Zophy was born on April 17, 1869, in Schwanden, Glarus, Switzerland. He came to the United States with his parents in 1870 to Juda, Wisconsin (inGreen County), where he attended the public schools in winter and worked on farms in the summer. In 1885 he moved to Milwaukee where he learned the trade of carpentry, worked as a journeyman until 1894, when he engaged in the business of contracting and building which he since followed. He located In West Allis in 1901 before its incorporation as a village and took an active interest In public affairs. He became village trustee in 1903 serving one term.[2] Later he was appointed school commissioner.[3]
He was a member of the state Central Committee of the Social Democratic Party (as the party was still known in Wisconsin) from West Allis in 1910 when he was elected to the Senate (replacing RepublicanGeorge E. Page) with 4,344 votes, to 3,864 for Republican George G. Brew (nominally a Progressive, but suspected of stalwart tendencies)[4] and 3374 for Democrat Benjamin Steinel, and was assigned to the Senate's standing committee on State Affairs.[5]
