| MARK HOPKINS
The fourth of the Associates was a quiet, retiring man, older than
the others by eight to eleven years, whose life was neither spectacular
nor positive. However, he was one of the adventurous throng who came
to California in the Gold Rush and prospered there. He was forty-nine
years of age when the Central Pacific was organized.
Mark Hopkins was born September 1, 1813, at Henderson, New
York, the son of Mark and Anastasia Lukins (Kellogg) Hopkins of
Puritan stock. His father was a merchant. The family moved
to St. Claire, Michigan, and, on the death of his father in 1828, the son
left school to work as a clerk for several years. He also studied
law in 1837 with his brother, Henry. His leaning, however,
was toward a commercial life, with the result that he formed several business
partnerships. At Lockport, New York1, he became
the leading partner in the firm of Hopkins and Hughes. Later he became
bookkeeper for the firm of James Rowland and Company and, in time, manager
of the firm. When the Gold Rush started in 1849, Hopkins formed a
company of twenty-six men, each of whom subscribed $500. Called the
New England Trading and Mining Company, the company shipped a consignment
of goods to California by way of Cape Horn. Hopkins accompanied the
shipment and arrived in San Francisco on August 5, 1849.
Hopkins settled in Sacramento after trying a store at Placerville,
and in 1850 he formed a partnership with a friend, E.H. Miller, Jr., who
afterwards became secretary of the Central Pacific, the firm doing a wholesale
grocery business. The business proved profitable, but in 1855 Hopkins
entered a partnership with Collis P. Huntington in the hardware
and iron business, a partnership that was terminated only by Hopkins' death
in March, 1878. In the year 1882, this writer, as a telegraph boy,
clad in a bright blue uniform with brass buttons, delivered messages to
the firm of Huntington, Hopkins and Co.
When the Central Pacific Company was formed in 1861, Hopkins became
treasurer, continuing in that position until his death. In 1854 he
married his cousin, Mary Frances Sherwood, but there were no children
from the marriage. A nephew, E.W. Hopkins, was of some assistance
to his uncle, but Hopkins relied more upon a young man, Timothy Nolan,
the son an an emigrant family whose father was dead. Timothy became
known as Timothy Hopkins, and after Hopkins' death was adopted as a son
by the widow. He also succeeded to the position of treasurer of the
railroad company, and in later years was a member of the successor group
that managed the railroad.
One side of Hopkins' character is shown by the trust that the other
three associates reposed in him. Older than the others, to whom he
became "Uncle Mark," his judgment was respected, and at times he could
be firm in carrying out his ideas. Huntington trusted him in everything
which is a trust that the vice president did not repose in many others.
"I never thought anything finished until Hopkins looked at it," was his
statement to Bancroft, the historian who referred to Hopkins as
the "balance-wheel of the Associates and one of the truest and best men
that ever lived."
Hopkins, always frugal and disliking display, finally yielded to
his wife's entreaties and built an ornate mansion on Nob Hill in San Francisco,
where Crocker and Stanford were building. However,
his health was failing, and while on a trip to Arizona to recuperate, he
died. There was no will, and a long series of lawsuits followed his
death. His wife after many years married a young man, and with the
exception of a partition with Timothy Hopkins, the estate, valued at $20,000,000,
was no longer of great influence in railroad affairs. |
