Walter George (W.G.) Hopkins

(from "Yearbook of Garden City, Kansas and and Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens"

- Compiled by Frank L. Stowell, 1936)

A trade for a farm at the north edge of Garden City brought W.G. Hopkins to Finney county from Hutchinson in 1917.  Five years later he was elected county clerk on the Democratic ticket, and held the office for three consecutive terms, 1922 to 1928.  He has taken a prominent part in Democratic politics during his residence in Garden City and was chairman of the Finney County Democratic Central committee six years.  

During his term as county clerk he took the lead in encouraging the building of the new $186,000 Finney county court house and in planning the same.  The county offices were moved into the new building July 15, 1929.

Since December, 1928, Hopkins has been manager of the Garden City Cooperative Equity exchange, and during that time the concern has grown to be one of the largest and most successful cooperative grain companies in the United States.  Its volume of business has exceeded a million dollars in a single year.  Five other elevators in the county have been added to the company's holdings since Mr. Hopkins became manager.  

Walter George Hopkins was born April 20, 1890, near LaCrosse, Rush county, Kansas, the sixth of eight children of George W. and Olivia Hopkins, who were among the earliest settlers in the county.  George W. Hopkins was born July 4, 1852, and now makes his home with his son, W.G. Hopkins.  At his advanced age he still reads without the aid of glasses and possesses his full set of teeth.  

W.G. Hopkins attended high school at McCracken and the old Entra Nous college which was established five miles northeast of McCracken for farm children by an eccentric New York millionaire, and continued for several years.  After leaving school Hopkins spent two years as a sailor and visited most of the principal seaports in the world.  

On October 28, 1911, he was married to Lodena Dell in LaCrosse.  They have three children:  Ruth (Mrs. John Leeper); George, a student at Kansas State college, Manhattan, and Eloise, a member of the 1935 senior class of the Garden City Junior college.

Big game hunting and fishing are Mr. Hopkins' chief recreations.  His hunting trips have taken him throughout the mountain ranges of the West.  

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