Johns Hopkins

Johns Hopkins ( born May 19, 1795 in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, † December 24, 1873 in Baltimore, Maryland) was an American businessman and philanthropist. With its legacy of the university and the hospital were founded that bear his name.

Johns Hopkins was the second of eleven children. He grew up in a Quaker family on a two -square-mile tobacco plantation. When his parents in 1807 their slaves were free, Johns and his brother for work were sent into the field. John later worked for a time in the company of his uncle, a food wholesaler. Here he fell in love with his cousin Elisabeth. However, he could not marry her because his parents would not allow it. There were at the Quakers strong prejudice against marriage among cousins ​​of the first degree. The two agreed never to marry.

Together with Jonathan Moore, another Quaker, Hopkins started a company. Later it was renamed Hopkins & Brothers, after Moore had ended the partnership because Hopkins too love the money. So Hopkins teamed up with his three brothers. Your company sold in the Shenandoah Valley of covered wagons from various goods in exchange for corn whiskey, which was sold in Baltimore as " Hopkins' Best". Later, Hopkins spent a lot of money in the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company and became very wealthy. Each in 1857 and 1873, he used his money to save the company from bankruptcy.

When Hopkins died in 1873 without heirs, he left seven million U.S. dollars, mainly in the form of shares. In his will of 1867, he had decreed that the money the Johns Hopkins University and the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore should be established. This was the largest ever single philanthropic donation.

It is often assumed, his first name was " John ". This is wrong - the first name comes from the surname of his great-grandmother, Margaret Johns. She married Gerard Hopkins. They named their son Johns Hopkins, and the name was passed down to his grandson.