Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Johns HOPKINS
Mr. Johns Hopkins was born in Anne Arundel county, Maryland, May 19, 1795. He was the son of Samuel Hopkins, of that county, and of Hannah Janney Hopkins, of Loudoun county, Virginia, both parents being of Quaker families. He was named after his grandfather Johns Hopkins, of Anne Arundel, who was the descendant of the early English settlers of that county, being one of six brothers who emigrated form England to America, two of whom made their homes in New England, and four in Maryland.
Johns Hopkins, the grandfather, inherited the considerable landed assets acquired by his ancestors in Anne Arundel and cultivated his property with the aid of some hundred negroes, whom he afterwards emancipated, the consequences of doubt arising in his mind as to the rightfulness of negro bondage. This estate was afterwards cultivated by his son, Samuel Hopkins, with the assistance of his sons, one of whom was the late Johns Hopkins, who, in his eighteenth year, showed a strong disposition to engage in mercantile life and was allowed to enter the counting room of his uncle, Gerald T. Hopkins, who was then conducting a wholesale grocery in this city.
In this position he developed superior business intelligence and energy, and seven years later, with the consent of his uncle, formed in partnership with Benjamin P. Moore, in the wholesale grocery business. In 1813, three years later, this partnership was dissolved, and Mr. Hopkins called to his aid two younger brothers, and gave them an interest in his business, which became rapidly developed by the great personal energy of the senior partner. The trade of the house with the valley of Virginia was very large, and it rapidly extended through other parts of that State and into adjoining States. After a prosperous career of twenty-five years, Mr. Hopkins relinquished the business to his brothers, and was afterwards elected president of the Merchant's Bank of Baltimore, which he filled with great credit and in such manner as to extend assistance to those who by their diligence, good sense and integrity attracted his attention and esteem.
Mr. Hopkins had been, from an early period in its history, a close observer of that great work, the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, and held a large amount of its stock. In 1847 he was induced to become a director, and thenceforth took an active part in its management. In December 1855, he was appointed chairman of
the finance committee of the company, and has contributed greatly to the success of the company by his sagacity and devotion to its interests. In 1857, when the company, embarrassed by the monetary difficulties of the country and by internal dissensions, was unable to provide in due season for the heavy obligations imposed upon it by the extension of the road, Mr. Hopkins came
voluntarily forward, and by endorsing the notes of the company to a very large amount pledged his private fortune to its support, and thus saved the company s credit, and insured the completion and success of the road. Mr. Hopkins added to his ownership of the stock until he became possessed of more than 15,000 shares, representing a par value of $1,500,000, and an actual market value of more than $2,300,000. His interest in the company is less only in amount than that owned by the State of Maryland and the city of Baltimore.
The city owes no small share of its prosperity to his enlightened and energetic efforts. Throughout his business life he had the strongest confidence in the future growth and commercial importance of Baltimore, and endeavored to employ his means in such a manner as would best accomplish that object. No one has labored more earnestly and successfully to open new channels of
commercial intercourse between the city and other sections of the United States, while, to enable its merchants to accommodate and retain its growing trade, he has purchased squares and lots in localities convenient for business, but which had no suitable buildings upon them, and supplied them with substantial warehouses, and has also erected massive buildings for the use of those mercantile corporations and agencies which increase with the needs of a commercial city.
It was not, however, to the region of commerce and utility that Mr. Hopkins proposed to limit his enterprises for the public good. On the contrary he had long ago determined to devote the bulk of the great fortune which he had conceived in the interest of humanity and education. These enterprises embraced, first, a
hospital on the largest and most improved scale for the sick on the site of the old Maryland Hospital, in East Baltimore; an asylum for colored orphaned children on separate ground, and a university on his estate of Clifton, within one mile of the city. Mr. Hopkins set aside property to the value of at least two millions of dollars to be dedicated to the support of the great hospital, in addition to the
ground for it in the heart of the eastern part of the city, and amounting to some thirteen acres, bounded by Wolfe, Monument, Broadway and Jefferson streets, which were purchased by him at a cost of $225,000 for the purpose of his charity. Meantime, during his life, and until the hospital buildings should be completed, he placed $100,000 per annum at the disposal of the trustees in order to carry out his wishes; and from the resources of the property which they are hereafter to receive they are privileged to appropriate $20,000 per annum to the maintenance of the Colored Orphans Home, which is to accommodate three to four hundred of that class, while the hospital is designed also ultimately to provide for four hundred patients.
His desire was also urgently expressed that the hospital buildings, in their construction and arrangements, should compare favorably with any like institutions in this country or Europe. A building committee was appointed of prominent citizens, a part of whose duty it was to examine the hospitals of the principle cities in the world; so that doubtless this municicent charity will take
permanent form which will add to the architectural beauties of Baltimore, and, in addition to adequate hospital accommodations for the sick, will provide ample grounds, ornamented with trees and flowers, healthful air and with pleasant prospects of the harbor, city and river. This hospital has for one of its features the establishment of a training school for nurses, the first provision of the kind which has been made in any institution in this country. In all arrangements Mr. Hopkins desired it to be constantly borne in mind that the hospital should form ultimately a part of the medical school of the university.
The university designed by Mr. Hopkins, bearing his own name, has been organized by the appointment of trustees, and Mr. Hopkins has provided for free scholarships by which poor and deserving students from Maryland and Virginia shall be maintained. In addition to the other accommodations the estate of
"Clifton" will afford ample space for the establishment of a botanical and agricultural school upon an extended scale. It is believed that Mr. Hopkins has set apart by his will his whole interest in the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, the actual market value of which is believed to amount to-day to two millions and a half, to this university, all of which is in addition to his gifts of
the Clifton estate of nearly four hundred acres.
During the late financial panic the timely and energetic assistance
rendered by Mr. Hopkins to the mercantile community was of the most valuable character, and was recognized by our business men in terms of enthusiastic acknowledgment. In the death of Johns Hopkins a career has been closed which
affords a rare example of successful energy in individual accumulations, and of practical beneficence in devoting the gains thus acquired to the public.
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