Inventor Name
Hopkins, John Riley
Repository
Georgia Dept. of Archives and History
5800 Jonesboro Road
Morrow, Georgia 30260-1101
678-364-3700
http://www.georgiaarchives.org/where_are_we/default.htm
Physical Description
1.25 cubic ft. (34 folders)
Summary
John Riley Hopkins, the son of George Harrison and Lucinda Turner Hopkins, was a schoolteacher, landowner, political aspirant, inventor, businessman, lawyer, and prominent citizen of Gwinnett Co., GA, for the last half of the 19th Century. During the Civil War he was superintendent of the Confederate niter works in Alabama. After the war he returned to Norcross, GA, to pursue his diverse personal and business interests: he operated sawmills, cotton gins, and lathe shops; ran unsuccessfully for the state legislature; and took an active part in the Sweetwater Primitive Baptist Church. Most of the material in the collection was written or collected by the Hopkins family and includes personal and business correspondence, Confederate records, estate papers for several Hopkins family members and Samuel Turner, daybooks, personal and legal papers, speeches, tracts, songs, poems, anecdotes, and church records. A large portion of the collection deals with manufacturing and construction businesses in which Hopkins had an interest. Notable are specifications for houses and bridges and design drawings with specifications for various inventions. Includes a letter by Rufus Bullock, ex-governor, and records of the Beaver Ruin Academy, the Cotton Gin and Machine Fire Insurance Company, the Sacred Harp Singing Association, and the Sweetwater Primitive Baptist Church, and the Yellow River Primitive Baptist Association, all in Gwinnett County.