Thomas Henry Hopkins

HOPKINS, JONES, KERR, SPRUANCE, STAFFORD

Posted By: Jean Wenke, volunteer
Date: 2/20/2009 at 18:09:05

Thomas Henry Hopkins was born in Millsboro, Delaware, Dec. 24, 1822, and died at Bonaparte, Iowa, July 25, 1901. His parents died when he was quite small, leaving with him one half-brother. At the age of seven he removed with an uncle to Mechanicsburg, Ohio, where he lived until a young man, when he went to Baltimore, Maryland to learn the shoemaker's trade. Completing this, he returned to Mechanicsburg and was married to Miss Hannah P. Jones October 28, 1848.

They moved shortly afterward to Bonaparte, Iowa, where with the exception of five years, they resided until their death. Their children were Mrs. Fidelia Kerr, Mrs. Josephine Spruance, Mrs. Ida M. Stafford, Thomas H. and Charles B. Hopkins. The eldest son died in infancy and the third daughter, Henrietta, died in August, 1869.

Mr. Hopkins was engaged continuously in the boot and shoe business for forty-three years; he was known as the veteran shoe merchant of Bonaparte. In March, 1897, he sold his stock to George Mattern and Louis Saar of Donnellson, Iowa.

He was depty sheriff of Van Buren county in 1854, was also a member of the Board of Supervisors in 1868-69 and '70. He was one of the eight charter members of Bonaparte Lodge No. 73, A.F. And A. M., which was chartered June 4, 1856, and he retained his membership until his death. His long residence and business prominence in Bonaparte, made him widely known throughout this part of Iowa as a man of strict integrity and moral worth.

From Dorothy Watsons scrapbook