Hopkins County

Hopkins County, located in northeast Texas, is bordered on the north by the South Sulphur River and surrounded on the north by Delta County, on the east by Franklin County, on the south by Wood County, on the southwest by Rains County and on the west by Hunt County. The county seat, Sulphur Springs, is on Interstate Highway 30, eighty-two miles northeast of Dallas.

Cities, Towns & Communities

Birthright | Brashear | Center Point Como | Cumby | Dike | Gafford | Pickton | Saltillo | Sulphur Bluff | Sulphur Springs – county seat | Tarrant | Tira

History

Hopkins County was created from parts of Lamar and Nacogdoches counties in March 1846 by the first Texas state legislature. It was named for the David Hopkins family of pioneers. The county seat was established at Tarrant, about five miles north of Sulphur Springs, and remained there until 1870, when the state legislature officially made Sulphur Springs the seat of county government. The territory of the original 1846 Hopkins County was subsequently reduced several times. In 1870 a part of its southwestern corner was given to Rains County, and land north of the South Sulphur River was given to Delta County. In 1871 a small tip of Hopkins County’s northeastern corner was given to Lamar County. Hopkins County was settled mainly by southerners; it had a population of 2,623 by 1850. Slavery and cotton culture did not play a dominant role in the county before the Civil War. The census of 1850 enumerated 154 slaves in Hopkins County, less than 6 percent of the total population; that same year no cotton was reported planted in the county. The county population increased threefold during the 1850s. On the eve of the Civil War the census of 1860 reported 7,875 inhabitants, of which just under 1,000 were black. 

Location

Sulphur Springs, TX 33° 8′ 18.4128″ N, 95° 36′ 3.8412″ W

See map: Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, MapQuest