Timothy Hopkins (1859 – 1 January 1936) was the adopted son of Central Pacific Railroad co-owner Mark Hopkins' widow, Mary Hopkins, and friend of another co-owner

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 ...

and his wife, Jane. He was one of the founders of

Palo Alto Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

and a trustee of

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

for over 50 years. His estate is now the site of the Menlo Park Civic Center and of

SRI International SRI International (SRI) is a nonprofit organization, nonprofit scientific research, scientific research institute and organization headquartered in Menlo Park, California, United States. It was established in 1946 by trustees of Stanford Univer ...

Biography

Early life

Timothy Hopkins was born Timothy Nolan in

Augusta, Maine Augusta is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Maine. The city's population was 18,899 at the 2020 United States census, making it the List of cities in Maine, 12th-most populous city in Maine, and third ...

in 1859 to Irish immigrants, Patrick and Catherine Nolan. In 1862 his father moved west to California and once established sent for his family; however, he drowned before they arrived. His mother went to work in the home of the childless Hopkins family who treated Timothy as the child they did not have. In 1869 Catharine Nolan remarried and left the Hopkins family with her elder son Thomas but leaving Timothy with the Hopkins. The Hopkins intended to send him to

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

but Mark Hopkins' death without a will in 1878 changed things. Timothy Hopkins took over much of the financial management of the estate and in 1879 was legally adopted by Mary Hopkins. He eventually became treasurer of the

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I Rail transport, railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was oper ...

successor of the Central Pacific.

Career

Timothy Hopkins married Mary Kellogg Crittenden, a niece of Mary Hopkins, in 1882 and were given a 280-acre estate, Sherwood Hall, formerly the Thurlow estate, in Menlo Park (bounded by Ravenswood road, Middlefield road, San Francisquito Creek and the

Caltrain Caltrain (reporting mark JPBX) is a commuter rail line in California, serving the San Francisco Peninsula and Santa Clara Valley (Silicon Valley). The southern terminus is in San Jose, California, San Jose at the Tamien station with weekday r ...

railroad tracks); though they also lived in San Francisco.. The estate was established by William Eustace Barron and later owned by Milton Slocum Latham. It is now the site of

and the Menlo Park Civic Center. The gatehouse is the only remaining building from the estate. Across the creek and a little way upstream was the country estate of Leland and Jane Stanford, the future site of Stanford University. In 1884 Leland and Jane Stanford's only child, also Leland, died and in 1885 they named a board of trustees including 26 year old Timothy Hopkins for their proposed university in memory of their son though the university was not to be opened until 1891. Hopkins was to serve as a trustee until his death in 1936 and was president of the Board of Trustees from 1908–1914. Hopkins, with the Stanfords' support, purchased 737 acres in what is now the area of Palo Alto around University avenue and in 1887 laid out the plans for a new town, initially called University Park; in 1892 that town became Palo Alto. Lots were sold but under a covenant that forbade the sale of alcoholic beverages and a railroad station was built to serve the new university (Mayfield, a community just to the south with an already existing station was well known for its drinking establishments and the Stanfords wanted a dry town associated with the university). The covenant lasted until 1970. In 1887 his adopted mother, Mary Hopkins, married her interior decorator, Edward Francis Searles, and when she died in 1891 her will explicitly disinherited Timothy Hopkins and left her fortune to her new husband. The will was challenged and though the husband eventually won, Timothy was given several million dollars. In 1892 Hopkins provided the funding to establish the Hopkins Seaside Laboratory on the

Monterey Peninsula The Monterey Peninsula anchors the northern portion on the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California and comprises the cities of Monterey, California, Monterey, Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, Carmel, and Pacific Grove, California, P ...

for the just opened Stanford University. It was moved a short distance and renamed the Hopkins Marine Station in 1917. He and his wife were also involved in the founding of the Stanford Home for Convalescent Children which is one of the forebears of the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.

Death and legacy

He died on New Years Day 1936 of pneumonia in Stanford Hospital, then located in San Francisco, and was buried on January 3 at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park. The honorary pall bearers at his funeral included president Ray Lyman Wilbur of Stanford University and former US president

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st president of the United States, serving from 1929 to 1933. A wealthy mining engineer before his presidency, Hoover led the wartime Commission for Relief in Belgium and ...

. Timothy Hopkins' will gave his widow a lifetime use of his estate and at her death in 1941 most of it went to Stanford University. They had one child, Lydia (1887–1965).

Geography Named for him

* Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove for which he provided some early funding, and, indirectly, the Hopkins Marine Life Refuge established by California in 1931 in the waters adjacent to the station. *Hopkins Creekside Park in Palo Alto which is a narrow strip of land along San Francisquito Creek which Timothy Hopkins and his wife gave to Palo Alto for parkland in 1907.

Taxon named in his honor

'' Sebastes hopkinsi'', the squarespot rockfish is named for him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hopkins, Timothy Stanford University trustees American people of Irish descent People from Menlo Park, California People from Augusta, Maine 1859 births 1936 deaths