Schopp, Philip.

Philip Schopp, the assumed creator of this remarkable notebook, was born in Bavaria, Germany in 1828, following involvement with the German Revolution of 1848-1849, immigrated to the United States in 1850. He was employed as a draftsman and civil engineer in Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania for a number of years. Under the direction of James F. Smith, Chief Engineer, Schopp, as an assistant engineer, made maps of the lands and works of the Schuylkill Navigation Co. located in Schuylkill and Berks Counties from Port Carbon to Philadelphia. Asa Packer, founder of Lehigh University, was a prominent promoter of the Schuylkill Navigation Co. for transporting coal from the anthracite regions of Schuylkill and Carbon Counties to Philadelphia markets. Most of the excellent drawings in the notebook are of structures located in the Schuylkill Navigation Co. system including the Girard Canal (the longest canal in the system at 22 miles) and its connection with the Union Canal. The Union Canal began in Middletown, PA connected the Susquehanna River by way of the Schuylkill Navigation system and its many smaller canals to Philadelphia, PA and the Delaware River. Pennsylvania's main rivers flow north to south so the canal system primarily was east to west to connect the major rivers of the state.

With the event of the War Between the States, Philip Schopp very early in August 1861 recruited a company of German speaking soldiers primarily from Philadelphia who had seen previous military service in the armies of the European states. This group eventually became Company D of the Seventy-fifth Pennsylvania Volunteers Regiment under Colonel Henry Bohlen, also German speaking, from Philadelphia. Schopp was made a captain of Company D August 27, 1861. This regiment was especially well disciplined and proficient in drills under the direction of Colonel Bohlen. In September 1861 the regiment moved from Philadelphia to Washington and participated in skirmishes in western Virginia crossing the Shenendoah River in skirmishes. In April 1862 Bohlen was promoted to General but was killed August 22, 1862 at Freeman's Ford, VA. Schopp, his assistant adjutant-general, was promoted to Colonel September 14, 1862. He was made Assistant Adjutant-General of the Volunteers November 7, 1862 leading them during Pope's campaign of Northern Virginia.

Following the war Schopp returned to his profession as draftsman and civil engineer at the Schuylkill Navigation Co. but by July 1867 had moved west employed by Major General Godfrey Weitzel of the Corps of Engineers. Weitzel, a Cincinnati German of brutal honesty, employed Schopp, as a chief draftsman to survey the Falls of the Ohio project, an ongoing project of the Corps of Engineers, to expand the Louisville and Portland Canal system. In the Schopp notebook is illustrated an iron draw bridge across a Louisville Portland Canal Lock and locks on the Monongahela River. In June 1874, the U.S. government took over the Louisville and Portland Canal. When General Weitzel was ordered to move to Michigan to work on the St. Mary's Falls Canal, he appointed his assistant, Col. Philip Schopp, as superintendent of the Louisville and Portland Canal. In 1879 Schopp was assigned full responsibility of the Louisville and Portland Canal. A political imbroglio involving workers' complaints against Schopp because he complained about their laziness caused Schopp to be dismissed from the superintendent position. The Chief of Engineers ordered Col. William E. Merrill of the Corps of Engineers Cincinnati District to investigate the charges and Schopp was exonerated. By early 1886, Merrill employed Schopp in the Cincinnati Engineer Office. Schopp was a member of the U.S. Surveying Corps.

Colonel Schopp married Hildegard Koebelin of Greenville, Ohio on April 15, 1891. In 1893 he died and was buried in Greenville, Ohio with full military honors. He is variously listed as Philip J., Philip Jacob, Philip T. Schopp or Schoop. Philip Jacob Schopp is listed in the 1860 census living in Reading, Pa. His military records list his name as Philip T. or Philip I. also as Schoop. Schopp is listed in the official catalog of the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia for submitting a pneumatic screw ventilator and gave an address in Louisville, Kentucky. The 1880 census records indicate Schopp in Louisville as a civil engineer.

From the description of Scizzen, i.e. Skizzen, i.e. Sketches, attributed to Philip Schopp (1828-1893). 1828-1893. (Lehigh University Libraries). WorldCat record id: 471359520