Hopkinsville

HOPKINSVILLE, TEXAS (Gonzales County). Hopkinsville was located where Farm Road 1296 crosses Copperas Creek, five miles north of Waelder in northern Gonzales County. The town was named for Dennis Sheffield Hopkins, who bought land from Thomas Zumwalt in 1851 and established the community in 1852. A post office was established there by 1853, with Isaac K. Zumwalt as first postmaster. The community had blacksmith shops, a gin, a general store, saloons, churches, a gristmill, and schools. The Hopkinsville Masonic Lodge was organized on May 26, 1855. On June 18, 1856, Thomas Zumwalt deeded land to the trustees of the Hopkinsville Baptist Church to be used for a school, a Masonic lodge, and a church for all denominations. Hopkinsville's decline began when the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway was built five miles to the south, and Waelder was established in 1874. R. L. Miller's General Merchandise Store, established at Hopkinsville in 1866, moved to Waelder in 1874; the Hopkinsville Masonic Lodge followed in 1878. The Hopkinsville post office was discontinued in 1876. Some citizens dismantled their homes and rebuilt them in Waelder, while others simply abandoned their cabins. By 1900 few families remained in the area, though in 1909 there was still a Hopkinsville school. Only a few foundation stones and a cemetery remained at Hopkinsville by 1966, and in 1989 all that remained at the site was a Texas Historical Commission marker on Farm Road 1296 near the crossing of Copperas Creek.