Hoopes, Joseph

Joseph Hoopes was born to John and Lydia Hoopes in New Brighton, Pennsylvania and served in the United States Navy during the Civil War. Hoopes joined the navy as a Third Assistant Engineer on September 16, 1862 and was assigned to the USS Passaic. His ship was sent to Charleston, South Carolina along with the USS Monitor, which was lost in bad weather off of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. He remained on the USS Passaic until he was transferred in April 1865 to the USS Kearsarge, which had destroyed the CSS Alabama, a Confederate raider, on June 19, 1864. After the Civil War, the US Navy sent the USS Kearsarge to Africa, where Hoopes contracted yellow fever and died in March 1866. While he was buried at sea, a monument was installed at Grove Cemetery in New Brighton. (By Don Sailer)