3^rd generation

Littleton Hopson

(about 1790-after 1860)

Disa McIntire (?)

(about 1800-?)

          Littleton Hopson was born in North Carolina in about 1790, the oldest of at least eight children of Benoni Hopson and Catherine Hoppes Hopson[1]. 

            Littleton married Disa McIntire (or Hughes?) on 16 April 1821 in Burke County, North Carolina[2].  

            The possibility that Disa's maiden name  was Hughes is discussed by researcher Gary Mullins: "After  examining the marriage record filed in Wilkes Co., NC for Littleton Hopson, it appears that the possibility exists that Disa may have been a Hughes.  Her surname is blurred on the marriage record, but starts with an H.  Listed as either bondsman or witness is Evans Hughes.  Littleton and Disa name a son Evans, and there is an Evans Hughes who appears to be a contemporary of Disa in the county records where they resided until they moved to VA.  This Evans Hughes appears to be a son of a John Hughes whose age would fit as a possible father of both Evans and Disa.”[3]

            Their children were as follows:[4]

i.          John Jackson Hopson b. 1823 Yancey Co., NC, m. 1841 Rebecca

Freeman[5]

ii.          Evan Hopson, b. 1826, NC, m. Sarah Ann Newberry (b. 1827 VA,

d. 1868 Floyd Co., KY)  bef. 1847 Russell, VA, 13 children;

d. aft 1900 Floyd, KY

iii.         Matilda Deliah Hopson, b. 2 Feb 1826 NC, m. Noah Sloas (Sluss)

 7 March 1844 Scott VA, d. Martin, KY 20 Feb 1909

iv.         Littleton Hopson, b. 24 Apr 1835, NC, m. Mary Emmaline Brummit

30 Aug 1855 Skeetrock, Wise Co., VA; d. abt 1887; 9 children

(According to the 1830 Burke County, NC census, there may have been two or three more children, names unknown.)

            They were among the “plain folk” referred to by Frank L. Owsley in his book Plain Folk of the Old South.[6]

            Since the yeoman farmer was not as picturesque or as articulate as the southern gentry, he has received less attention than the planters ... but our view of the prewar South would be seriously distorted if we did not take into account the millions of plain folk who made up the bulk of the small slaveholding and non-slaveholding farmers.  Most of them made their living from growing a variety of subsistence crops and from raising livestock.  They predominated in the upland South, in eastern Tennessee, western North Carolina, etc.

            Frederick L. Olmsted in The Cotton Kingdom presented a picture of a sturdy, proud, and friendly people.

            The majority of dwellings are small log cabins of one room, with another separate cabin for a kitchen; each house has a well, and a garden enclosed with palings.  The people are more social than those of the lower country, falling readily into friendly conversation.  They are very ignorant; the agriculture is wretched and the work hard.  A spinning wheel is heard in every house ... everyone wears homespun.[7]

            The 1840 census of Yancey County, NC[8], has the Littleton Hopson family listed:

                        1 male  40-49               Littleton (age 50)

                        1 female 30-39             Disa (age 40)

                        1 male  15-19               John (age 17)

                        1 female 10-14             Matilda (age 14)

                        1 male 10-14                Evan (age 14)

                        2 males 5-9                  Littleton (age 5)  and ?

                        1 female 15-19 ?

            According to that census, there may have been two other children in the family.

            From the Yancey County Home Page:  "Yancey County, North Carolina, is surrounded by the Blue Ridge area of the Appalachian Highlands.  Yancey County has the highest average of elevation of any county in North Carolina.  It contains 18 mountain peaks that rise above 6300 feet, covered with great forests of gigantic trees. Mount Mitchell in Yancey County, at 6,684 feet, is the highest mountain in the eastern half of North America.... As you drive the back roads of Yancey county, you will find such quaint names as Bee Log, Hardscrabble, Pig Pen, Possum Trot, and Rabbit Hop.  Old mountain ways mingle with the new."

Powell's North Carolina:  A Bicentennial History tells us that "Between 1815 and 1850 the state was drained of one-third of its population.  ... In 1829 a newspaper correspondent in Asheville reported that from 8 to 15 wagons passed through that town every day bound for the west.  ... The 1840 census revealed that 32 of the 68 counties in the state had lost population.... Because of indifference to education, neglect of natural resources, reluctance to levy taxes for any public service, and general backwardness, the state had driven away 405,161 people."[9]

Sometime around 1843 the Hopson family joined in this migration and left North Carolina.  The elder Littleton and Disa, their sons Evan and Littleton, and their married son John and his family, all made the rugged journey of about 50 miles north and westward to settle in Scott County, Virginia.  

Scott County, Virginia, is in the westernmost part of southern Virginia (farther west even than the state of West Virginia).  From the Scott County website:  “The early settlers were mainly Scotch-Irish, though some were of English descent. They came from eastern Virginia, from Augusta County, Virginia, from the Yadkin Valley in North Carolina, and a few from Ireland. Some of the thousands who traveled the old Wilderness road on their way westward grew weary of traveling, turned aside, and settled in the Scott County territory.”

            The families appear in the Scott County, Virginia census of 1850 as follows:

            p. 943  Littleton Hopson        age 60              Farmer             Birthplace NC

                        Disa Hopson               age 50                                      Birthplace NC

                        Littleton Hopson           age 15                                      Birthplace NC

            p. 942  John                            age 27              Farmer             Birthplace NC

                        Rebecca                      age 31                                      NC

                        Disa                             age 8                                        NC

                        Sadelia                         age 6                                        VA

                        Sarah E.                       age 4                                        VA

            p. 933  Evan Hopson                age 24              Farmer             NC

                        Sarah A.                       age 22                                      VA

                        Minerva S.                   age 2                                        VA

                        Henry C.                      9 mos.                                      VA

            Ten years later, the 1860 Scott County census shows Evan Hopson, age 34, his wife Sarah, age 33, and children as follows:

            p. 123: [Henry] C.                    age 10  b. 1849, Scott Co., VA

                        Jasper Winfield age 8    b.  1851 Scott Co., VA, d. 1921 Floyd, KY

                        Lucinda                        age 6    b. 1853 Scott Co., VA

                        Margaret                      age 5    b. 1856 Scott Co., VA, d. 1923

                        Esther                           age 5    b. 1856, Scott Co., VA

                        Wade Hampton            age 1    b. 1859 Scott Co., VA, d. 1934 Floyd, KY

            Evan and Sarah had two more children in Scott County:

                        Martha, b. 1861

                        Samuel, b. 1863, d. 1939

            Then Evan and Sarah, along with John Jackson Hopson's family, moved to Floyd County, KY.  Evan and Sarah had three more children born in Floyd County, KY:

                        Elijah, b. 1866

                        Tivis, b. 1868

                        William Lewis, b. 1870, d. 23 Jan 1951 Covington, Logan Co., OK,

                                    m. Susan Mahala Vaughan 19 Dec 1889.

            Littleton and Disa's youngest son Littleton Hopson married 1855 Mary Emmaline Brummit (b. 1840 in Tennessee), (according to the International Genealogical Index) and they appear in the Wise County, VA census of 1860 as follows:

            p. 287  HOPSON, Littleton   age 58              b. VA  [should be NC]

                        Littleton                        age 24              b. NC

                        Mary E.                        age 22              b. Tenn.

                        Polly                             age 3                b. VA

Lafayette Noah age 2                b. VA

                        Elizabeth                       3 mos.              b. VA

                        Dicy                            age 56              b. VA [should be NC]

            It appears that the elder Littleton and his wife Disa were living in the home of their youngest son Littleton in Wise Co., VA in 1860 (or the son and his family were living in his parents' home).  Littleton and Disa's ages are too young, compared to the 1850 census. 

            The younger Littleton and his wife Mary did not move with the rest of the Hopsons to Floyd County, KY.  Instead, they remained in Wise County, VA, where they had more children:

                        Matilda K. b. 1864, m. Bud Coleman

                        George W. b. 25 Apr 1867 Wise, VA, m. Nancy Coleman Feb 1889;

                                    d. 22 Sept 1929 Pike Co., KY

John C., b 1869 Wise Co, VA, d. 1914 Idaho

Evan (Eiv) b. 1873, m. (1) Mary I. Colley, (2) Neely Hawkins,

            d. 15 May 1903 Wise, VA

Mary C., b. 1887

                        Littleton W., II, b. about 1879, d. 25 Mar 1882 (of a cold)

            Littleton and Disa do not appear in the 1870 Wise County census, thus we assume they died sometime after 1860.

Background information from John Preston Arthur:  A History of NC from 1730 to 1913.  Asheville, NC 1914.

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