Sarah Russell Clay, Civil War widow of Andrew Clay, was the
first owner of Lot 7. However, she
initially lived on the south half of Lot 7, later dwelling on Lot 9. The north “part” of Lot 7 was deeded by Sarah
to Thomas and John Hopkins, grandsons of Alabama's second governor Thomas Bibb,
acting as agents for a Protestant Episcopal Church. The deed stipulated that the property was to
be used as a "Poor House" for widows and orphans of soldiers and
other destitute persons. The occupations
of subsequent owners indicate that the structure was used through the years not
only for family residences, but also probably as Madison's first hotel,
mortuary, hospital, museum of fine china, and art gallery.
Today the structure is the business location of Studio 106
and several other enterprises.
It is not clear as to whether or not a Protestant Episcopal
Church was ever built on the lot after Thomas and John as trustees purchased
the north part of Lot 7 in 1874.
However, it is certainly possible that the original structure at the
location did serve as a church and/or an orphanage for a time. It is further known that Thomas B. and James
B. Hopkins were two of the group of five or more men who in 1884 formed a
committee to incorporate a public school that had begun operations in 1883 as
the Madison Male and Female Academy. The
school was located in the area along what is now the southern end of Pension
Row on the west side of Sullivan Street.
The Hopkins family members associated with Lot 7 of Madison
have a rich history in the town and in These local Hopkins men were grandsons of
Governor Thomas Bibb through his daughter and youngest child Eliza, which
probably accounts for their middle initials as “B.” for Bibb. They no doubt would have attended various
parties and social functions in Huntsville and in the nearby Limestone County
community of Belle Mina, where Governor Bibb had impressive homes. Eliza married Arthur Mosely Hopkins, whose
father Arthur F. Hopkins (1794-1866) served as a chief justice of the Alabama
Supreme Court and as a U. S. Senator for the state. He was also the President of the Mobile &
Ohio RailRoad. Arthur Mosely Hopkins
fought for the Confederacy in battles at Selma and in Tuscaloosa. His own accounts of participation in the
conflicts can be seen in correspondence contained in the Frances Cabaniss
Roberts Collection of the Special Collections Archive of the Salmon Library at
the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
Images of the correspondence may also be accessed via the Internet on
the website of the University or by selection of the Roberts Collection at dkdayton.net
for as long as that private server hosts the digitized data.
the state.
In the 1840s there was a firm of Bibb & Hopkins
operating in Huntsville, probably involving the governor and Arthur F.
Hopkins. During the 1870s and 1880s
there was the firm of “John W. Hopkins & Brother” doing business in Madison
as grocers, dry goods, and cotton buyers.
There was a “sister” store also in Nashville, Tennessee, involving
Hopkins.
The 1870 census shows Eliza Hopkins as 48 years old, a
widowed head of household in Madison with her son Thomas B. at age 25 living in
her house. Next door was the household
of John W. Hopkins at age 29 with his wife Anne and two children. Thomas and John were both listed with the
occupation as retail grocers. Eliza's
occupation was given as seamstress. John
was also the administrator of the estate of prominent Madison merchant Charles
H. Rhea in the 1870s. By the late 1880s
the Hopkins families sold their properties in Madison and moved away. An 1887 deed shows James B. Hopkins and his
wife Madeline selling Lots 21, 22, 24, and 25 to Isaac Hoffman, including a
notation that parts of the property had been owned by the Cumberland
Presbyterian Church. That church had
moved into a building shared with the local Masonic chapter under an agreement
that specified the days each organization would have use of the structure. The building was also located in the Pension
Row area.
Prior historical accounts from verbal memories and tradition
have attributed the structure now designated as the Clay House on 16 Main to be
the house of Sarah Russell Clay.
However, later in- depth research has proven that she never actually
occupied the north half of Lot 7. Yet,
she did in fact purchase the complete Lot 7, but she then soon sold the north
half of it to the Hopkins brothers. Land
deeds indicate that Sarah also owned Lots 8 and 9, residing on the southern
half of Lot 7 for a time, then living on Lot 9 at the time of her passing in
1886 when her daughter Maggy Clay Gray sold the rest of the lands that she
inherited to James Arthur Wise, brother and store partner of George Washington
Wise.
