Mark Hopkins Jr.: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|American railway entrepreneur}}
{{Infobox person
| image = Mark Hopkins 1813-1878.jpg
| caption = Photo by [[I. W. Taber]]
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date|18131814|9|13|mf=y}}
| birth_place = [[Henderson, New York]], US
| death_date = {{death date and age|1878|3|29|1813|9|1|mf=y}}
| death_place = [[Yuma, Arizona]], US
| occupation = Railroad investor & treasurer
| parents = Mark Hopkins (1779–1828)<br>Anastasia Lukens Kellogg (1780–1837)
| spouse = [[Mary Frances Sherwood Hopkins]]
| party = [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig]], [[Free Soil]] & [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
| resting_place = Sacramento, California
| net_worth = US $20–40 million at the time of his death
| known_for = [[First Transcontinentaltranscontinental Railroadrailroad]]
| resting_place = Sacramento, California
| employer = [[Central Pacific Railroad]]
| nationality = American
| known_for = [[First Transcontinental Railroad]]
| employer = [[Central Pacific Railroad]]
}}
 
'''Mark Hopkins Jr.''' (September 13, 18131814 &ndash; March 29, 1878)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mark Hopkins {{!}} Railroad executive, philanthropist, educator {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mark-Hopkins-American-businessman |access-date=2023-08-14 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> was an American railroad executive. He was one of four principal investors that funded [[Theodore D. Judah]]'s idea of building a railway over the Sierra Nevada from Sacramento, California to Promontory, Utah. They formed the [[Central Pacific Railroad]] along with [[Leland Stanford]], [[Charles Crocker]], and [[Collis Huntington]] in 1861.
 
==Early years and family life==
Hopkins was born in Henderson, Jefferson County, New York to Mark Hopkins and Anastasia Lukens Kellogg, who were first cousins. Because his father died when he was a boy, he was never known as "Junior". The family moved to [[St. Clair, Michigan]] in 1824. His father, Mark Hopkins (1779–1828), served as Postmaster, first in Henderson, NY, then in [[St. Clair, MIMichigan]] (known then as '''Palmer, Michigan'''), where he was also Judge of Probate.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Hopkins, Timothy |year=1932 |title=John Hopkins of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1634, and Some of His Descendants |location=Stanford, CA |publisher=Stanford University Press |page=304}}</ref>
 
The elder Hopkins died in 1828, and his son left school to work as a clerk. In 1837, he studied law with his brother Henry but moved on through several business ventures. He was a partner in a firm called "Hopkins and Hughes", then a bookkeeper and later manager for "James Rowland and Company".{{cn|date=October 2022}}
 
On September 22, 1854, in New York City, Hopkins married his first cousin, [[Mary Frances Sherwood Hopkins|Mary Frances Sherwood]]. Though his background was [[Congregationalist]], the wedding was at a [[Presbyterian]] Church. Mary and Mark Hopkins had no children of their own. Mary adopted [[Timothy Hopkins|Timothy Nolan]], the adult son of her housekeeper, who took the Hopkins name and was given an administrative position at the Union Pacific Railroad. Despite Hopkins' [[frugality|thriftiness]], his wife managed eventually to persuade him to build an ornate mansion<ref>[http://pcad.lib.washington.edu/building/4491/ Hopkins, Mark, Jr., and Mary Sherwood, House, Nob Hill, San Francisco, CA (1878) demolished - Pacific Coast Architecture Database]</ref> at the top of [[Nob Hill]] in [[San Francisco, California]], close to the mansions of other Central Pacific founders. The construction commenced in 1875. The architects were the prominent San Francisco firm of [[Wright and& Sanders]] and the project manager was architectural engineer [[William Wallace Barbour Sheldon]], who worked for Hopkins under the Southern Pacific Improvement Company.{{cn|date=October 2022}}
 
==California==
{{Moresources|section|date=October 2022}}
When the [[California Gold Rush]] began, Hopkins created the "New England Mining and Trading Company", a group of 26 men each of whom invested $500 to purchase goods and ship them to California for sale. On January 22, 1849 Hopkins left New York City on the ship ''Pacific''. After rounding [[Cape Horn]], the ship arrived in San Francisco on August 5, 1849.
 
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==Estate controversy==
{{More citations needed section|date=September 2021}}
Hopkins died without leaving a will, though his fortune estimated at $20–$40 million was inherited by his wife. Faced with the task of completing their new estate alone, Mary retained Herter Brothers, a prominent furniture and interior decorating firm in New York to finish furnishing and decorating the estate. [[Edward Francis Searles]] was dispatched by Herter Brothers to manage the completion of Mary's project. Despite being 22 years her junior they developed a close relationship. The unseemly courtship raised eyebrows and questions about the motives of the decorator in the wealthy social circles of San Francisco, but they married in 1887 to begin a six-month grand tour of Europe. Shortly after their return, Mary executed a new will that explicitly excluded her adopted son Timothy Nolan Hopkins, explaining; "The omission to provide in this will for my adopted son, Timothy Hopkins, is intentional, and not occasioned by accident or mistake", and left her fortunes to her new husband, Edward.
 
Despite being 22 years her junior they developed a close relationship. The unseemly courtship raised eyebrows and questions about the motives of the decorator in the wealthy social circles of San Francisco, but they married in 1887 to begin a six-month grand tour of Europe. Shortly after their return, Mary executed a new will that explicitly excluded her adopted son Timothy Nolan Hopkins, explaining; "The omission to provide in this will for my adopted son, Timothy Hopkins, is intentional, and not occasioned by accident or mistake", and left her fortunes to her new husband, Edward.
Mr. and Mrs. Searles moved to Edward's hometown of [[Methuen, Massachusetts]], where Edward embarked on building a series of grand homes designed by English architect [[Henry Vaughan (architect)|Henry Vaughan]]. Vaughan was best known for his [[Gothic Revival]] ecclesiastical architecture including; the [[Washington National Cathedral|National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.]], three chapels at the [[Cathedral of St. John the Divine]] in New York, and [[Christ Church (New Haven)|Christ Church]] in New Haven, Connecticut.
 
Mr. and Mrs. Searles moved to Edward's hometown of [[Methuen, Massachusetts]], where Edward embarked on building a series of grand homes designed by English architect [[Henry Vaughan (architect)|Henry Vaughan]]. Vaughan was best known for his [[Gothic Revival]] ecclesiastical architecture including; the [[Washington National Cathedral|National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.]], three chapels at the [[Cathedral of St. John the Divine]] in New York, and [[Christ Church (New Haven)|Christ Church]] in, New Haven, Connecticut]].
Mary died in 1891, less than four years after her marriage and the estate went into [[probate]] to reconcile a series of legal challenges by Timothy Hopkins (Mary's adopted son) that lasted for several years, to reclaim his lost inheritance. The controversy made good fodder for the press, California papers published stories suggesting that Edward had exploited Mary's interest in [[spiritualism]] and falsified records to wrest the estate from her adopted son and defraud business partners. Under oath, Edward testified that he had married Mary "…partly out of affection and partly for her money." Timothy lost his appeals; however, Edward later settled on Timothy a "token" amount of several million dollars. Timothy got the contents of the mansion in San Francisco, and the art institute got the building. (It was rumored at the time that Edward Searles had a friend/lover living with him after Mary's death and that Timothy Hopkins used this information to blackmail Edward after losing the court case.)
 
Mary died in 1891, less than four years after her marriage and the estate went into [[probate]] to reconcile a series of legal challenges by Timothy Hopkins (Mary's adopted son) that lasted for several years, to reclaim his lost inheritance. The controversy made good fodder for the press, California papers published stories suggesting that Edward had exploited Mary's interest in [[Spiritualism (movement)|spiritualism]] and falsified records to wrest the estate from her adopted son and defraud business partners. Under oath, Edward testified that he had married Mary "…partly out of affection and partly for her money." Timothy lost his appeals; however, Edward later settled on Timothy a "token" amount of several million dollars. Timothy got the contents of the mansion in San Francisco, and the art institute got the building. (It was rumored at the time that Edward Searles had a friend/lover living with him after Mary's death and that Timothy Hopkins used this information to blackmail Edward after losing the court case.)
 
[[Thomas Hamlin Hubbard|General Thomas Hubbard]] had been named the executor of Mary Frances Searle's will, and had been embroiled in the controversy as a witness with detailed knowledge of the Hopkins and Searles estates. When the probate case closed in Edward's favor, Hubbard declined any personal compensation but suggested an endowment to his alma mater [[Bowdoin College]] might make an enduring symbol of Edward's love for Mary. Edward agreed to build them the modern science building, still in service as Searles Hall.
 
For the remainder of his life, Edward, increasingly reclusive, continued building castles and estates designed by Henry Vaughan, including Searles Castle in [[Windham, N.H.,New Hampshire]] (a ¼ replica of Stanton Harcourt Manor in Oxon, England) and Pine Lodge in his hometown of [[Methuen, Massachusetts]].

Eventually, Edward Searles' loverbusiness manager, Arthur T Walker, inherited the Hopkins estate. He died several years later living modestly, as though he had never inherited a thing.<ref>'' The Bowdoin College Daily Sun''; "Whispering Pines: Stranger Than Fiction? The Story of Searles Science Building", December''The 1,Bowdoin 2011,College ByDaily JohnSun'', R.December Cross1, '762011.</ref>
</ref>
 
==References==
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==Further reading==
*{{cite book| title=Nothing Like It In The World; The men who built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869| author=Ambrose, Stephen E.| author-link=Stephen Ambrose| year=2000| publisher=Simon & Schuster| isbn=0-7432-0317-8| url=https://archive.org/details/nothinglikeitinw00ambr_0}}
*Findagrave.com, ''[https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/501 Mark Hopkins]''. Retrieved December 13, 2005.
*[http://dgmweb.net/FGS/H/HopkinsMark-MaryFrancesSherwood.shtml Genealogy of Mark HOPKINS & Mary Frances SHERWOOD].
*{{cite book | last=Galloway | first=John Debo |author2=Chapter Four | title=The First Intercontinental Railway | location=New York | publisher= Simmons-Boardman | year=1950 | oclc=491805 | url=http://cprr.org/Museum/Galloway4.html | accessdate=15 September 2010}}
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[[Category:19th-century American railroad executives]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from California]]
[[Category:Burials at Sacramento City Cemetery]]
[[Category:California Whigs]]
[[Category:19th-century American politicians]]
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[[Category:California Free Soilers]]
[[Category:People from Henderson, New York]]
[[Category:PeopleBusinesspeople from San Francisco]]
[[Category:Nob Hill, San Francisco]]
[[Category:People from Sacramento, California]]