Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 306, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 December 1919 — PIONEER MOTHER IS LAID TO REST [ARTICLE]

PIONEER MOTHER IS LAID TO REST

DEATH COMES TO AGED WOMAN IN CHICAGO ON FRIDAY. The funeral of Mrs. Mary C. Hopkins, who died in Chicago Friday evening, was held at the Presbyterian church in this city Sunday afternoon. The services were conducted by the Rev. J. Budman Fleming and the music was furnished by a special choir consisting of Mrs. E. C. English, Miss Maude Daugherty, Mrs. A. R. Hopkins, Jesse D. Allman and Dr. H. L. Brown. The floral offerings were most beautiful. Interment was made in Weston cemetery. The following obituary was read at the funeral services: Mary C. Hopkins, widow of Ludd Hopkins, deceased, and eldest daughter of John-M. and Sarah J. Austin (old settlers of Rensselaer, and both now deceased), was horn in Crawfordsville, Indiana, November 8, 1850, and died at the home of her son, Louis F. Hopkins, in Chicago, December 19, 1919, in the seventieth year of her age. She leaves to mourn their loss, two sons, Louis F. Hopkins and Senior G. Hopkins; her daughter, Nora Hollingsworth, wife of George K. Hollingsworth; her grandchildren, Sarah Stanley and George Hopkins and Donald and Thomas Hollingsworth; and one great grandchild, Donald Hollingsworth, Jr.; also her sister, Louise W. Ensminger; her brother, William B. Austin; and her niece, Virginia Austin Shayne, and her nephew, Major Leonard A. Ensminger. Besides her relatives she leaves a host of friends in Rensselaer, who were all but relatives to her. Mrs. Hopkins spent substantially her whole life in Rensselaer and was well known to all the older inhabitants of our little city. For the last twenty years she had been a patient sufferer from disease which flesh is heir to, but bore all with that Christian fortitude which characterized her whole life. <»

With her passing goes one of nature’s noble women, an affectionate and helpful wife and mother, a sincere and lasting friend who had endeared herself to everyone with whom she came in contact. An old friend recently said if she held emnity to any living soul he would be surprised. She was entwined in the hearts of her immediate family to an extent which will require generations of changes to eradicate. She joined the Rensselaer Presbyterian church in 1885 and had always been faithful to her obligation in words and works. “Peace be to her ashes.” ~