Welcome to the Village of Hopkins

Welcome to the Village of Hopkins. From Hopkinsburg to Hopkins. , Jonathan Olin Round built the first log cabin in the area known as Hopkinsburg in 1837. His family came to join him in 1838. Other settlers soon followed. They settled in Hopkinsburg due to the good farmland the creek flowing through, providing water power for businesses such as the Flour Mill and Saw Mill. , , It is said that Hopkins was named after Jonathan Round’s young son Oziel Hopkins Round. Oziel was the first settler to die in the territory. Nine men of the territory put names of their choice on slips of paper and put them in a hat. The slip of paper with the name Hopkins was pulled out of the hat, thus naming the territory Hopkins. , , Some thirty years after Jonathan settled in Hopkins, the Kalamazoo branch of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad went through the area that we know today as Hopkins. Industry and trade came to the area and soon Hopkins (Hopkinsburg) was a dwindling community and the new Hopkins was a booming village. Its leading places of business were: a hotel, sawmill, broom handle factory, three general stores, a harness shop, a tin shop, blacksmith shops, a wagon shop, millinery stores and a market. Later came the Creamery, the Bost Factory, the Hoop Shop Factory and the Shoe Factory. , , Hopkins was hit by several fires, the Creamery explosion in 1919, the business district fire in 1920 and the Hotel fire in 1923. Hopkins has also endured several floods, the latest in 1997. , , Thank you for visiting the Village of Hopkins!