Livingston York Hopkins was the son of surveyor Daniel Hopkins, and his wife, Sarah (maiden name Carter), and was born at Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio, on July 7, 1846. At his baptismal ceremony, his mother surprised the clergyman performing the ceremony, whose first name was Livingston, by loudly proclaiming, ‘I name him Livingston.' His middle name had actually been Yourtee, but, because it was such an abnormal name, he constantly referred to himself as just plain Livingston Hopkins, and, towards his latter years, he used the more agreeable York, in its place. As a matter of fact, his will is made out in the name of Livingston York Hopkins. He was one of fourteen children, but never got to know his father very well, as Daniel passed away in 1849. Raised in the Methodist faith, Livingston was not considered as a religious person in the ordinary sense, and was not a church goer, though he, in later years, did ensure that his own family were following in the beliefs of the Christian faith. It was stated, of Livingston Hopkins, that he never "drew, wrote, or said anything that was indecent, vulgar, or ‘suggestive,'" and that he was quite tolerant of other faiths, which proved that he was never a bigot, in any way.
After the death of his father, Livingston Hopkins' mother had difficulty bringing up her large family, nine of whom had survived from the original fourteen children. Livingston himself attempted to avoid schooling, at first, until he had to be practically dragged to the district school by his eldest sister. After he stubbornly stopped to make a protest, his sister administered a "sound spanking" which, and also with the help of a kind neighbour, persuaded him that it was best to go along and try to get an education.
At an early age, not only did he find that he was talented in comic art, but he also indulged in fiddle playing, after he had become the proud owner of one of these musical instruments, much to the annoyance of his relatives. Comic caricatures, drawn of his school teacher, were actually passed around, proudly, by the teacher, for other pupils to see, and was obviously an encouragement for the young lad, which would serve him well, later in life. Sometime after he reached the age of seven, he was placed in the care of an older brother, who was married, but without children. The couple adopted Livingston as their own child, and he was sent to a district mixed school, where children of both sexes were educated, and from then on his education progressed quite satisfactorily.
Livingston's schooldays ended abruptly when the Civil War commenced, and, although too young to serve in the military, he commenced working at odd jobs until he was old enough to enlist, some three years later. He definitely had no military ambitions, and his daughter, in her account of her father's life, states, quite clearly that "he was a humanitarian and could never see the necessity of washing international linen in a blood-bath," and he himself confessed, when referring to military life, that "it is a dog's life, and I was glad when the time came to turn the sword into a ploughshare." An elder brother served during the war, and, despite Livingston's own aversion to war, he had a great admiration of the president, Abraham Lincoln, and when the call for more volunteers came, in 1864, he did not hesitate, once he was of age, and enlisted as a private in company C of the 130th Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry (National Guard), on May 2, 1864, for a hundred days service. He was mustered into service at Toledo. His own account of his short service, written in his Confessions, and published in the Lone Hand magazine, are as follows:
"I do not exactly claim to have settled the dispute between North and South, but I am entitled to mention as a curious coincidence that the war ended a few months after my enlistment. I got a taste of active service down in Virginia, in front of Petersburg and Richmond – just enough to convince me that love of bloodshed is an acquired taste, and it takes more than four or five months to acquire a taste for the life of a private soldier. It's a dog's life, and I was not sorry when the time came to turn my sword into a ploughshare. It is my very proud boast that I am the only survivor of that great conflict who escaped a pension or a military title. I am not even a corporal, and when my club friends (real colonels, some of them) jocularly address me as Private Hopkins, I cannot say that I am displeased."
Dorothy Hopkins, Livingston's daughter, in her 1929 biography of her father, stated that the 130th Ohio had first been sent to Washington, where it was received by President Lincoln, but, because Livingston had been on guard duty at the time, he had then missed seeing the President at that review. However, on a subsequent occasion, he had managed to catch sight of the President, as he rode past, with his entourage of escorts. At the end of his service in the 130th Ohio, a hundred and forty-four days later, on September 22, 1864, Livingston was mustered out with his company, at Toledo. He received his discharge papers, as well as a certificate of thanks, from the United States government, giving details of the regiment's distinguished service in the Shenandoah Valley, as well as other operations on the James River and in front of Petersburg and Richmond, Virginia. Livingston's brother, Owen Johnston, though, did not fare so well, despite Livingston stating, in his memoirs, that Owen had "After four years active service (having enlisted as a private) he was mustered out when peace was declared with an honourable war record, and the rank of a commissioned officer." The regimental record of the 182nd Ohio Infantry, in which Owen J. Hopkins had served as 1st lieutenant and regimental quartermaster shows that he was actually dismissed from the unit on March 2, 1865.
Livingston then returned to sketching, and was taken up as artist for the Toledo Blade, followed by a brief stint with the New York based Scribner's Weekly, where he was confined to the Business Department, with duties of cutting out, pasting, and other such mundane chores. Considering this job as rather laborious and distasteful, he then rented a small studio, and decided to set up business for himself, in comic art. Referring to this as his "laugh factory", based in New York, he had a sign nailed up, with the title, "LIVINGSTON HOPKINS, DESIGNER ON WOOD." At the beginning he had to struggle for customers, even indulging in illustrating school journals and labels for canned goods. Some of the journals that hired him as an artist included Wild Oats and a weekly paper, Judge. He was also commissioned to sketch for a couple of volumes, including Josh Billings' Old Probability. This gave Livingston the incentive to write up, and illustrate his own volume, with its full title as "A Comic History of the United States, by Livingston Hopkins, with Seventy-five Illustrations from Sketches Taken at a Safe Distance by the Author," and published in time for the centennial, in 1876. The original venture was a complete failure, with the publisher losing money, and its author not receiving a cent for his work. In fact, Livingston himself declared, in his memoirs, that it was "one of the follies of my youth." At a later stage, however, the book was republished by an English firm, and sold at a reduced price, and from which he was able to make some money.
During his thirteen years as a free lance artist, he occupied the same studio at Room 12, 116 Nassau Street, New York, and from where he contributed to quite a number of magazines and journals, such as The Weekly, The Magazine, The Bazaar, Young People, Harper's Weekly, and a highly popular children's magazine titled St. Nicholas. He also contributed to the popular classics, such as Don Quixote, Gulliver's Travels, Baron Munchausen, as well as Knickerbocker's History of New York, by the well known author, Washington Irving.
It was during this period that he returned to Toledo, in mid-1875, to marry his childhood sweetheart, Harriet Augusta Commager, on June 9, 1875.
Livingston Hopkins' increasing popularity, and the overseas circulation of some of the American magazines he contributed to, were eventually to lead to his being sought by William Henry Traill, the managing director of the Bulletin magazine, which was published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Traill visited Hopkins in his New York studio, in 1882, and put the proposition to him, of moving to Sydney, and working as a cartoonist for the Bulletin. Hopkins was, at first, rather reluctant, due to the fact that he had a family to contend with. His wife, Harriett, had, at that particular time, been on a visit home to her parents in Toledo, so Hopkins sent her a letter stating the facts of Traill's visit to him, and his proposition, to which Harriett immediately sent a telegram with the short, but firm reply, to "Accept Australia." Thus it was that, on December 26, 1882, Livingston sent in his application for a United States passport, giving his particulars as six feet tall, with a high forehead, grey eyes, straight nose, medium mouth, round chin, black hair, dark complexion and a long face. The family, Livingston, with his wife, Harriet, and their three children, then left New York for San Francisco, and, on January 16, 1883, boarded the steamship Australia, to sail for their new home. Travelling via Honolulu and Auckland, the vessel arrived at Port Jackson late on the night of February 9, and the passengers remained aboard, in quarantine, until the next morning, Saturday, February 10, 1883, when they first set foot upon Australian soil. By the following Monday, February 12th, Livingston had put pen to paper, at the Bulletin office, and signed on for a three year contract with the magazine. His work with the magazine was so popular that he remained with them for nearly three decades more, always signing off as "Hop". His satire was always aimed to please, and thus cartoons brought laughter with the subject, and were never aimed directly at the person.
Very soon after his arrival in Sydney, he decided to purchase his own home, and the palatial two storey residence of "Fernham" in Raglan Street, Mosman, became their favoured choice. This was the premise the family remained in, until Livingston's death, and included a study which he named the "Wigwam" and which included not only his books and sketching implements, but various collections of items such as pistols, cellos and violins, and other articles of interest. Hop loved animals and children, and was never known to hurt a living thing. He had his menagerie which included white mice, guinea pigs, cats, a dachshund, and even a pet monkey, which he eventually had to give away to the zoo, because of its mischievous behaviour. He also had a number of other hobbies, including carpentry, and was quite capable of making his own violins. He loved bowling, and was actually part of a team that once participated in a competition at Lismore, New South Wales. Besides these talents he was also able to do many of the common household chores, such as sew, cook a meal, and look after the ailments of his children. His favourite film actor was Charlie Chaplin, and his favourite gramophone score was "Angels Guard Thee". He was very particular about the way he dressed, and his daughter considered him as a "dandy." Although Hop was a resident of Australia for more than forty-four years, he remained an American citizen till the day of his death. His vast popularity as a cartoonist and caricaturist within Australia and New Zealand was not as evident in the United States itself, and within his own state of Ohio he was almost an unknown.
Three of his children were born in the United States, prior to his moving to Australia, and the last three were born in New South Wales. His wife, Harriet passed away in 1895, and he never remarried, after her death, as he was very devoted to her.
Livingston Hopkins' collections of paperwork, sketches and photographs include a number of items from his early years, in the United States. These include photographs of him at the age of fourteen and again at seventeen. There are photographs of his home, "Fernham," as well as images taken in his study, including one showing Hop playing his cello. In the background, hung upon the walls can be seen the items he made a collection of, through the years, such as several pistols, and a large collection of books, on the shelves. He was a member of the Athenaeum Club, in Sydney, and also attended many of the Independence Day gatherings at the grounds of the United States Consul, in Sydney. In his later years he made at least two trips overseas, and returned to the United States on these occasions, in 1903 and 1914. On one of these trips he stopped over in Hong Kong, and met up with the aging ex-Confederate colonel, John Singleton Mosby, who was, at that time, United States consul there. Hop's feelings, at first, were of hatred and bitterness towards the old Confederate foe, but then this gave way to feelings of "pity for the doddering relic." On his trip to America in 1914, he was able to visit the old battlegrounds around Petersburg and Richmond, and he describes visiting the museum, and the collections of exploded shells and bullets, and other accoutrements carried by the soldiers.
As the years caught up with him, and after his retirement, Hop became more reliant upon his youngest daughter, Dorothy, to whom he confessed that wished he could write the story of his life, in his own way. He was able to complete some chapters for the Sydney magazine, the Lone Hand, but these were not as complete as he would have liked them to be. In his final months he suffered from the pain that sapped much of his strength. On the evening of Sunday, August 21st, 1927, he was in the study of his home, entertaining some old friends when he collapsed slightly, but refused to be helped upstairs, although in extreme pain, and feeling very weak. He had stated, to his daughter, "I shall be dead tomorrow," and his very last words, to the nurse who enquired if he was the man who had been the artist at the Bulletin, were, "Where have you lived all these years?" Livingston Hopkins died that same night, and the funeral took place the next afternoon, Monday, August 22, 1927, at the Wood Coffill's mortuary chapel, George Street, before then being sent for cremation at the Rookwood Crematorium.
Sources:
1850 United States Census.
Death Certificate for Livingston York Hopkins, August, 1927.
Evening Post [New Zealand] newspaper, dated 17 December, 1913, page 6.
Hop of the ‘Bulletin', by Dorothy June Hopkins; published by Angus & Robertson Limited, Sydney, Australia, 1929.
Lone Hand magazine; published Sydney, New South Wales; editions from 1913 – 1915:
"Chapters from the Autobiography of Livingston Hopkins, Illustrated by Himself," also titled as the "Confessions of Hop."
Ohio Artist in Australia:
Livingston Hopkins, by Frederick D. Kershner, jr., published in Ohio History: The Scholarly Journal of the Ohio Historical Society, volume 63, April, 1954, pages 113-134.
Passport application of Livingston Hopkins, dated at New York, December 26, 1882.
Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, dated Monday, August 22, 1927.
Original research of the late Roy Parker, Barry Crompton, Bob Simpson, Len Traynor and Terry Foenander, and published in the volume, CIVIL WAR VETERANS IN AUSTRALIA, edited by Mrs. Virginia Crocker, 2000.
∼Born in Ohio, Livingston York Hopkins only served for a period of about three months in the Civil War, having enlisted in company C, 130th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was involved in guarding prisoners, as well as work at Bermuda Hundred, Virginia, under the notorious general, Benjamin F. Butler. The unit were mustered out at Toledo, Ohio, in September, 1864. Subsequently he worked for several newspapers in Ohio and New York, and, with his artistic abilities, he provided material for a number of publications. He was eventually offered a position with the BULLETIN, a well known Australian magazine, and moved to Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, in the early 1880s to take up this position. He married a daughter of a lieutenant colonel of the 67th Ohio, Harriet Commager, and their daughter, Dorothy June Hopkins later authored a biography of her father, titled HOP OF THE BULLETIN. He died in Sydney and his remains were cremated at Rookwood Cemetery. [From the original research of the late Roy Parker, with assistance from Barry Crompton, of Melbourne, Bob Simpson, of Beechworth, in the state of Victoria, and Len Traynor, of Sydney, and published in the 2000 volume, CIVIL WAR VETERANS IN AUSTRALIA, by Roy's daughter, Mrs. Virginia Crocker.]
After the death of his father, Livingston Hopkins' mother had difficulty bringing up her large family, nine of whom had survived from the original fourteen children. Livingston himself attempted to avoid schooling, at first, until he had to be practically dragged to the district school by his eldest sister. After he stubbornly stopped to make a protest, his sister administered a "sound spanking" which, and also with the help of a kind neighbour, persuaded him that it was best to go along and try to get an education.
At an early age, not only did he find that he was talented in comic art, but he also indulged in fiddle playing, after he had become the proud owner of one of these musical instruments, much to the annoyance of his relatives. Comic caricatures, drawn of his school teacher, were actually passed around, proudly, by the teacher, for other pupils to see, and was obviously an encouragement for the young lad, which would serve him well, later in life. Sometime after he reached the age of seven, he was placed in the care of an older brother, who was married, but without children. The couple adopted Livingston as their own child, and he was sent to a district mixed school, where children of both sexes were educated, and from then on his education progressed quite satisfactorily.
Livingston's schooldays ended abruptly when the Civil War commenced, and, although too young to serve in the military, he commenced working at odd jobs until he was old enough to enlist, some three years later. He definitely had no military ambitions, and his daughter, in her account of her father's life, states, quite clearly that "he was a humanitarian and could never see the necessity of washing international linen in a blood-bath," and he himself confessed, when referring to military life, that "it is a dog's life, and I was glad when the time came to turn the sword into a ploughshare." An elder brother served during the war, and, despite Livingston's own aversion to war, he had a great admiration of the president, Abraham Lincoln, and when the call for more volunteers came, in 1864, he did not hesitate, once he was of age, and enlisted as a private in company C of the 130th Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry (National Guard), on May 2, 1864, for a hundred days service. He was mustered into service at Toledo. His own account of his short service, written in his Confessions, and published in the Lone Hand magazine, are as follows:
"I do not exactly claim to have settled the dispute between North and South, but I am entitled to mention as a curious coincidence that the war ended a few months after my enlistment. I got a taste of active service down in Virginia, in front of Petersburg and Richmond – just enough to convince me that love of bloodshed is an acquired taste, and it takes more than four or five months to acquire a taste for the life of a private soldier. It's a dog's life, and I was not sorry when the time came to turn my sword into a ploughshare. It is my very proud boast that I am the only survivor of that great conflict who escaped a pension or a military title. I am not even a corporal, and when my club friends (real colonels, some of them) jocularly address me as Private Hopkins, I cannot say that I am displeased."
Dorothy Hopkins, Livingston's daughter, in her 1929 biography of her father, stated that the 130th Ohio had first been sent to Washington, where it was received by President Lincoln, but, because Livingston had been on guard duty at the time, he had then missed seeing the President at that review. However, on a subsequent occasion, he had managed to catch sight of the President, as he rode past, with his entourage of escorts. At the end of his service in the 130th Ohio, a hundred and forty-four days later, on September 22, 1864, Livingston was mustered out with his company, at Toledo. He received his discharge papers, as well as a certificate of thanks, from the United States government, giving details of the regiment's distinguished service in the Shenandoah Valley, as well as other operations on the James River and in front of Petersburg and Richmond, Virginia. Livingston's brother, Owen Johnston, though, did not fare so well, despite Livingston stating, in his memoirs, that Owen had "After four years active service (having enlisted as a private) he was mustered out when peace was declared with an honourable war record, and the rank of a commissioned officer." The regimental record of the 182nd Ohio Infantry, in which Owen J. Hopkins had served as 1st lieutenant and regimental quartermaster shows that he was actually dismissed from the unit on March 2, 1865.
Livingston then returned to sketching, and was taken up as artist for the Toledo Blade, followed by a brief stint with the New York based Scribner's Weekly, where he was confined to the Business Department, with duties of cutting out, pasting, and other such mundane chores. Considering this job as rather laborious and distasteful, he then rented a small studio, and decided to set up business for himself, in comic art. Referring to this as his "laugh factory", based in New York, he had a sign nailed up, with the title, "LIVINGSTON HOPKINS, DESIGNER ON WOOD." At the beginning he had to struggle for customers, even indulging in illustrating school journals and labels for canned goods. Some of the journals that hired him as an artist included Wild Oats and a weekly paper, Judge. He was also commissioned to sketch for a couple of volumes, including Josh Billings' Old Probability. This gave Livingston the incentive to write up, and illustrate his own volume, with its full title as "A Comic History of the United States, by Livingston Hopkins, with Seventy-five Illustrations from Sketches Taken at a Safe Distance by the Author," and published in time for the centennial, in 1876. The original venture was a complete failure, with the publisher losing money, and its author not receiving a cent for his work. In fact, Livingston himself declared, in his memoirs, that it was "one of the follies of my youth." At a later stage, however, the book was republished by an English firm, and sold at a reduced price, and from which he was able to make some money.
During his thirteen years as a free lance artist, he occupied the same studio at Room 12, 116 Nassau Street, New York, and from where he contributed to quite a number of magazines and journals, such as The Weekly, The Magazine, The Bazaar, Young People, Harper's Weekly, and a highly popular children's magazine titled St. Nicholas. He also contributed to the popular classics, such as Don Quixote, Gulliver's Travels, Baron Munchausen, as well as Knickerbocker's History of New York, by the well known author, Washington Irving.
It was during this period that he returned to Toledo, in mid-1875, to marry his childhood sweetheart, Harriet Augusta Commager, on June 9, 1875.
Livingston Hopkins' increasing popularity, and the overseas circulation of some of the American magazines he contributed to, were eventually to lead to his being sought by William Henry Traill, the managing director of the Bulletin magazine, which was published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Traill visited Hopkins in his New York studio, in 1882, and put the proposition to him, of moving to Sydney, and working as a cartoonist for the Bulletin. Hopkins was, at first, rather reluctant, due to the fact that he had a family to contend with. His wife, Harriett, had, at that particular time, been on a visit home to her parents in Toledo, so Hopkins sent her a letter stating the facts of Traill's visit to him, and his proposition, to which Harriett immediately sent a telegram with the short, but firm reply, to "Accept Australia." Thus it was that, on December 26, 1882, Livingston sent in his application for a United States passport, giving his particulars as six feet tall, with a high forehead, grey eyes, straight nose, medium mouth, round chin, black hair, dark complexion and a long face. The family, Livingston, with his wife, Harriet, and their three children, then left New York for San Francisco, and, on January 16, 1883, boarded the steamship Australia, to sail for their new home. Travelling via Honolulu and Auckland, the vessel arrived at Port Jackson late on the night of February 9, and the passengers remained aboard, in quarantine, until the next morning, Saturday, February 10, 1883, when they first set foot upon Australian soil. By the following Monday, February 12th, Livingston had put pen to paper, at the Bulletin office, and signed on for a three year contract with the magazine. His work with the magazine was so popular that he remained with them for nearly three decades more, always signing off as "Hop". His satire was always aimed to please, and thus cartoons brought laughter with the subject, and were never aimed directly at the person.
Very soon after his arrival in Sydney, he decided to purchase his own home, and the palatial two storey residence of "Fernham" in Raglan Street, Mosman, became their favoured choice. This was the premise the family remained in, until Livingston's death, and included a study which he named the "Wigwam" and which included not only his books and sketching implements, but various collections of items such as pistols, cellos and violins, and other articles of interest. Hop loved animals and children, and was never known to hurt a living thing. He had his menagerie which included white mice, guinea pigs, cats, a dachshund, and even a pet monkey, which he eventually had to give away to the zoo, because of its mischievous behaviour. He also had a number of other hobbies, including carpentry, and was quite capable of making his own violins. He loved bowling, and was actually part of a team that once participated in a competition at Lismore, New South Wales. Besides these talents he was also able to do many of the common household chores, such as sew, cook a meal, and look after the ailments of his children. His favourite film actor was Charlie Chaplin, and his favourite gramophone score was "Angels Guard Thee". He was very particular about the way he dressed, and his daughter considered him as a "dandy." Although Hop was a resident of Australia for more than forty-four years, he remained an American citizen till the day of his death. His vast popularity as a cartoonist and caricaturist within Australia and New Zealand was not as evident in the United States itself, and within his own state of Ohio he was almost an unknown.
Three of his children were born in the United States, prior to his moving to Australia, and the last three were born in New South Wales. His wife, Harriet passed away in 1895, and he never remarried, after her death, as he was very devoted to her.
Livingston Hopkins' collections of paperwork, sketches and photographs include a number of items from his early years, in the United States. These include photographs of him at the age of fourteen and again at seventeen. There are photographs of his home, "Fernham," as well as images taken in his study, including one showing Hop playing his cello. In the background, hung upon the walls can be seen the items he made a collection of, through the years, such as several pistols, and a large collection of books, on the shelves. He was a member of the Athenaeum Club, in Sydney, and also attended many of the Independence Day gatherings at the grounds of the United States Consul, in Sydney. In his later years he made at least two trips overseas, and returned to the United States on these occasions, in 1903 and 1914. On one of these trips he stopped over in Hong Kong, and met up with the aging ex-Confederate colonel, John Singleton Mosby, who was, at that time, United States consul there. Hop's feelings, at first, were of hatred and bitterness towards the old Confederate foe, but then this gave way to feelings of "pity for the doddering relic." On his trip to America in 1914, he was able to visit the old battlegrounds around Petersburg and Richmond, and he describes visiting the museum, and the collections of exploded shells and bullets, and other accoutrements carried by the soldiers.
As the years caught up with him, and after his retirement, Hop became more reliant upon his youngest daughter, Dorothy, to whom he confessed that wished he could write the story of his life, in his own way. He was able to complete some chapters for the Sydney magazine, the Lone Hand, but these were not as complete as he would have liked them to be. In his final months he suffered from the pain that sapped much of his strength. On the evening of Sunday, August 21st, 1927, he was in the study of his home, entertaining some old friends when he collapsed slightly, but refused to be helped upstairs, although in extreme pain, and feeling very weak. He had stated, to his daughter, "I shall be dead tomorrow," and his very last words, to the nurse who enquired if he was the man who had been the artist at the Bulletin, were, "Where have you lived all these years?" Livingston Hopkins died that same night, and the funeral took place the next afternoon, Monday, August 22, 1927, at the Wood Coffill's mortuary chapel, George Street, before then being sent for cremation at the Rookwood Crematorium.
Sources:
1850 United States Census.
Death Certificate for Livingston York Hopkins, August, 1927.
Evening Post [New Zealand] newspaper, dated 17 December, 1913, page 6.
Hop of the ‘Bulletin', by Dorothy June Hopkins; published by Angus & Robertson Limited, Sydney, Australia, 1929.
Lone Hand magazine; published Sydney, New South Wales; editions from 1913 – 1915:
"Chapters from the Autobiography of Livingston Hopkins, Illustrated by Himself," also titled as the "Confessions of Hop."
Ohio Artist in Australia:
Livingston Hopkins, by Frederick D. Kershner, jr., published in Ohio History: The Scholarly Journal of the Ohio Historical Society, volume 63, April, 1954, pages 113-134.
Passport application of Livingston Hopkins, dated at New York, December 26, 1882.
Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, dated Monday, August 22, 1927.
Original research of the late Roy Parker, Barry Crompton, Bob Simpson, Len Traynor and Terry Foenander, and published in the volume, CIVIL WAR VETERANS IN AUSTRALIA, edited by Mrs. Virginia Crocker, 2000.
∼Born in Ohio, Livingston York Hopkins only served for a period of about three months in the Civil War, having enlisted in company C, 130th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was involved in guarding prisoners, as well as work at Bermuda Hundred, Virginia, under the notorious general, Benjamin F. Butler. The unit were mustered out at Toledo, Ohio, in September, 1864. Subsequently he worked for several newspapers in Ohio and New York, and, with his artistic abilities, he provided material for a number of publications. He was eventually offered a position with the BULLETIN, a well known Australian magazine, and moved to Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, in the early 1880s to take up this position. He married a daughter of a lieutenant colonel of the 67th Ohio, Harriet Commager, and their daughter, Dorothy June Hopkins later authored a biography of her father, titled HOP OF THE BULLETIN. He died in Sydney and his remains were cremated at Rookwood Cemetery. [From the original research of the late Roy Parker, with assistance from Barry Crompton, of Melbourne, Bob Simpson, of Beechworth, in the state of Victoria, and Len Traynor, of Sydney, and published in the 2000 volume, CIVIL WAR VETERANS IN AUSTRALIA, by Roy's daughter, Mrs. Virginia Crocker.]
Livingston York Hopkins was the son of surveyor Daniel Hopkins, and his wife, Sarah (maiden name Carter), and was born at Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio, on July 7, 1846. At his baptismal ceremony, his mother surprised the clergyman performing the ceremony, whose first name was Livingston, by loudly proclaiming, ‘I name him Livingston.' His middle name had actually been Yourtee, but, because it was such an abnormal name, he constantly referred to himself as just plain Livingston Hopkins, and, towards his latter years, he used the more agreeable York, in its place. As a matter of fact, his will is made out in the name of Livingston York Hopkins. He was one of fourteen children, but never got to know his father very well, as Daniel passed away in 1849. Raised in the Methodist faith, Livingston was not considered as a religious person in the ordinary sense, and was not a church goer, though he, in later years, did ensure that his own family were following in the beliefs of the Christian faith. It was stated, of Livingston Hopkins, that he never "drew, wrote, or said anything that was indecent, vulgar, or ‘suggestive,'" and that he was quite tolerant of other faiths, which proved that he was never a bigot, in any way.
After the death of his father, Livingston Hopkins' mother had difficulty bringing up her large family, nine of whom had survived from the original fourteen children. Livingston himself attempted to avoid schooling, at first, until he had to be practically dragged to the district school by his eldest sister. After he stubbornly stopped to make a protest, his sister administered a "sound spanking" which, and also with the help of a kind neighbour, persuaded him that it was best to go along and try to get an education.
At an early age, not only did he find that he was talented in comic art, but he also indulged in fiddle playing, after he had become the proud owner of one of these musical instruments, much to the annoyance of his relatives. Comic caricatures, drawn of his school teacher, were actually passed around, proudly, by the teacher, for other pupils to see, and was obviously an encouragement for the young lad, which would serve him well, later in life. Sometime after he reached the age of seven, he was placed in the care of an older brother, who was married, but without children. The couple adopted Livingston as their own child, and he was sent to a district mixed school, where children of both sexes were educated, and from then on his education progressed quite satisfactorily.
Livingston's schooldays ended abruptly when the Civil War commenced, and, although too young to serve in the military, he commenced working at odd jobs until he was old enough to enlist, some three years later. He definitely had no military ambitions, and his daughter, in her account of her father's life, states, quite clearly that "he was a humanitarian and could never see the necessity of washing international linen in a blood-bath," and he himself confessed, when referring to military life, that "it is a dog's life, and I was glad when the time came to turn the sword into a ploughshare." An elder brother served during the war, and, despite Livingston's own aversion to war, he had a great admiration of the president, Abraham Lincoln, and when the call for more volunteers came, in 1864, he did not hesitate, once he was of age, and enlisted as a private in company C of the 130th Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry (National Guard), on May 2, 1864, for a hundred days service. He was mustered into service at Toledo. His own account of his short service, written in his Confessions, and published in the Lone Hand magazine, are as follows:
"I do not exactly claim to have settled the dispute between North and South, but I am entitled to mention as a curious coincidence that the war ended a few months after my enlistment. I got a taste of active service down in Virginia, in front of Petersburg and Richmond – just enough to convince me that love of bloodshed is an acquired taste, and it takes more than four or five months to acquire a taste for the life of a private soldier. It's a dog's life, and I was not sorry when the time came to turn my sword into a ploughshare. It is my very proud boast that I am the only survivor of that great conflict who escaped a pension or a military title. I am not even a corporal, and when my club friends (real colonels, some of them) jocularly address me as Private Hopkins, I cannot say that I am displeased."
Dorothy Hopkins, Livingston's daughter, in her 1929 biography of her father, stated that the 130th Ohio had first been sent to Washington, where it was received by President Lincoln, but, because Livingston had been on guard duty at the time, he had then missed seeing the President at that review. However, on a subsequent occasion, he had managed to catch sight of the President, as he rode past, with his entourage of escorts. At the end of his service in the 130th Ohio, a hundred and forty-four days later, on September 22, 1864, Livingston was mustered out with his company, at Toledo. He received his discharge papers, as well as a certificate of thanks, from the United States government, giving details of the regiment's distinguished service in the Shenandoah Valley, as well as other operations on the James River and in front of Petersburg and Richmond, Virginia. Livingston's brother, Owen Johnston, though, did not fare so well, despite Livingston stating, in his memoirs, that Owen had "After four years active service (having enlisted as a private) he was mustered out when peace was declared with an honourable war record, and the rank of a commissioned officer." The regimental record of the 182nd Ohio Infantry, in which Owen J. Hopkins had served as 1st lieutenant and regimental quartermaster shows that he was actually dismissed from the unit on March 2, 1865.
Livingston then returned to sketching, and was taken up as artist for the Toledo Blade, followed by a brief stint with the New York based Scribner's Weekly, where he was confined to the Business Department, with duties of cutting out, pasting, and other such mundane chores. Considering this job as rather laborious and distasteful, he then rented a small studio, and decided to set up business for himself, in comic art. Referring to this as his "laugh factory", based in New York, he had a sign nailed up, with the title, "LIVINGSTON HOPKINS, DESIGNER ON WOOD." At the beginning he had to struggle for customers, even indulging in illustrating school journals and labels for canned goods. Some of the journals that hired him as an artist included Wild Oats and a weekly paper, Judge. He was also commissioned to sketch for a couple of volumes, including Josh Billings' Old Probability. This gave Livingston the incentive to write up, and illustrate his own volume, with its full title as "A Comic History of the United States, by Livingston Hopkins, with Seventy-five Illustrations from Sketches Taken at a Safe Distance by the Author," and published in time for the centennial, in 1876. The original venture was a complete failure, with the publisher losing money, and its author not receiving a cent for his work. In fact, Livingston himself declared, in his memoirs, that it was "one of the follies of my youth." At a later stage, however, the book was republished by an English firm, and sold at a reduced price, and from which he was able to make some money.
During his thirteen years as a free lance artist, he occupied the same studio at Room 12, 116 Nassau Street, New York, and from where he contributed to quite a number of magazines and journals, such as The Weekly, The Magazine, The Bazaar, Young People, Harper's Weekly, and a highly popular children's magazine titled St. Nicholas. He also contributed to the popular classics, such as Don Quixote, Gulliver's Travels, Baron Munchausen, as well as Knickerbocker's History of New York, by the well known author, Washington Irving.
It was during this period that he returned to Toledo, in mid-1875, to marry his childhood sweetheart, Harriet Augusta Commager, on June 9, 1875.
Livingston Hopkins' increasing popularity, and the overseas circulation of some of the American magazines he contributed to, were eventually to lead to his being sought by William Henry Traill, the managing director of the Bulletin magazine, which was published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Traill visited Hopkins in his New York studio, in 1882, and put the proposition to him, of moving to Sydney, and working as a cartoonist for the Bulletin. Hopkins was, at first, rather reluctant, due to the fact that he had a family to contend with. His wife, Harriett, had, at that particular time, been on a visit home to her parents in Toledo, so Hopkins sent her a letter stating the facts of Traill's visit to him, and his proposition, to which Harriett immediately sent a telegram with the short, but firm reply, to "Accept Australia." Thus it was that, on December 26, 1882, Livingston sent in his application for a United States passport, giving his particulars as six feet tall, with a high forehead, grey eyes, straight nose, medium mouth, round chin, black hair, dark complexion and a long face. The family, Livingston, with his wife, Harriet, and their three children, then left New York for San Francisco, and, on January 16, 1883, boarded the steamship Australia, to sail for their new home. Travelling via Honolulu and Auckland, the vessel arrived at Port Jackson late on the night of February 9, and the passengers remained aboard, in quarantine, until the next morning, Saturday, February 10, 1883, when they first set foot upon Australian soil. By the following Monday, February 12th, Livingston had put pen to paper, at the Bulletin office, and signed on for a three year contract with the magazine. His work with the magazine was so popular that he remained with them for nearly three decades more, always signing off as "Hop". His satire was always aimed to please, and thus cartoons brought laughter with the subject, and were never aimed directly at the person.
Very soon after his arrival in Sydney, he decided to purchase his own home, and the palatial two storey residence of "Fernham" in Raglan Street, Mosman, became their favoured choice. This was the premise the family remained in, until Livingston's death, and included a study which he named the "Wigwam" and which included not only his books and sketching implements, but various collections of items such as pistols, cellos and violins, and other articles of interest. Hop loved animals and children, and was never known to hurt a living thing. He had his menagerie which included white mice, guinea pigs, cats, a dachshund, and even a pet monkey, which he eventually had to give away to the zoo, because of its mischievous behaviour. He also had a number of other hobbies, including carpentry, and was quite capable of making his own violins. He loved bowling, and was actually part of a team that once participated in a competition at Lismore, New South Wales. Besides these talents he was also able to do many of the common household chores, such as sew, cook a meal, and look after the ailments of his children. His favourite film actor was Charlie Chaplin, and his favourite gramophone score was "Angels Guard Thee". He was very particular about the way he dressed, and his daughter considered him as a "dandy." Although Hop was a resident of Australia for more than forty-four years, he remained an American citizen till the day of his death. His vast popularity as a cartoonist and caricaturist within Australia and New Zealand was not as evident in the United States itself, and within his own state of Ohio he was almost an unknown.
Three of his children were born in the United States, prior to his moving to Australia, and the last three were born in New South Wales. His wife, Harriet passed away in 1895, and he never remarried, after her death, as he was very devoted to her.
Livingston Hopkins' collections of paperwork, sketches and photographs include a number of items from his early years, in the United States. These include photographs of him at the age of fourteen and again at seventeen. There are photographs of his home, "Fernham," as well as images taken in his study, including one showing Hop playing his cello. In the background, hung upon the walls can be seen the items he made a collection of, through the years, such as several pistols, and a large collection of books, on the shelves. He was a member of the Athenaeum Club, in Sydney, and also attended many of the Independence Day gatherings at the grounds of the United States Consul, in Sydney. In his later years he made at least two trips overseas, and returned to the United States on these occasions, in 1903 and 1914. On one of these trips he stopped over in Hong Kong, and met up with the aging ex-Confederate colonel, John Singleton Mosby, who was, at that time, United States consul there. Hop's feelings, at first, were of hatred and bitterness towards the old Confederate foe, but then this gave way to feelings of "pity for the doddering relic." On his trip to America in 1914, he was able to visit the old battlegrounds around Petersburg and Richmond, and he describes visiting the museum, and the collections of exploded shells and bullets, and other accoutrements carried by the soldiers.
As the years caught up with him, and after his retirement, Hop became more reliant upon his youngest daughter, Dorothy, to whom he confessed that wished he could write the story of his life, in his own way. He was able to complete some chapters for the Sydney magazine, the Lone Hand, but these were not as complete as he would have liked them to be. In his final months he suffered from the pain that sapped much of his strength. On the evening of Sunday, August 21st, 1927, he was in the study of his home, entertaining some old friends when he collapsed slightly, but refused to be helped upstairs, although in extreme pain, and feeling very weak. He had stated, to his daughter, "I shall be dead tomorrow," and his very last words, to the nurse who enquired if he was the man who had been the artist at the Bulletin, were, "Where have you lived all these years?" Livingston Hopkins died that same night, and the funeral took place the next afternoon, Monday, August 22, 1927, at the Wood Coffill's mortuary chapel, George Street, before then being sent for cremation at the Rookwood Crematorium.
Sources:
1850 United States Census.
Death Certificate for Livingston York Hopkins, August, 1927.
Evening Post [New Zealand] newspaper, dated 17 December, 1913, page 6.
Hop of the ‘Bulletin', by Dorothy June Hopkins; published by Angus & Robertson Limited, Sydney, Australia, 1929.
Lone Hand magazine; published Sydney, New South Wales; editions from 1913 – 1915:
"Chapters from the Autobiography of Livingston Hopkins, Illustrated by Himself," also titled as the "Confessions of Hop."
Ohio Artist in Australia:
Livingston Hopkins, by Frederick D. Kershner, jr., published in Ohio History: The Scholarly Journal of the Ohio Historical Society, volume 63, April, 1954, pages 113-134.
Passport application of Livingston Hopkins, dated at New York, December 26, 1882.
Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, dated Monday, August 22, 1927.
Original research of the late Roy Parker, Barry Crompton, Bob Simpson, Len Traynor and Terry Foenander, and published in the volume, CIVIL WAR VETERANS IN AUSTRALIA, edited by Mrs. Virginia Crocker, 2000.
∼Born in Ohio, Livingston York Hopkins only served for a period of about three months in the Civil War, having enlisted in company C, 130th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was involved in guarding prisoners, as well as work at Bermuda Hundred, Virginia, under the notorious general, Benjamin F. Butler. The unit were mustered out at Toledo, Ohio, in September, 1864. Subsequently he worked for several newspapers in Ohio and New York, and, with his artistic abilities, he provided material for a number of publications. He was eventually offered a position with the BULLETIN, a well known Australian magazine, and moved to Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, in the early 1880s to take up this position. He married a daughter of a lieutenant colonel of the 67th Ohio, Harriet Commager, and their daughter, Dorothy June Hopkins later authored a biography of her father, titled HOP OF THE BULLETIN. He died in Sydney and his remains were cremated at Rookwood Cemetery. [From the original research of the late Roy Parker, with assistance from Barry Crompton, of Melbourne, Bob Simpson, of Beechworth, in the state of Victoria, and Len Traynor, of Sydney, and published in the 2000 volume, CIVIL WAR VETERANS IN AUSTRALIA, by Roy's daughter, Mrs. Virginia Crocker.]
After the death of his father, Livingston Hopkins' mother had difficulty bringing up her large family, nine of whom had survived from the original fourteen children. Livingston himself attempted to avoid schooling, at first, until he had to be practically dragged to the district school by his eldest sister. After he stubbornly stopped to make a protest, his sister administered a "sound spanking" which, and also with the help of a kind neighbour, persuaded him that it was best to go along and try to get an education.
At an early age, not only did he find that he was talented in comic art, but he also indulged in fiddle playing, after he had become the proud owner of one of these musical instruments, much to the annoyance of his relatives. Comic caricatures, drawn of his school teacher, were actually passed around, proudly, by the teacher, for other pupils to see, and was obviously an encouragement for the young lad, which would serve him well, later in life. Sometime after he reached the age of seven, he was placed in the care of an older brother, who was married, but without children. The couple adopted Livingston as their own child, and he was sent to a district mixed school, where children of both sexes were educated, and from then on his education progressed quite satisfactorily.
Livingston's schooldays ended abruptly when the Civil War commenced, and, although too young to serve in the military, he commenced working at odd jobs until he was old enough to enlist, some three years later. He definitely had no military ambitions, and his daughter, in her account of her father's life, states, quite clearly that "he was a humanitarian and could never see the necessity of washing international linen in a blood-bath," and he himself confessed, when referring to military life, that "it is a dog's life, and I was glad when the time came to turn the sword into a ploughshare." An elder brother served during the war, and, despite Livingston's own aversion to war, he had a great admiration of the president, Abraham Lincoln, and when the call for more volunteers came, in 1864, he did not hesitate, once he was of age, and enlisted as a private in company C of the 130th Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry (National Guard), on May 2, 1864, for a hundred days service. He was mustered into service at Toledo. His own account of his short service, written in his Confessions, and published in the Lone Hand magazine, are as follows:
"I do not exactly claim to have settled the dispute between North and South, but I am entitled to mention as a curious coincidence that the war ended a few months after my enlistment. I got a taste of active service down in Virginia, in front of Petersburg and Richmond – just enough to convince me that love of bloodshed is an acquired taste, and it takes more than four or five months to acquire a taste for the life of a private soldier. It's a dog's life, and I was not sorry when the time came to turn my sword into a ploughshare. It is my very proud boast that I am the only survivor of that great conflict who escaped a pension or a military title. I am not even a corporal, and when my club friends (real colonels, some of them) jocularly address me as Private Hopkins, I cannot say that I am displeased."
Dorothy Hopkins, Livingston's daughter, in her 1929 biography of her father, stated that the 130th Ohio had first been sent to Washington, where it was received by President Lincoln, but, because Livingston had been on guard duty at the time, he had then missed seeing the President at that review. However, on a subsequent occasion, he had managed to catch sight of the President, as he rode past, with his entourage of escorts. At the end of his service in the 130th Ohio, a hundred and forty-four days later, on September 22, 1864, Livingston was mustered out with his company, at Toledo. He received his discharge papers, as well as a certificate of thanks, from the United States government, giving details of the regiment's distinguished service in the Shenandoah Valley, as well as other operations on the James River and in front of Petersburg and Richmond, Virginia. Livingston's brother, Owen Johnston, though, did not fare so well, despite Livingston stating, in his memoirs, that Owen had "After four years active service (having enlisted as a private) he was mustered out when peace was declared with an honourable war record, and the rank of a commissioned officer." The regimental record of the 182nd Ohio Infantry, in which Owen J. Hopkins had served as 1st lieutenant and regimental quartermaster shows that he was actually dismissed from the unit on March 2, 1865.
Livingston then returned to sketching, and was taken up as artist for the Toledo Blade, followed by a brief stint with the New York based Scribner's Weekly, where he was confined to the Business Department, with duties of cutting out, pasting, and other such mundane chores. Considering this job as rather laborious and distasteful, he then rented a small studio, and decided to set up business for himself, in comic art. Referring to this as his "laugh factory", based in New York, he had a sign nailed up, with the title, "LIVINGSTON HOPKINS, DESIGNER ON WOOD." At the beginning he had to struggle for customers, even indulging in illustrating school journals and labels for canned goods. Some of the journals that hired him as an artist included Wild Oats and a weekly paper, Judge. He was also commissioned to sketch for a couple of volumes, including Josh Billings' Old Probability. This gave Livingston the incentive to write up, and illustrate his own volume, with its full title as "A Comic History of the United States, by Livingston Hopkins, with Seventy-five Illustrations from Sketches Taken at a Safe Distance by the Author," and published in time for the centennial, in 1876. The original venture was a complete failure, with the publisher losing money, and its author not receiving a cent for his work. In fact, Livingston himself declared, in his memoirs, that it was "one of the follies of my youth." At a later stage, however, the book was republished by an English firm, and sold at a reduced price, and from which he was able to make some money.
During his thirteen years as a free lance artist, he occupied the same studio at Room 12, 116 Nassau Street, New York, and from where he contributed to quite a number of magazines and journals, such as The Weekly, The Magazine, The Bazaar, Young People, Harper's Weekly, and a highly popular children's magazine titled St. Nicholas. He also contributed to the popular classics, such as Don Quixote, Gulliver's Travels, Baron Munchausen, as well as Knickerbocker's History of New York, by the well known author, Washington Irving.
It was during this period that he returned to Toledo, in mid-1875, to marry his childhood sweetheart, Harriet Augusta Commager, on June 9, 1875.
Livingston Hopkins' increasing popularity, and the overseas circulation of some of the American magazines he contributed to, were eventually to lead to his being sought by William Henry Traill, the managing director of the Bulletin magazine, which was published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Traill visited Hopkins in his New York studio, in 1882, and put the proposition to him, of moving to Sydney, and working as a cartoonist for the Bulletin. Hopkins was, at first, rather reluctant, due to the fact that he had a family to contend with. His wife, Harriett, had, at that particular time, been on a visit home to her parents in Toledo, so Hopkins sent her a letter stating the facts of Traill's visit to him, and his proposition, to which Harriett immediately sent a telegram with the short, but firm reply, to "Accept Australia." Thus it was that, on December 26, 1882, Livingston sent in his application for a United States passport, giving his particulars as six feet tall, with a high forehead, grey eyes, straight nose, medium mouth, round chin, black hair, dark complexion and a long face. The family, Livingston, with his wife, Harriet, and their three children, then left New York for San Francisco, and, on January 16, 1883, boarded the steamship Australia, to sail for their new home. Travelling via Honolulu and Auckland, the vessel arrived at Port Jackson late on the night of February 9, and the passengers remained aboard, in quarantine, until the next morning, Saturday, February 10, 1883, when they first set foot upon Australian soil. By the following Monday, February 12th, Livingston had put pen to paper, at the Bulletin office, and signed on for a three year contract with the magazine. His work with the magazine was so popular that he remained with them for nearly three decades more, always signing off as "Hop". His satire was always aimed to please, and thus cartoons brought laughter with the subject, and were never aimed directly at the person.
Very soon after his arrival in Sydney, he decided to purchase his own home, and the palatial two storey residence of "Fernham" in Raglan Street, Mosman, became their favoured choice. This was the premise the family remained in, until Livingston's death, and included a study which he named the "Wigwam" and which included not only his books and sketching implements, but various collections of items such as pistols, cellos and violins, and other articles of interest. Hop loved animals and children, and was never known to hurt a living thing. He had his menagerie which included white mice, guinea pigs, cats, a dachshund, and even a pet monkey, which he eventually had to give away to the zoo, because of its mischievous behaviour. He also had a number of other hobbies, including carpentry, and was quite capable of making his own violins. He loved bowling, and was actually part of a team that once participated in a competition at Lismore, New South Wales. Besides these talents he was also able to do many of the common household chores, such as sew, cook a meal, and look after the ailments of his children. His favourite film actor was Charlie Chaplin, and his favourite gramophone score was "Angels Guard Thee". He was very particular about the way he dressed, and his daughter considered him as a "dandy." Although Hop was a resident of Australia for more than forty-four years, he remained an American citizen till the day of his death. His vast popularity as a cartoonist and caricaturist within Australia and New Zealand was not as evident in the United States itself, and within his own state of Ohio he was almost an unknown.
Three of his children were born in the United States, prior to his moving to Australia, and the last three were born in New South Wales. His wife, Harriet passed away in 1895, and he never remarried, after her death, as he was very devoted to her.
Livingston Hopkins' collections of paperwork, sketches and photographs include a number of items from his early years, in the United States. These include photographs of him at the age of fourteen and again at seventeen. There are photographs of his home, "Fernham," as well as images taken in his study, including one showing Hop playing his cello. In the background, hung upon the walls can be seen the items he made a collection of, through the years, such as several pistols, and a large collection of books, on the shelves. He was a member of the Athenaeum Club, in Sydney, and also attended many of the Independence Day gatherings at the grounds of the United States Consul, in Sydney. In his later years he made at least two trips overseas, and returned to the United States on these occasions, in 1903 and 1914. On one of these trips he stopped over in Hong Kong, and met up with the aging ex-Confederate colonel, John Singleton Mosby, who was, at that time, United States consul there. Hop's feelings, at first, were of hatred and bitterness towards the old Confederate foe, but then this gave way to feelings of "pity for the doddering relic." On his trip to America in 1914, he was able to visit the old battlegrounds around Petersburg and Richmond, and he describes visiting the museum, and the collections of exploded shells and bullets, and other accoutrements carried by the soldiers.
As the years caught up with him, and after his retirement, Hop became more reliant upon his youngest daughter, Dorothy, to whom he confessed that wished he could write the story of his life, in his own way. He was able to complete some chapters for the Sydney magazine, the Lone Hand, but these were not as complete as he would have liked them to be. In his final months he suffered from the pain that sapped much of his strength. On the evening of Sunday, August 21st, 1927, he was in the study of his home, entertaining some old friends when he collapsed slightly, but refused to be helped upstairs, although in extreme pain, and feeling very weak. He had stated, to his daughter, "I shall be dead tomorrow," and his very last words, to the nurse who enquired if he was the man who had been the artist at the Bulletin, were, "Where have you lived all these years?" Livingston Hopkins died that same night, and the funeral took place the next afternoon, Monday, August 22, 1927, at the Wood Coffill's mortuary chapel, George Street, before then being sent for cremation at the Rookwood Crematorium.
Sources:
1850 United States Census.
Death Certificate for Livingston York Hopkins, August, 1927.
Evening Post [New Zealand] newspaper, dated 17 December, 1913, page 6.
Hop of the ‘Bulletin', by Dorothy June Hopkins; published by Angus & Robertson Limited, Sydney, Australia, 1929.
Lone Hand magazine; published Sydney, New South Wales; editions from 1913 – 1915:
"Chapters from the Autobiography of Livingston Hopkins, Illustrated by Himself," also titled as the "Confessions of Hop."
Ohio Artist in Australia:
Livingston Hopkins, by Frederick D. Kershner, jr., published in Ohio History: The Scholarly Journal of the Ohio Historical Society, volume 63, April, 1954, pages 113-134.
Passport application of Livingston Hopkins, dated at New York, December 26, 1882.
Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, dated Monday, August 22, 1927.
Original research of the late Roy Parker, Barry Crompton, Bob Simpson, Len Traynor and Terry Foenander, and published in the volume, CIVIL WAR VETERANS IN AUSTRALIA, edited by Mrs. Virginia Crocker, 2000.
∼Born in Ohio, Livingston York Hopkins only served for a period of about three months in the Civil War, having enlisted in company C, 130th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was involved in guarding prisoners, as well as work at Bermuda Hundred, Virginia, under the notorious general, Benjamin F. Butler. The unit were mustered out at Toledo, Ohio, in September, 1864. Subsequently he worked for several newspapers in Ohio and New York, and, with his artistic abilities, he provided material for a number of publications. He was eventually offered a position with the BULLETIN, a well known Australian magazine, and moved to Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, in the early 1880s to take up this position. He married a daughter of a lieutenant colonel of the 67th Ohio, Harriet Commager, and their daughter, Dorothy June Hopkins later authored a biography of her father, titled HOP OF THE BULLETIN. He died in Sydney and his remains were cremated at Rookwood Cemetery. [From the original research of the late Roy Parker, with assistance from Barry Crompton, of Melbourne, Bob Simpson, of Beechworth, in the state of Victoria, and Len Traynor, of Sydney, and published in the 2000 volume, CIVIL WAR VETERANS IN AUSTRALIA, by Roy's daughter, Mrs. Virginia Crocker.]
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