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Mark Hopkins Jr. (September 3, 1814 – March 29, 1878) 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 Amasa Leland Stanford (March 9, 1824June 21, 1893) was an American attorney, industrialist, philanthropist, and Republican Party (United States), Republican Party politician from Watervliet, New York. He served as the eighth governor of Calif ...
, 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, Michigan (known then as Palmer, Michigan), where he was also Judge of Probate. 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". On September 22, 1854, in New York City, Hopkins married his first cousin, Mary Frances Sherwood. Though his background was Congregationalist, the wedding was at a
Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...
Church. Mary and Mark Hopkins had no children of their own. Mary adopted 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' thriftiness, his wife managed eventually to persuade him to build an ornate mansion at the top of Nob Hill in
San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
, close to the mansions of other Central Pacific founders. The construction commenced in 1875. The architects were the prominent San Francisco firm of Wright & Sanders and the project manager was architectural engineer William Wallace Barbour Sheldon, who worked for Hopkins under the Southern Pacific Improvement Company.


California

When the
California Gold Rush The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...
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 Cape Horn (, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which is Águila Islet), Cape Horn marks the nor ...
, the ship arrived in San Francisco on August 5, 1849. Hopkins opened a store in Placerville, California, but it did not succeed and he relocated to
Sacramento Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...
where he opened a wholesale grocery in 1850 with his friend Edward H. Miller. Miller would later be secretary of the Central Pacific Railroad. In 1855, Hopkins and Collis P. Huntington formed "Huntington Hopkins and Company" to operate a hardware and iron business in Sacramento. In 1861, as part of The Big Four, he founded the Central Pacific Railroad. Sometimes called "Uncle Mark", he was the eldest of the four partners and was well known for his thriftiness (it was said that he knew how to "squeeze 106 cents out of every dollar", a reputation that gained him the post of company treasurer. Noted American historian Hubert Howe Bancroft quotes Collis Huntington as saying, "I never thought anything finished until Hopkins looked at it". Bancroft described Hopkins as the "balance-wheel of the Associates and one of the truest and best men that ever lived."


Later years and death

A Whig and later associated with the
Free Soil Party The Free Soil Party, also called the Free Democratic Party or the Free Democracy, was a political party in the United States from 1848 to 1854, when it merged into the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party. The party was focused o ...
, Hopkins was an
abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world. The first country to fully outlaw slavery was Kingdom of France, France in 1315, but it was later used ...
and an organizer of the Republican Party in California. By then, Hopkins was having health problems and in 1878 died aboard a company train near
Yuma, Arizona Yuma is a city in and the county seat of Yuma County, Arizona, United States. The city's population was 95,548 at the 2020 census, up from the 2010 census population of 93,064. Yuma is the principal city of the Yuma, Arizona, Metropolitan ...
. At the time of his death, the house was not complete and was eventually finished and occupied by Mary. The structure later burned to the ground in a fire caused by the
1906 San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 AM Pacific Time Zone, Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated Moment magnitude scale, moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli inte ...
. In 1926, the Mark Hopkins Hotel (currently InterContinental Mark Hopkins San Francisco) was built on the site. Hopkins is buried in Sacramento Historic City Cemetery (aka Old City Cemetery) in
Sacramento, California Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat, seat of Sacramento County, California, Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento Rive ...
.


Estate controversy

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 younger her junior and Mary 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 Methuen () is a 23-square-mile (60 km2) city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 53,059 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Methuen lies along the northwestern edge of Essex County, just east of Midd ...
, where Edward embarked on building a series of grand homes designed by English architect Henry Vaughan. Vaughan was best known for his
Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...
ecclesiastical architecture including; the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., three chapels at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, and Christ Church, New Haven, Connecticut. Mary died in 1891, less than four years after her marriage and the estate went into
probate In common law jurisdictions, probate is the judicial process whereby a will is "proved" in a court of law and accepted as a valid public document that is the true last testament of the deceased; or whereby, in the absence of a legal will, the e ...
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.) General Thomas Hubbard had been named the executor of Mary Frances Searles' 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 Bowdoin College ( ) is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. It was chartered in 1794. The main Bowdoin campus is located near Casco Bay and the Androscoggin River. In a ...
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, New Hampshire, (a ¼ replica of Stanton Harcourt Manor in Oxon, England) and Pine Lodge in his hometown of
Methuen, Massachusetts Methuen () is a 23-square-mile (60 km2) city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 53,059 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Methuen lies along the northwestern edge of Essex County, just east of Midd ...
. Eventually, Edward Searles' business manager, Arthur T Walker, inherited the Hopkins estate. He died several years later living modestly, as though he had never inherited a thing."Whispering Pines: Stranger Than Fiction? The Story of Searles Science Building", ''The Bowdoin College Daily Sun'', December 1, 2011.


References


Further reading

*
Genealogy of Mark HOPKINS & Mary Frances SHERWOOD
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hopkins, Mark 1813 births 1878 deaths American railway entrepreneurs 19th-century American railroad executives Businesspeople from California Burials at Sacramento City Cemetery California Whigs 19th-century American politicians California Republicans California Free Soilers People from Henderson, New York Businesspeople from San Francisco Nob Hill, San Francisco People from Sacramento, California People from St. Clair, Michigan