1. HISTORICAL SKETCH
Creation
Hopkins, the forty-ninth county established in Kentucky, was created by
an act of the General Assembly approved December 9, 1806. The act read in part
as follows: "Be it enacted by the General Assembly, that from and after the
first day of May next, all that part of the County of Henderson, included in
the following bounds: . . . shall be one distinct county, and called and known _
by the name of Hopkins." (1) Its name was selected to honor General Samuel
Hopkins of Virginia, a distinguished officer of the American Revolution who
had moved to Kentucky in 1797 and settled on the Green River, but who was
never a resident of Hopkins County. (2)
Original Boundaries
The statute creating the county described its boundaries as "Beginning at
the mouth of Deer Creek; thence up Green River to the mouth of Pond River;
thence up Pond River by the county line to Tradewater; thence a due course down
Tradewater to the mouth of Owen's Creek; thence a due north course to the main {
branch at the Crab Orchard fork; thence up the main branch of said Crab Orchard E
fork until a line at right angles will strike the head of Black's and Newman's I
sugar camp branch; thence down the same and Deer Creek to the beginning." (5) A
Boundary Changes ( A
» Several changes of the original boundaries have been made. On January 22, -_
1822, the legislature approved an act by which "all that part of Christian
County lying to the north of a line beginning where the road leading from
· l. William Littell, Ehe Statute &aw_of Kentucky, with_§otes, Praelections,
and Observations 2n_the Public ASEE, 1806, III, 546, hereinafter cited as
Littell. .
2. Richard H. Collins, History of §EntugEy, II, 545. Z tl, ·_
3. Littell, 1806, III, 546. ;'_;.·; y
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