Roy L. Hopkins Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1807-1808 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

	This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit 
	organizations for their private use. 

	Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval 
	system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other 
	means requires the written approval of the file's author.


	ROY L. HOPKINS, one of the well-known citizens of Redfield, South 
Dakota, where he is president of the Redfield Cement Brick and Tile 
Manufacturing Company, was born near Cleveland, Ohio, on April ~3, 1853. 
He is the son of William W. and Louise (Sumner) Hopkins. The father was 
born in New York state, and is the son of Cyrus Hopkins. The Hopkins are 
of English stock, but have been in America many generations. The mother 
was born in Ohio. The genealogy of the Sumner family runs back .to the 
colonial period. Three brothers of the family came from England prior to 
the Revolutionary war. One of them, the great-grandfather of the 
subject, held three commissions under the crown of Great Britain and for 
service was granted a tract of land composing six hundred and fifty 
acres on which the city of Rochester, New York, now stands. He was a 
strong Tory, and during the war for independence he fled to Canada. He 
had prepared to return to his possessions, but was taken sick and died. 
The treaty between England and the United States provided that all 
confiscated property should be returned to the original owners. Not 
returning, however, the property fell into other hands, but even today 
their titles are clouded by the fact that the property really belongs to 
the said Thomas Sumner, and no absolutely; clear title can be given to 
Rochester city property. The grandfather of the subject, Azor Betts 
Sumner, was a native of Vermont state. He removed from Vermont to New 
York state, thence to Ohio and served in the war of 1812, and then, at 
the age of ninety. three years, he went alone to Missouri, in which 
state he died at the age of ninety-six years. Cyrus B. Hopkins, paternal 
grandfather of the subject, was born in the year of 1781 at Great 
Barrington, Massachusetts, was in the war of 1812 and died September 6, 
1863. Charlotte Bissell Hopkins, his wife, was born at Randolph, 
Vermont, October 30, 1791, and died in 1885. Persis Warren Sumner, 
grandmother, was born at Granville, New York, May 11, 1785, and died 
March 26, 1861. From Ohio the parents of the subject removed to Beloit, 
Wisconsin, in 1853, and from that state he removed to Rockford, 
Illinois, and from there came to Redfield, South Dakota, in 1883, and 
here he and his wife have since resided. He is now seventy-seven years 
old, while his wife is in her seventy-fifth year.

	Roy L. Hopkins was educated in the common and high schools, and 
finished the same with a course at Arnold's Business College, at 
Rockford, Illinois. He learned the baker's trade, and opened his first 
shop at Marengo, Illinois, where he was burned out. In 1880 he came to 
South Dakota and settled in Spink county, near the camping ground of the 
Indians on the James river, four miles northeast from Redfield, which 
locality he reached on March 2, 1880. The following August he went to 
Redfield, or what is now that city, for at that time there was not a 
building on the site. He opened the Star Restaurant and Bakery in the 
summer of 1881, and following that he ran the Central Hotel at Redfield. 
He next erected a building and opened a restaurant, fruit store and 
bakery, to which he later added groceries, and managed the same until 
1889. His wife's health failing at this time, he returned to Illinois, 
where he was engaged for eighteen months in the butcher business, at the 
expiration of which period he returned to Redfield and his old business, 
being associated with his brother, G. S. Hopkins. In 1897 he took charge 
of the local telephone lines and exchange in connection with his store, 
and two years later he sold out his store and gave his entire attention 
to the telephone business, of which he was the owner. He built and 
operated lines in Redfield and the county until 1904, when he sold out 
to the Citizens' Company. In 1904 he began the cement business, getting 
in machinery, etc., and in the same year he organized the company and 
began the manufacture of cement brick and tile. The machine they use was 
patented in Canada, and is the first one turned out in the United 
States. Mr. Hopkins served four years in the Redfield city council.

	In September, 1874, Mr. Hopkins was united in marriage to Miss 
Minnie Lanaghen, who was born at Lyons, Iowa. She died June 27, 1902, 
leaving two sons, Clarence and Roy, Jr.