married: December 24, 1878 (Met Shell at a barn dance)
children:
Guy Ethelebert Hopson, b: September 7, 1884
Mary Salone Hopson (McCollum), b: March 9, 1890
Bess Lander Hopson (Wolfe), b: February 28, 1892
grandchildren:
Dorothy Elizabeth Wolfe (Southard),
Zela Hopson (Thompson) and Willard Hopson
Their grandchildren called them "Granny" and "Pap"
great grandchildren:
John B. Southard Jr, Elizabeth "Betty"Ann Southard (Stokes) and
Linda, Donna & Fay Thompson
2nd great grandchildren: Leslie & Amy Stokes and Will, Rob & Joe Southard
Meredith "Shell" Shellcross Hopson
Shell's birthday: May 5, 1852
one brother: Henry Hopson was 2 years younger than Pap, born May 5, 1854
lost years: We don't know where Pap lived or how between the end of the Civil War 1865 and marrying Granny in 1878. He never talked about those years and no one thought to ask. (found 1870 census: Pap was a farmer laborer for Jno. A. Hopson in Princeton, Kentucky/most likely an uncle or cousin. Pap would have been 18 years old in 1870).
exercise: Pap walked miles most every day after moving to town. He usually went to the courthouse to sit in on trials and catch up on the local news of the day. Mondays were trading day. The men would bring items to swap.
passing: When Pap died, his body was embalmed and stayed at the house till time for the funeral. Family and friends took turns sitting with the body around the clock.
sibling: Henry Fountain Hopson (1854 -1845)
parents:
David G. Hopson (1829-1862) and
Caroline Gibson(Hopson) (died about 1860)
grandparents:
P: John Hopson (1780 - ?) & Agnes Goode (? - ?)
M: Meredith Gibson (1788, Virginia - 1855, Kentucky) & Hannah Moore (1792 - 1861)
Bison: In 1850, two years before Shell was born, there were 20 million buffalo in the United States. By 1889, a year before their second child was born, only 551 bison could be found in the United States. The U.S. Calvary was still at war with the Indians. Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer died at the Battle of Little Big Horn in 1876.
Civil War:
Pap's father, David Hopson, enlisted in the Confederate Army on October 15, 1861 at Calhoon, KY. He served as a Sergeant in Company E, Kentucky's 25th Infantry Regiment. David G. Hopson "mustered out" on February 15, 1862 when General Grants troops seized Fort Donelson in Tennessee. Pap & his younger brother, Henry, went to their mother's, Caroline Gibson (Hopson), family. The boys' Gibson grandparents were Union sympathizers. They would not allow David Hopson on their farm once the war started. When David was able to get leave, he had to stand at the end of the Gibson driveway. The boys would walk out to visit.
Alexander Graham Bell's invention changed lives!
The ringing of a telephone or cell phone is a very familiar sound today. Our phones can be used for many different reasons: call friends and relatives, connect with other technology, or reach help in emergencies. Before the 20th century, before Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, Bettie & Shell Hopson could not communicate with others in far-off places. What seems like a minor inconvenience to us, might be life or death in the 1800s. Bell's phone invention is dated 1892,
Jamestown connection: When you go to our Jamestown page you will learn that Shell is descended from Captain Christopher Newport. Captain Newport fought along side Sir Frances Drake at Cadiz, England to defeat the Spanish Armada. Shell was born in Cadiz, KY. Gracey, Kentucky & Cadiz, Kentucky border each other.
career: farmer
residence: farm in Gracey, Kentucky
retirement: Shell retired from farm life in 1911. He built 303 Bryan Street for $4,500 and depended on Guy to operate the farm.
Shell "Pap" died: May 22, 1937 of uremic poisoning (kidney failure)
Elizabeth "Bettie" Ann Lander (Hopson)
Bettie had a slight cleft palate from birth. At about age seven, after a bad cold, one leg was shorter causing her to walk with a limp. It's very possible that the cold was really a mild case of polio.
parents:John William Strode Lander (1830-1869) and
Mary Jane Blakeley (Lander) (1824-1870)
Bettie's father: John W. S. Lander was a wealthy man. He owned numerous wagons and held all rights to haul goods shipped up from New Orleans on the Ohio to Cumberland River. Goods were then transferred to boats headed east on the Green River & Cumberland River. John W. S. Lander was paid by local merchants to deliver their orders from the nearest ports off the Ohio River.
Women's Suffrage: Twelve years before Bettie was born, in the state of New York, an Elizabeth Cady Stanton Trust launched the women's equality and voting rights movement at an 1858 convention. Her work resulted in the most extensive bestowal of democratic freedom in the history of our nation. http://www.elizabethcadystanton.org/
Stagecoach: If you scroll further down in this blog, you will find a Slaughter & Co. stagecoach ticket for the Nashville-Hopkinsville line (dated 1860, the year Bettie was born).
Gracey farm: Bettie got the Gracey farm at her father's passing in 1869. John W.S. Lander had acquired so many farms by the age of 39 that each of his children inherited one. The executor of his will put all the farm deeds in a hat. He had each child draw a deed. Bettie Lander Hopson drew the deed for a farm that her father bought from a Campbell family. This is the farm our family has always called the Gracey Farm because it is near Gracey, KY.
career: housewife and seamstress + sold butter & treats to a bed & breakfast in Hopkinsville
Bettie died: October 2, 1948 of cholrea marblous
Migration to Christian County, Kentucky: The Landers, Hopsons, and Nevilles came to the southern part of the county around 1770 - 1776. They began farming and trade businesses with the help of slave labor.
burial: Meredith Shellcross & Bettie Hopson rest together in Riverside Cemetery, Hopkinsville, KY
No comments:
Post a Comment