DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker out here in Gonzales County tells it this way, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now picture this stretch of Texas back in 1852 — open country, farm and ranch land rolling out in every direction. That's the year a farmer named D.
S. Hopkins came and put down roots right here. And where a man like that puts down roots, a community tends to follow.
Before long, this spot had grown into something folks called Hopkinsville — a thriving pioneer community, by all accounts. D. S.
Hopkins himself lived from 1819 all the way to 1917, so he had plenty of years to watch what he'd started take shape. And what took shape was something worth watching. This was ranch country, serious ranch country, and herds of cattle were started right here on this ground, pointed north toward the Chisholm Trail.
Think about that for a moment — the dust, the noise, the sheer scale of those drives beginning their long journey from this very spot. Hopkinsville had purpose. It had people.
It had the feel of a place that intended to stick around. But 1873 has a way of humbling intentions. That's the year a newly built railroad came through the region — just not through Hopkinsville.
The citizens looked at that railroad, looked at their town, and made a very practical pioneer calculation. They picked up and moved south, and where they landed, they built a new town. They called it Waelder.
And Hopkinsville? It was abandoned. A thriving pioneer community, reduced to a memory and a marker.
That's the thing about railroads in old Texas — they didn't just carry freight. They carried whole towns with them.
What the marker says
Once a thriving pioneer community. Founded by D. S. Hopkins (1819-1917), farmer who settled here in 1852. Located in farm-ranch area. Herds started here, bound for Chisholm trail. Abandoned 1873 when the citizens moved south and founded town of Waelder on newly built railroad.