This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Hopkins, Kellogg, Crow, Nolan, Miller, Sherwood Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/kUB.2ACE/340.611.673.2 Message Board Post: I'm afraid the rich/famous Mark HOPKINS (1813-1878) -- the one who was Treasurer of the Central Pacific Railroad and one of "The Big Four" in California -- was not the son of Edward HOPKINS & Hannah CROW of Randolph Co., NC. Mark HOPKINS, railroad baron, was born in Henderson, NY, the son of Mark HOPKINS & Anastasia Lukens KELLOGG of Great Barrington, MA, then Henderson, NY, then St. Clair, MI. The 1850 census shows that Edward HOPKINS was born in Virginia and that Hannah CROW was born in North Carolina (it's said, in Randolph County). The 1820 census of Randolph Co., NC, is missing, but Edward & Hannah (CROW) HOPKINS are in the 1830, 1840, and 1850 censuses of Randolph Co., NC, and Widow Hannah (CROW) HOPKINS is in the 1860 and 1870 censuses of Randolph Co., NC. In other words, Edward HOPKINS and Mark HOPKINS were geographically nowhere near each other. In the 1850 census of Sacramento, CA (p. 144B), we find Mark HOPKINS as an unmarried man living with Edward H. MILLER. Both are "merchants," and both were born in New York. That this Mark HOPKINS is, indeed, the future Treasurer of the Central Pacific Railroad is supported by the fact that the railroad baron was known to have been in business with Edward H. MILLER and that Edward H. MILLER later became the Secretary of the Central Pacific Railroad. In the 1860 census of Sacramento, CA (p. 571A), Mark HOPKINS is again listed as a "merchant," born in New York, only now, he is living with his wife, Mary F. (SHERWOOD) HOPKINS, also born in New York. In the 1870 census of Sacramento, CA (p. 320B), Mark HOPKINS is still living with his wife, Mary F., and both are still shown as being born in New York, but Mark's occupation is now given as "Treasr. R R Co." In addition to a Chinese housekeeper, also living with them is Timothy NOLAN, the son of their former housekeeper, whom Mary legally adopted after the death of Mark, so there is, again, simply no doubt that this Mark HOPKINS is the railroad baron. In all three censuses, Mark HOPKINS gives his birthplace as New York, so his birth location cannot be dismissed as enumerator error -- and there is *no other* Mark HOPKINS in California in these three censuses. Nor, in fact, have I found *any* Mark HOPKINS indexed anywhere in any census up through 1880 who was born in North Carolina.