Hopkinsville Community, A Colony of Freedmen

Members of the Hopkins family came to De Witt County in 1854 as slaves of Judge Henry Clay Pleasants (d. 1899). They worked for a time on a Gonzales County plantation and returned to this area after the Civil War as freedmen. In 1872 Henry Hopkins bought 42 acres of land and established the Hopkinsville community (1 mile west). Residents of the settlement organized the Antioch Baptist Church in 1873 and began a school about ten years later. Although the school closed in 1956, members of the Antioch Baptist Church continue to worship near Hopkinsville.