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This article is from the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, 6 volumes, edited by William S. Powell. Copyright ©1979-1996 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. For personal use and not for further distribution. Please submit permission requests for other use directly to the publisher.

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Hopkins, Nathan Thomas

by James R. Morrill, 1988

27 Oct. 1852–11 Feb. 1927

Nathan Thomas Hopkins, clergyman and Kentucky legislator and congressman, was born in Ashe County. He attended the common schools, was ordained a Baptist minister in 1876, and engaged in the ministry for half a century. As a youth Hopkins moved to Kentucky, where he became a merchant, timberman, and farmer in the vicinity of Yeager, Pike County. He served as the tax assessor for Floyd County from 1878 to 1890 and as a member of the Kentucky State House of Representatives in 1893–94 and again in 1923–24. As a Republican, he successfully contested the election of Joseph M. Kendall to the Fifty-fourth Congress and served from 18 Feb. to 3 Mar. 1897. In 1900 he was an unsuccessful candidate for election to the Fifty-seventh Congress.

In May 1871 Hopkins married Nancy Johnson (b. 1850) in Pike County, Ky. They had four children: William J. (b. July 1884), Thomas C. (b. January 1887), Rosey B. (b. December 1890), and Benjamin H. (b. May 1894). Hopkins died in Pikesville, Ky., and was buried in Potter Cemetery, Yeager, Ky.

References:

Biog. Dir. Am. Cong. (1971).

Leonard Roberts and others, eds., Pike County, Kentucky Historical Papers #3, 1822–1977.

Additional Resources:

"Hopkins, Nathan Thomas, (1852 - 1927)." Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Washington, D.C.: The Congress. http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=H000777 (accessed May 2, 2014).

Rowell, Chester H. "Hopkins vs. Kendall." A Historical and Legal Digest of all the Contested Election Cases in the House of Representatives of the United States from the First to the Fifty-Sixth Congress 1789-1901. Washington [D.C.]: Government Printing Office. 1901. 512-513. http://books.google.com/books?id=PRxUAAAAIAAJ&lpg=PA16&ots=kKoDZ6QYjl&pg=PA512#v=onepage&q&f=false (accessed May 2, 2014).

"In The House: a Republican From Kentucky Given His Seat." Los Angeles Herald 26, no. 142, (19 February 1897). http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH18970219.2.7#

Runyon, Clyde, and Claire Kelly. "Pike County Marriages 1866-1875."  Pike County 1822-1977 Historical Papers Number Three. Pikeville, Ky.: Pike County Historical Society. 1984. 98. https://archive.org/stream/pikecounty18221903robe#page/98/mode/2up

Subjects: 
Biographies
Religious Leaders and Clergy
Public officials
Authors: 
Morrill, James R.
Origin - location: 
Ashe County
From: 
Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, University of North Carolina Press.

1 January 1988 | Morrill, James R.