Board of Agriculture. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention at Cincinnati that nominated Hayes for President, a member of the 26th General Assembly, and County Judge. In business he was unusually wise and successful. At the time of his death he was president of the Peru National Bank, the Putnam County Bank, and the Granville Bank, and left a large estate, chiefly in farm lands.

In his character there was an unusual combination of qualities. To the world, the church, his neighbors, and friends, he was a tower of strength; to his family, all of that, and a world of tenderness besides. He was at ease in the presence of the highest dignitaries in the land, and so simple and kind that no one, however humble, ever felt abashed in his presence. At his death it was said of him, "Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel?"