The Pioneer Who Couldn't Stay Put
Captain Charles Hopkins, a veteran of the Mexican War and early Seattle businessman, dies at his home on Terry Avenue. His life was a series of moves from San Francisco to Milwaukee to Portland, yet he remained one of the Northwest's most recognizable figures.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
CAPT. HOPKINS DEAD Pioneer of the Sound Passes Away at His Home.
Captain Charles Hopkins died yesterday at his home, corner of Terry avenue and Columbia street. The deceased was 81 years old, and one of the Pioneers of the northwest. He came around the Horn in during the cold war of '49, and was then in business in San Francisco and made money, but was ruined in the fire which destroyed nearly all the city. Mr. Hopkins moved around considerably, and it was till fate to be burned; out in nearly every place he would locate. He finally settled in Milwaukee, Oregon, and engaged in the lumber trade, in connection with his mercantile business, and was successful. It was there he married Lacy B. Baker, daughter of Colonel B. D. Baker, the first United States senator from Oregon. When the war broke out, Mr. Hopkins enlisted, and because of his knowledge of mercantile affairs, he was made captain and quartermaster at Vancouver, where he remained during the entire war. He then engaged in the hardware business in Portland, Oregon.
Captain Hopkins' life was a busy one and full of ups and downs. He died as he lived, believing in the justice of the Supreme Ruler.
Charles Hopkins represents the transient nature of early Pacific Northwest prosperity. Like many 'pioneers' who arrived during the Gold Rush era, he built wealth in San Francisco only to lose it to disaster (the 1906 fire was later, but the text references an earlier fire), then moved north seeking stability. His journey from a ruined SF merchant to a Milwaukee lumberman and finally a Seattle hardware owner mirrors the economic volatility of the region's early development.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.