Andrew Jackson Hopkins was born around 1825 in Kentucky. He married a woman named Martha, and they had at least ten. children: Elizabeth, born around 1846; Sarah, born around 1849; Catherine, born around 1851; Zillah, born around 1853; William, born around 1856; Amanda, born around 1858; Hiram, born around 1861; Joseph, born around 1863; Rachel, born around 1865; and Andrew, born around 1868.
They lived in Davis County, Iowa, and Hopkins worked as a farmer. By 1860, he owned $500 of personal property. They moved to Williamsport, Kansas, in the 1860s, and Hopkins worked as a minister there. By 1870, he owned $12,750 of real estate and $1,680 of personal property. They moved to Clay County in the Dakota Territory in the late 1870s. He died sometime in the late 1800s.