Hopkins, Johns

Hopkins, Johns an American philanthropist, a member of the Society of Friends, was born in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, May 19, 1795. He received a liberal education, and engaged in the wholesale grocery business, from which he retired in 1847 with an ample fortune. He then became president of the Merchants' Bank, and a director of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. He died in Baltimore, December 24, 1873. Mr. Hopkins' benefactions amount in the aggregate to over $8,000,000. In 1873 he founded the Hopkins Free Hospital of Baltimore, at a cost of about $4,000,000. He also founded an orphanage for colored youth, a convalescent hospital, and the Johns Hopkins University. This institution is located at Clifton, near Baltimore, and has four hundred acres of land and an endowment of $3,000,000. Poor and deserving youth of Maryland and Virginia receive free scholarships.