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. .

Margaret Jane (Hopson) Kitts' memories of Indiana

Mamaw always looked forward to when her mother would fry chickens and make cakes and pies to take to the July 4^th picnic at Stylesville, IN, where everyone in the area gathered for food, games, fun and fellowship once year. It was at the Stylsville picnic that she and her sister Eliza spun the wheel to try to win a little stuffed poodle. Mamaw won the poodle, and Eliza won a wiry spider, but it was Mamaw who later dropped the spider onto the bald head of Uncle Pete when he was visiting their home. She ran out of the room laughing when it fell into his long, snowy beard and he began to dance around! Needless to say, she got into trouble for “doing that poor old man that way.”

In the photo, Mamaw (Margaret Jane Hopson Kitts) is on the back row on the left, with the “Princess Leah” buns and the big, black bows and plaid dress.