Gardner Hopkins

Hopkins Foster Rhode Island To Ohio Migration

Last week two quite sudden deaths occurred in out midst. One a Mr. Garner Hopkins, who lived near Amboy station, had been threshing for a neighbor with a flail, came home and while sitting in his chair with the family, suddenly ceased to breathe, and that was all the struggle he had to pass away. He was a very robust, hearty man for one of his age--85. Some fifty years ago he was a resident of Ashtabula, and lived near Bunker Hill. The other was Stephen b. Hopkins, a nephew of Garner. He had been a resident of the borough for the past eight years. He was formerly from Pierpont, and I believe was one of the pioneers of that township. He was one of the most successful deer hunters on the Reserve. The Hopkins family were natives of Rhode Island, and descended of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. {Stephen Hopkins, Signer of the Declaration of Independence was actually a second cousin twice removed.

Buried in Amboy cemetery. Ashtubula county, Ohio.

"Gardner Hopkins was born in 1796 at Foster, Rhode Island. He married Freelove Parker, who was born August 12, 1798 at Scituate, Rhode Island. The marriage took place in 1817. They were located at Virgil, Courtland County, New York, where he followed the occupation of farming. Gardner was a cooper by trade, but being poor, not getting on as well as he wished and with a view of bettering the family's condition, he determined to pull up stakes and go west. They moved to Amboy, Ashtabula County, Ohio, four miles west of Conneaut, Ohio, on the Western Reserve where he did some farming."