Hopson Cemetery

In 1998, Mother and I visited several members of extended family lines (Ritters) in Washburn, TN, and they were very helpful in telling us details and stories of family history. They also showed us where specific cemeteries were for our Rucker, Kitts, and Hopson families, and that same year, we went to the Hopson Cemetery for a reunion.

My great-great grandfather, David Ross Hopson, was born December 25, 1825, in Dutch Valley to Carolyn (Lively) and Jesse Hopson. David’s father Jesse was born in 1800 in Wake County, North Carolina, to Sara (Bunch, daughter of Ann and Martin Bunch) and Harrod Hopson. Harrod, the son of Richard Hopson, was born in North Carolina in 1778 and died before 1870 in Claiborne County. Sara divorced Harrod in 1835, and he later married Prudence (Henderson) Cunningham, the daughter of Elizabeth (Maples) and Isaac Henderson.

Oral history states that the Hopsons were traveling in a covered wagon with all their belongings, looking for a place to start a living but not knowing where to stop, when the old man Hopson died of pneumonia fever. His wife buried him and never continued their intended journey, settling nearby the cemetery that became the Hopson Cemetery we know today.

Hopson Family

This photo includes my grandmother Margaret Jane Hopson (seated far right) and her parents William and Mary (Rucker) Hopson (seated far left). Standing in the back on the left are Mamaw's sister Eliza, her brother Greenlee and his wife, holding their youngest child. Greenlee's other two children are also in the picture, but I don't know who the rest are. Can anyone identify them? (Note what appears to be a little stuffed poodle held by Greenlee's son. I wonder whether this is a photo made on the day of a family trip to the Stylesville fair, as described in the blog post about Mamaw's memories of Indiana.)

William Harrell Hopson was born February 22, 1862, to Eliza Jane (Rosenbalm) and David Ross Hopson in the Dutch Valley area of Washburn, Grainger County, Tennessee. Mary Isabell Rucker was born April 13, 1868, to Minerva (Jordan) and Samuel Rucker also at Washburn.

Mary and William were married about 1883 at Washburn and lived and farmed at Powder Springs, Tennessee, and about six miles from Amo, Indiana for several years. Willaim Harrell Hopson died June 10, 1921, at Powder Springs, and Mary died September 30, at Luttrell. Both are buried in the Hopson Cemetery, which is in an area called Oakman, near Washburn, Grainger County, Tennessee. .