4^th generation

John Jackson Hopson

(1823-after 1887)

Rebecca Freeman Hopson

(1819-before 1887)

            John Jackson Hopson was the oldest of five (or more) children of Littleton Hopson and Disa McIntyre, born in about 1823 in Yancey County, North Carolina.[1] 

            He married Rebecca Freeman, one of eleven children of John V. Freeman, Jr. and Rebecca Hopson[2], born in 1819 in North Carolina.  Not unusual for girls at that place and time, she could neither read nor write.[3]    (See FREEMAN )

Their children were as follows:

i.          Disa (or Dicy), named for John’s mother,  born 1842  Yancey, NC

                        (m. 25 Aug 1858 to Jonathan Reed in Montgomery, VA)

            ii.          Sadelia, 1844, Scott Co., VA (m.28 August 1858 George Reed in Montgomery,

                                                VA)

Sadelia Hopson Reed and grandchild

            iii.         Sarah Elizabeth, 1846 Scott Co., VA

            iv.         Littleton William, 1848, Scott Co., VA, m. Delilia Music 1870

                                    in Floyd Co., KY

            v.         Samuel, Mar 1850, Scott Co., VA

            vi.         Charity, 23 July1853, Scott Co., VA

            vii.        Nancy, 1856, Scott Co., VA

            viii.       John, 1858, Scott Co., VA, m. Harriett Music

            ix          Mary, 1862, VA, m.. Apr 1877 John Milton Clifton[4]

            The family is found in the 1850 Scott Co., VA census as follows:

            John Hopson, 27, farmer, b. NC

            Rebecca, 31, b. NC

            Disa, age 8, b. NC

            Sadelia, 6        

            Sarah E., 4, b. VA

            Littleton W., 2, b. VA

            After their first child was born, John and Rebecca moved from Yancey Co., NC, to Scott County, VA, where their other children were born. 

            It appears that in August 1858, a few days apart, the two oldest daughters, Disa and Sadelia, married brothers, Jonathan Reed and George Reed, in Montgomery, VA.

            The 1860 Scott Co., VA census lists the family as follows:[5]

            John Hopson 31(age?) shoemaker

            Rebecca 42

            Littleton W. 12

            Samuel 11

            Charity 9

            Nancy 4

            John 2

            At the beginning of the Civil War, John Hopson was 38 years old.  By the close of the war in 1865, his son Littleton had reached the age of 17.  So either or both of them might have served in the Confederate Army or in the local militia.  According to family tradition, they were very definitely Southern sympathizers, and might well have been in uniform at one time or another.  No military records have been found, but the Confederate records are incomplete.

            Sometime after the Civil War John and Rebecca and their family moved to Johnson County, Kentucky[6], about 75 miles from Scott Co., VA.

            The 1870 Johnson Co., KY census shows the family as follows:

            Jackson Hopson 48

            Rebecca 50

            Littleton 23

            Samuel 20

            Delila 17  [Littleton's wife]

            Charity 16

            Nancy 12

            John 11

            In Kentucky, two of their sons, Littleton W. and John, would marry sisters, Delilia and Harriet Musick.

            The 1880 Johnson Co., KY census shows:

            John Hopson, age 58

            Rebecca age 60,

            Charity 25 (daughter)

            John 21 (son)

            Mary E.  (7 mos.) granddaughter[7]  (This is Charity's child)[8]

Coincidentally, just a few days after I found that census record, I received my first email from F. Hancock, granddaughter of that same Mary E., or Mary Ellen, who offered to provide me with Mary Ellen's photo and story.  Mary Ellen was born 30 October 1880 and died 22 February 1974 in Tampa, FL.  Her mother Charity Hopson was not married and her father's identity is not known.

            Rebecca apparently died before 1887, and on 28 March 1887 John, who was about 64, married 18-year-old Laura Bell Oney in Floyd County, KY.[9]

            There was no 1890 census, and John Jackson Hopson does not appear in the 1900 census.  There is also no Laura Bell Hopson in the 1900 census, so she probably remarried. 

            I have found no record of John's date of death or place of burial.

Additional sources of information:

Letter from his granddaughter-in-law Sarah Margaret Walter Hopson (1884-1971)

Marriage certificate of Littleton Hopson and Delilia Music gives John's birthplace as NC.

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