Melville R. Hopewell

Melville R. Hopewell
12th Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska
In office January 3, 1907 – May 2, 1911
Governor	George L. Sheldon Ashton C. Shallenberger
Preceded by	Edmund G. McGilton
Succeeded by	John H. Morehead (acting) Samuel Roy McKelvie
Personal details
Born	March 27, 1845 Monroe County, Indiana
Died	May 2, 1911 (1911-05-03) (aged 66) Nebraska
Spouse	Hattie E. Nelson

Melville Reeves Hopewell (March 27, 1845 – May 2, 1911) was a Nebraska lawyer and Republican politician who served as the state's 12th lieutenant governor from 1907 to 1911.

Hopewell was born in Monroe County, Indiana, in 1845, and moved to Collin County, Texas, with his parents in 1851. After his mother died in 1854, the family returned to Indiana, where his father remarried, and then moved to Kansas, followed by Gentry County, Missouri. Hopewell served in the Missouri Mounted Militia from 1863 to 1864. He graduated from Indiana Asbury University in 1869, was admitted to the bar in Indiana, then moved to Tekamah, Nebraska, in 1870. He founded the first bank in Burt County, Nebraska, in 1873. In 1887, Nebraska Governor Thayer appointed Hopewell as a district judge, which he served as until 1896, at which point he resumed his practice of law.^[1]

In 1906, Hopewell was elected as lieutenant governor. He served from January 1907 until he died in office on May 2, 1911.^[2][3]

References

1. Morton, J. Sterling et al. Illustrated History of Nebraska, Vol. 2, p. 394-96 (1906)
2. Psi Phi Founders - Melville Reeves Hopewell, godeke.org, Retrieved July 18, 2012
3. (23 August 1906). Republicans of Nebraska, Warsaw Daily Times

Political offices
Preceded by Edmund G. McGilton	Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska 1907-May 2, 1911	Succeeded by Samuel Roy McKelvie