LIFE OF DR. W. H. HOPSON
CHAPTER I.
Dr. Hopson's Birth.—Parentage.—His Father's Removal to Missouri.—From there to Arkansas.—His Being Sent to Carrollton, Ill., to School.—Bro. Henderson's Letter.—His Change to Jacksonville—Home in Father Stone's Family.—Attends Bonne Femme College, in Boone County.
Dr. Winthrop Hartly Hopson was born near Garrettsburg,
Christian county, Kentucky, April 26, 1823. His maternal grandfather moved
from North Carolina, in an early day, and located four miles from
Hopkinsville, on a farm.
In a short time he was elected County and Circuit Clerk, and removed with
his family to Hopkinsville, where he acted in that capacity for many
years.
In politics he was a staunch Democrat; in religion, a
moralist, believing that an honest man was the noblest work of God. He
aimed to obey the Golden Rule, as he understood it, and was just and
upright. in all his dealings with his fellow-men. He lived and died out of
the church.
He was three times married. His first wife was Elizabeth
Elliott, of North Carolina. Of this marriage, five daughters and four sons
were born. After the death of
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his first wife, he married the widow Samuels, who had one daughter, Kitty,
by her first marriage. The result of this union was two daughters, Malvina
and Lucretia; the latter was burned to death. His second wife (lid not
live long, and he married, the third time, Mrs. Read, a widow with two
children. By this union he had five sons and two daughters. 'The sum total
of his family was nineteen children. This was a large-sized family for a
new country. He left Hopkinsville in December, 1825, and moved to Callaway
county, Missouri, and settled on a farm eight miles from Fulton, on the
edge of Nine Mile Prairie, where he lived till his death, in 1831. All of
his children, except the one burned, lived to be grown men and women, and
all married but two.
Col. Joseph Hopson, Dr. Hopson's paternal grandfather, moved
from Henry county, Virginia, in the year 1811, to Christian county,
Kentucky. His wife was Miss Sally Boyd, of Virginia, of a wealthy and
influential family. Their children were George, Morgan, Samuel, Joshua,
Henry, and Mildred.
Dr. Samuel Hopson, the third son, was the father of Winthrop
H. Hopson, the subject of these memoirs.
The family were Episcopalians in Virginia, but there being no
church of that belief in Christian county, they united with the Methodist
Church, in which church Col. Hopson died.
Sally J. Clark was the fourth child of Capt. John Clark, and
was born in Hopkinsville, August 23, 1802. She availed herself of the
limited advantages offered for procuring an education, and was a good
English scholar for that time.
In 1818, when only sixteen years of age, she married Dr. Samuel Hopson, son of Joseph Hopson, and moved
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to the country, near Garrettsburg. While living there, two children were born to them, Charles Bingley and Winthrop Hartly, the subject of these memoirs. There was one other brother born afterward, Joseph John, who died young.
Before Winthrop was two years old, his father removed to Montgomery county, Missouri. The trip was at that day an arduous one. In 1825 there were no railroads leading from city to city, giving easy transit for men and goods, but the trip had to be made in wagons overland. Dr. Hopson placed his household goods and servants in good, substantial covered wagons, while he and his wife made nearly all the trip on horseback, Mrs. Hopson carrying Winthrop in her lap.
She had a delightful riding horse, and has often described the trip to me, and told how much she enjoyed it. They camped out at night, having their provisions and cooking utensils with them, so that they were independent of hotels, even if there had been many on the road.
Dr. Hopson did not like his first location, and in about a
year he moved to Callaway county, and settled on Heel String, a creek
seven miles from Fulton. He lost two servants there, sold his farm to Mr.
Yates and moved into Fulton. While living in Fulton, he attended lectures
in the medical college of Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky,
when it was in its prime. I have a letter mother wrote him while there.
After writing of home life and business, she says : " Winthrop is three
years old to-day, and knows all his letters."
His elder brother, Charles, died at four years of age. His
younger brother, Joseph, lived to be seven years old, when he too passed
away, leaving Winthrop the only child.
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He often says-he wonders he was not a spoiled child. The reason was that his father was a rigid disciplinarian, and a stern man, and his mother was a conscientious Christian woman, deeply pious and unusually intelligent in the Scriptures. Dr. Hopson has often said that all of good in him is due to that mother's influence and prayers.
In the year 1833 his father moved South, and while they were camping on the Ozark Mountains, the Doctor witnessed that wonderful meteoric shower of November 13th. -He said it was the grandest sight he ever saw; the heavens seemed on fire, and the tall, sombre pine forest was ablaze with stars. He only remained a year in the South, when his father sent him to school in Carrollton, Illinois, to Mr. Hinton, a Presbyterian minister of prominence, and widely known as an educator. He remained there two year, boarding in Mr. Hinton's family.
While there, his father moved back to Fulton, finding the climate of the South did not agree with him or his family. Winthrop made them a. visit while at Carrollton. He went on horseback, and alone, from there to Fulton, Missouri. He reached home safely, with many adventures to relate.
From Carrollton he was sent to Jacksonville. I am indebted to
Bro. D. P. Henderson for the following information in regard to that
period of his life
"CANTON, Mo., Feb. 11, 1887.
"Dear Sister Hopson:-I can only say, in answer to questions.
you propound, that Dr. Hopson, your husband, was the inmate of Barton W.
Stone's family when I first became acquainted with him. He was a student
in the Illinois College, attended the' meetings held by the members of the
Church of Christ in Jacksonville, became interested, and publicly made
confession of his faith in Christ, and was immersed and united with the
church August 1, 1836. Bro. S. S. Church and Bro. Hopson were both
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immersed. I think that Bro. Hopson was baptized before Bro.. Church. He was about fourteen years old at this time."
Bro. Henderson baptized both Bro. Church and Dr. Hopson, he being the baptist of the church, elected to that office by the church.
Winthrop remained in Jacksonville nearly two years, when, on account of the excitement growing out of political troubles, culminating in the destruction of the press and office of Lovejoy & Co.-in Alton, I think-his father sent' for him to return home. He was at once placed at Bonne Femme College, near Columbia, Boone county. While there, he boarded in the family of Bro. Austin Bradford, where he was under constant religious influence.
Elder T. M. Allen lived in the neighborhood, and became the warm friend of and model man for the young student. Time cemented the friendship, which lasted during the long life of that man of God.
It was during this formative period of his character that he was under the teaching and influence of such men of power anti piety as B. W. Stone, T. M. Allen, Joel Hayden, Jacob and Joseph Coons, Francis Palmer, Marcus Mills, Absalom Rice, Wm. Davis, and Bro. Douglass. In Missouri these men were the pioneers of and co-workers in the grandest reformation since the days of the apostles. The reformation of Luther took the church from creed to creed. The reformation preached by these men -of God took men from human creeds and dogmas to the Bible.
Having grown to manhood under such teaching as fell from the lips of these men, is it any wonder that he became the stern and uncompromising advocate of truth which he has always been ?
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