Hopkins, William T.

Born: 1819-10-05 Maine

Died: 1886-05-04 Morris, Illinois

William T. Hopkins was a lawyer, merchant, public servant, county judge, state representative, Mason, and Republican. He attended school in Maine and read law in Bangor. In 1846, while still in Maine, he married Clara H. Prescott. They later raised two nieces together. They relocated to Illinois in 1849. In 1850, he received admission to the bar in Morris, Illinois. By that year, he owned $800 in real property. Hopkins practiced law while sometimes also pursuing other ventures. For instance, from 1853 to 1855, he was a merchant in Morris. He was also politically active and held a variety of public offices, such as superintendent of public instruction, judge for Grundy County starting in 1861, and member of the Illinois House of Representatives from 1865-66. He participated in the formation of the Republican Party in Illinois, served as a member of the Illinois Republican State Central Committee during the campaign of 1858, and served as one of Grundy County's electors at the 1864 Republican National Convention, casting his ballot for Abraham Lincoln, whom he considered a friend. Lincoln stayed at Hopkins's home in Morris the evening prior to the first Lincoln-Douglas Debate. During the Civil War, Hopkins raised a company of men nicknamed the "Grundy Tigers" to fight for the Union, and served for three months as their captain. Then, from 1863 to 1865, he served as president of the Sanitary and Christian Commission for the Grundy district.

History of Grundy County Illinois (Chicago: O. L. Baskin, 1882), 20, 254; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Morris, Grundy County, IL, 152; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 226; Harry E. Pratt, The Great Debates ([Springfield, IL: Illinois State Historical Library, 1955]), 14; The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 20 August 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-08-20; Norman B. Judd to Abraham Lincoln; Illinois Civil War Muster and Descriptive Rolls , Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; The Ottawa Free Trader (IL), 8 May 1886, 1:5.