Johns Hopkins was born on May 19, 1795 on a tobacco plantation White's Hall in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, United States. He was was the second son of Samuel and Hannah (Janney) Hopkins. His first known ancestor in America in the Hopkins line was William, who was living in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, as early as 1657. His mother was of the Tucker-Janney family of Loudoun County, Virginia. From Richard Johns, his great-great-grandfather, Hopkins derived his given name.
Hopkins attended the South River school. Here he was influenced by the unusually able master, an Oxford graduate. He left school at the age of twelve, because his parents, prominent in the West River Meeting of Friends, freed their slaves in 1807 and the boys of the family were needed to work on the plantation.
When Hopkins was seventeen he was taken into the home of his uncle, Gerard Hopkins, in Baltimore, to be brought up in the latter's business, that of a wholesale grocer and commission merchant. When he was nineteen his uncle was absent in Ohio for several months, and the young man, left in charge of the store, succeeded surprisingly, in spite of the alarm which seized the city when the British fleet arrived in Chesapeake Bay. By 1819, when Johns Hopkins was twenty-four, differences had developed between uncle and nephew.
The financial distress of 1819 led many country customers to ask the privilege of paying for their goods in whiskey. Johns Hopkins favored this arrangement, but his uncle would not consent "to sell souls into perdition. " The result was that Johns Hopkins set up in the same business for himself, his uncle indorsing for him to the extent of $10, 000, and in the first year he sold $200, 000 worth of goods.
After a short partnership with Benjamin P. Moore, he took his brothers Philip, Gerard, and Mahlon with him into a new firm, Hopkins Brothers, in which his mother and uncle, John Janney, invested each $10, 000. The new firm took whiskey in exchange for groceries, selling it under the brand "Hopkins' Best. " For this Johns Hopkins was turned out of Meeting, but he was later reinstated. His business extended rapidly through the Valley of Virginia into North Carolina and over the Alleghanies into Ohio. Reaching into new ventures, he became a banker, indorsing business paper and buying up overdue notes, and built numerous warehouses, which added to the facilities of Baltimore as a growing commercial center. His principal investment, however, was in the young Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, the possibilities of which were clear to him through his experience with wagontrains across the mountains.
In 1847 he became a director of the road, and in 1855, chairman of its finance committee. He grew to be the largest stockholder after the State of Maryland and the City of Baltimore; in the panic of 1857 he indorsed for it and in that of 1873, lent the road $900, 000 to enable it to meet its interest payments. At his death he held over 15, 000 shares of the stock. For many years, also, he was president of the Merchants' Bank and director in a half-dozen others in Baltimore, besides being heavily interested in life and fire insurance companies, steamship lines, and a warehouse company.
After twenty-five years he retired from his original commission business, leaving it in the hands of his brothers. Several years before his death he resolved, after making ample provision for his relatives, to leave the bulk of his fortune of about $8, 000, 000 for the good of humanity and consulted with numerous friends on this subject, particularly with George Peabody and John W. Garrett.
Hopkins was was one of the bankers who advanced $500, 000 to the City of Baltimore during the Civil War, and after the war and during the panic of 1873 did much to avert disaster from the business community by liberal extension of his credit, often without monetary reward. He gave his fortune to found a great hospital and university, with a medical school and training course for nurses in connection with the hospital. He left $7, 000, 000 equally divided between the Johns Hopkins University and the Johns Hopkins Hospital, besides bequests of smaller sums to Baltimore agencies for the education of youth and the care of the dependent. An abolitionist and a warm friend of negroes, Hopkins also included attention to their needs in the hospital and an orphanage.
Hopkins was penurious in many personal matters. For example, he never wore an overcoat and walked wherever he could. He knew how to be generous in large matters. He always meant to travel, but never went more than a few score miles from his home. He read widely, however, in part because of a stubborn insomnia.
Hopkins fell in love with his cousin Elizabeth, but Gerard Hopkins forbade the marriage on the score of consanguinity. Neither of them ever married and they maintained a close friendship through life.
