Erastus and Theodore Hopkins bought the water right and erected a sawmill.

The evidence

• “About the year 1855 Erastus and Theodore Hopkins bought the water right on the west side of the river and erected a sawmill. A third brother, Elijah Hopkins, coming from the east to help build and run the sawmill after its completion.”

  1908-brown-rock-county/31-smaller-cities-villages-towns.md, Vol. 2, PDF p. 165 / book p. 672

  Brown, William Fiske, editor. Rock County, Wisconsin: A New History of Its Cities, Villages, Towns, Citizens and Varied Interests, from the Earliest Times, Up to Date. Chicago: C. F. Cooper & Co., 1908. 2 vols. archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon01brow, archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon02brow.

  Grade A: Found on a page of one of our sources