Samuel L. Hopkins, one of the most successful farmers and stock raisers in Newman Township, was born south of Newman on the old Hopkins homestead in the year 1849. In 1884 he was united in marriage to Miss Hattie Bell, and is the father of six children. Mr. Hopkins owns four hundred and twenty-seven acres of land which extends nearly to the corporation line of Newman. His mother was, be-fore her marriage, Elizabeth Thomas, and was born in Indiana. His father was James Hopkins, who was one of the earliest settlers along the Brushy Fork timber. He was born in Pick-away County, Ohio, February 12, 1815. At the age of nine years he, with his family, re-moved to Vermillion County, Indiana. Here, on January 21, 1838, he married Elizabeth Ann Thomas, who was mentioned above. In October, 1841, he came to Illinois and located in section 5, Township 15, range 14, where he resided until his death. He first bought one hundred and thirty acres of land at seven dollars an acre, and at the time of his death he had accumulated many more acres. He was the father of ten children, three of whom were born in Indiana. Two of his sons. John William and Eli Thomas, enlisted in the Twenty-fifth Regiment Illinois Volunteers at the commencement of the Civil war and both died in the service, the former on the 13th of December at a hospital in St. Louis, and Eli Thomas in the latter part of August, 1862, near Iuka, Mississippi.
