Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 102, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 September 1908 — Obituary of the Austin Hopkins. [ARTICLE]

Obituary of the Austin Hopkins.

William Austin Hopkins was the youngest of five sons of Mathew and Martha Hopkins, all of whom are deceased. He was born at Homer, Ohio, Aug. 2d, 1830, and died at , Rensselaer, Aug/ 26th, 1908, at the, advanced age of 78 years and 24 days. His father died when the son Austin, was but a few months old, and his mother when he was only nine years of age. He was reared by an uncle, his father’s broth- ' er, and when he reached his major- , ity he removed to Hancock county, ' Ohio. Here he was united in marriage to Miss Francis Elizabeth Cooks, March 1, 1854. In 1863 they came to Indiana and , settled on a farm in Jasper county. I In 1870 they moved to Gotland, i where the family continued to reside j for fifteen years, when in 1885, they moved to Garden City, Kansas. But ( in 1896 they returned to Indiana and settled in Rensselaer, where he continued to reside until his death.' t Five children have been born to t)iem, one son and four daughters, two of whom died in childhood in Ohio. One daughter, Miss Flora Lu- 1 ella Cook, died in Goodland, ’Sept. 14, 1885. The two remaining daughers surviving are Mrs. Will A. Thompson, | of , Sullivan, Ind., and Miss Gertrude Hopkins, of Rensselaer. Mr. ‘ Hopkins united with the Methodist church in boyhood in Ohio, ' and in early manhood in Ohio he united with the Masonic order. He maintained his membership in both the church and lodge until his death. Mr. Hopkins wag .a man esteem d by all who knew him in every community in which he has resided; quiet and unobtrusive in life, upright and honorable in all his dealings; his life was an open book and in it nothing was recorded that reflected in any way on the character of the man. His life's influence has counted for the better things in the h< me, the church and the community. He has’ gone from us, but we shall cherish his memory and’ see him again when the mists have cleared away.