General Samuel Hopkins
The services of Lieutenant Colonel Samuel
Hopkins as given in Heitman's "Historical Register of Officers in
the Continental Army -- 1775 - 1783 are as follows:
On August 27, 1774, The Transylvania Company, sometimes called the
Richard Henderson Company was formed in North Carolina. This was one of
first of many land companies and was composed of a "Company of Gentlemen
Adventurers" -- nine in number and all living in north Carolina. The President
and leader was the brilliant and eloquent Jurist and colonizer, Judge
Richard Henderson. He has been called the "Political Father of Kentucky"
and "one of the greatest of American land speculators and Commonwealth
builders." His talents demanded stirring and brilliant opportunities --
so he turned towards Kentucky, then a most exciting subject.
Under the leadership of Richard Henderson,
the Transylvania Company accomplished great things in Kentucky. It was
this Company that laid the foundation on which Kentucky was built. It was
also this Company that negotiated the Great Treaty with the Indians at
Wataugua. And it was after the loss of the vast lands acquired from the
Cherokees in this treaty, that Virginia "in consideration" of their great
loss, gave the Company 200,000 acres of land situated between the Ohio
and Green Rivers. This was known as the Henderson Grant. But the settling
of this Grand was long delayed. It lay far beyond the frontier and was
considered the "Far West" open to Indian raids and over run by a ruthless
band of river pirates. The Indiana village of Shawneetown was across the
river and not far away.
Near the end of the eighteenth century, all of the members of the
Transylvania or Richard Henderson Company had passed away except three,
Judge
John Williams, James Hogg and Nathaniel Hart. Their great leader,
Judge Richard Henderson had died, at his home
in North Carolina, on January 30, 1785. But there were heirs from the deceased
members and Amelia Johnston, the only child
and heir of William Johnston, became the only woman member. William Johnston
had acted as secretary and treasurer of the Company for over a decade.
Now this group, decided to found a town on the Richard Henderson
Grant along the Ohio river. They had some knowledge of the chosen site,
as it was known to the river men as "Red Banks" from the high red bluffs
that lifted the land far above the highest floods. In later years, the
town was known as the "Floodless City" on the Ohio.
The Company also knew that a few settlers had come down the river
on flatboats and landed at Red banks and had built cabins and a small stockade.
This was at the crossroads of the Shawnee Trail and the Natchez Trace.
These pioneers, fifteen families in all, had settled within the Grant with
neither title or grant to the land, as early as 1791 - 1792.
It was about this time, now that the Revolutionary War was over,
that Samuel Hopkins had left his home in Virginia
and gone to Hillsborough, North Carolina. Here he contracted for the erection
of the first building ever erected upon the Campus of any State University
in America the old East Building, and also the building of the official
home of the President of the University of North Carolina. because of his
efficient work, Colonel Richard Burton, secretary
of the Board of Trustees, urged the Transylvania Company to engage
Samuel Hopkins as agent to arrange for and direct the subdivision
of the land lying on the Ohio and Green Rivers.
Early in the year 1797, The Company did engage Samuel
Hopkins as agent and attorney and Captain Thomas Allin as surveyor
and sent them to the Henderson Grant to lay out the town.
Hopkins and Allin kept very complete noes of their work and from
these notes we learn ha "Samuel Hopkins set
out from his home in Hanover County, Virginia on February 16, 1797 for
Kentucky." After passing the first mountains the weather became violent,
with rain and snow. He reached Danville, Ky., on March 10, 1797 and was
joined by Captain Thomas Allin, who was to
survey the Grant. Three hands were also engaged as chain men and markers.
At Lexington, Mr. Purviance, a land speculator,
also joined the party. On the way Elisha Howard
was employed as a guide, hunter and messenger. The horses and supplies
were sent on by land but Hopkins and his group of men came down the Green
river to the Ohio by a parogue. They reached the site of Red Banks, March
30, 1797. The business of laying out the town began immediately. The work
was greatly retarded by heavy rains and flooding rivers. It rained for
twenty days and both the Ohio and Green rivers were flooded.
Samuel Hopkins did a most intelligent
piece of work in laying off the Town. The original plan of he "Old City"
shows that four streets were two and a quarter miles long and parallel
with the Ohio river; three of them were one hundred feet wide, the fourth
street, Water Street, was two hundred feet wide. These four streets were
intersected by twenty-five cross streets, also one hundred feet wide. These
beautiful wide streets in Henderson came about because Samuel Hopkins had
a haunting fear of fire. Therefore, he made the streets wide so a fire
could not "jump across" and only one block was likely to burn down at a
time. Six blocks cutting through the exact center of the town were given
by the Transylvania Company for a park and other uses. This was the first
municipal park west of the Alleghenies and was named Transylvania Park
in honor of the founding fathers. Later it was renamed Central Park.
On July 15, 1797, Samuel Hopkins sent his report, together with Captain
Allin's description of the tract to the Transylvania Company in North Carolina.
The report closed with these words"
"As to our work, I hope and believe it will be found as accurate
as a work of this kind can well be -- that there may be imperfections in
it, I have no doubt, but I am morally certain that it contains as much
perfection as is necessary.--We left the Grant on the 1st of June, when
we arrived in Mercer, it employed the Surveyor twelve days to finish the
Platts, certificates, etc. I left that place 22 June and arrived at my
home on 6th, July 1797, having been out 141 days."
A meeting of the Transylvania or Richard Henderson Company was held
at Williamsborough, North Carolina on Monday, 31st of July, 1797. Samuel
Hopkins met with them and reported his proceedings in the said business
with a Plat and description of the survey, -- all of which was unanimously
approved of. It was also approved that the new town was to be called Henderson
in honor of Colonel Richard Henderson, who
had been the guiding influence of the Company until his death in 1785.
But the old name "Red Banks" still clung to the town for many years.
Samuel Hopkins was given his preference
of the ten acre lots laid out around the town of Henderson and the thanks
of the Company for the faithful and complete manner in which her performed
his duties of his appointment.
The Hopkins family was one of the first to return and settle on the
newly opened Grant. Samuel Hopkins became a promoter, conceiving and starting
many good things for the new town and county of Henderson. He wrote glowing
reports to his friends in Virginia and North Carolina and soon many of
the heirs of the members of the Transylvania Company came and settled on
their land in the Grant. Others came and built their homes on plantations
or in the town. In 1817, John James Audubon
and his family came from Louisville, Ky., to the new Henderson. Land outside
the Grant was given by Virginia to Officers and soldiers of the Revolutionary
War.
Samuel Hopkins began the practice of
law and became the first judge of the first Court held in Henderson. The
following story is recorded in one of the Old Court books: "Being made
angry, he uttered an oath by saying "By God." The law at that time was
that whosoever uttered an oath should pay a fine to be determined by the
Court. So, Hopkins was presented before the Commissioners and upon being
examined, he confessed his crime and paid a fine of five shillings to the
Court. He then took his seat and presided as Judge on the first day of
the first Court.
The health of the settlers seemed to be excellent. Samuel
Hopkins recorded in his notes on July 15, 1800 - "There is not at
this time ten sick persons of all disorders in Henderson County." In 1802,
he wrote: - "Through this year the people in all our settlement have been
extremely healthy. I have not heard of anyone sick enough to take physic
or had died."
By the year 1799, Henderson did not have representation in the Kentucky
Assembly. Hopkins commented on this state of affairs in a letter written
to Colonel Thomas Hart of Lexington, Kentucky:
- "I hear your town and neighborhood are deeply engaged in politics - the
subject of the approaching election will cause the explosion off much wind
and shedding of much ink. Not so here. I do not think one-half hour has
been consumed with us on the subject. The Assembly in their law arranging
the places of holding the elections and appointing the Representatives
did us such manifest injustice that we care very little for the present.
Besides in a few years you know, there will be another convention conjured
up by some restless Spirits and then perhaps we shall be thought entitled
to an equal representation."
In the years 1800-1801-1803-1806, Samuel Hopkins
represented
his district in the House of Representatives. He procured the passage of
a law "Enabling aliens residing in the State of Kentucky to hold lands
in fee." This was a privilege not extended to that class in any other State.
Hopkins also served as a member of the Kentucky State Senate from 1809
to 1813. In 1809 he was one of Kentucky's Presidential Electors, casting
his vote for Madison.
With the outbreak of the second war with Great Britain, Samuel
Hopkins again answered the call of his Country. In this War of 1812,
he was commissioned Major General by President Madison.
After that he was always referred to as "General". he was put in charge
of 2,000 men and in October, 1812, Governor Isaac
Shelby gave him permission to take these mounted volunteers against
the Kickapoo Indians on the Illinois river. This party was misled by guides
and after wandering several days about the prairie, the men began to desert
against the wishes and commands of the officers. There was a lack of provisions
as their beef had been lost on the trail. Other provisions had not been
delivered. In November, 1812, General Hopkins collected another band of
infantry and marched up the Wabash as far as Prophets Town, destroying
several Indian Villages, but lost part of the force by ambush. The Indians
refused to combat and later sued for peace. Samuel
Goode Hopkins, son of the General served as Captain in the United
States Army in the War of 1812.
Again General Samuel Hopkins returned to
his home in Henderson, but he was elected Representative to the 13th United
States Congress from Kentucky, and took his seat -- June 26, 1813. After
one term, he returned to his plantation and his family and friends.
General Hopkins had married Elizabeth (Betty)
Branch Bugg, the daughter of Jacob Bugg.
Their marriage license was dated January 10, 1783 in Mecklenburg County,
Virginia. To this union was born, in Virginia, eight children. They were:
General Hopkins was quite a rich man in his time and "Spring Garden"
his beautiful plantation, located about two miles east of Henderson, on
the Zion road, was among his landed possessions. The appraisement of his
estate in 1820 was listed as $20,474.00, a fortune at that time.
At the age of sixty-six, the "Old General" died - September 16, 1819
at his home. His remains were interred in the family burying ground at
"Spring Garden." A simple marble shaft was placed on his last resting place.
The inscription on this monument reads thus:
Firm with Temperance, Benevolent with Sincerity and Liberal without
Ostentation. He Closed in the Bosom of his Family, a Long Life of Exemplary
Usefulness in Military and Civil Employment, Characterized by Ardent Devotion
to his Country and the Best Interests of Man.
"Captain" -- 6th Virginia Regiment -- Feb 24, 1776
"Major" - 6th Virginia Regiment -- Nov 29, 1777
"Lieutenant Colonel" - - 14th Virginia Regiment -- Jun 19, 1778
"Lieutenant Colonel -- 10th Virginia Regiment -- Oct 13, 1778
Samuel Hopkins fought valiantly in the
Battles of Brandywine, Princeton, Trenton, Monmouth and Germantown. In
the Battle of Germantown he commanded a Battalion of Light Infantry, and
while nobly battling for his Country and for her rights, he received a
very severe wound, after almost the entire loss of those under his command.
He was Lieutenant Colonel of the Tenth Virginia Regiment at the siege of
Charleston in South Carolina, and after the death of Colonel
Richard Parker, he became the Colonel of the Regiment and served
as such until the end of the war. At the surrender of Charleston on May
20, 1780, Colonel Hopkins was taken prisoner along with his officers. The
prisoners were taken by British ship around the coast to Virginia. The
prisoners were badly treated and Samuel Hopkins
determined to help his officers. He threatened to raise a mutiny and seize
the ship. After this the men were treated with more kindness and respect.
After sometime, Samuel Hopkins and his officers were exchanged and on February
12, 1781, Samuel Hopkins was transferred to
the 1st Virginia Regiment. He was an original member of the Society of
the Cincinnati in Virginia.
Signed Richard Hopkins
General Samuel Hopkins was certainly an extraordinary
man. He was the first person of the Episcopalian faith in Henderson and
often read services in the Union Church, located on a hill in Transylvania
( now Central) Park. He was a self made man and rose to such a position
of popularity that he was considered, all over the Sate of Kentucky, as
one of her most talented sons. Hopkins County, Kentucky and Hopkinsville,
Kentucky., were named in his honor. such was the character of General Samuel
Hopkins, that without doubt, he did more for the good and prosperity of
the early settlement of Red Banks, later named Henderson, than any other
man. He can truly be called the "Father of Henderson and Henderson County,
Kentucky."
Who was born 9th. Apr. 1753 and Died Sept. 16th 1819.
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General Samuel Hopkins Chapter of Daughters of the
American Revolution
Charter of the General Samuel Hopkins Chapter
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