Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/363

 HOPKI^^S

HOPKINS

and Their Authors (1879); Geraldine (a novel in verse, published anonymously) (1882); Sinner and Saint (1883); Life of General Clinton B. Fisk (1888); Wealth and Waste (1895), and numerous prohibition pamphlets.

HOPKINS, Caspar Thomas, pioneer, was born in Allegheny City, Pa., May 18, 1826; third son of the Rt. Rev. John Henry and Melusina (MuUer) Hopkins. His father was the first P.E. bishop of Vermont and a native of Ireland, and his motlier, of German birth, was the daughter of a shipping merchant impoverished by the Napoleonic wars, who settled in Zelienople, Pa., in 1812. Casi^ar was one of a family of thirteen children and was brought up under severe discipline. AVhen he was thirteen years old the school condvicted by his father closed and the bishop was bankrupted. The succeeding four years he and his brothers were the working force of a rocky farm of one hundred acres, and when he was ready in 1843 to enter the University of Vermont, he was without means to pay his way. To meet the expenses he acted as organist in the church, tuned pianos and lectured on music. He thus, within four years, earned $500, which liquidated his debt to the college, and he was graduated in 1847, the second in the class. He then established and edited the Vermont State Agricidturist, 1847-49. He joined the United Pacific Gold company in 1849, and with the expedition made the journey via Mexico Cit}', and while en route he was elected captain of the company. He started with five dollars capital and reached California, June 10, 1849, with a debt of $600 to the company. He was an organizer of the Samuel Roberts expedition, which explored the Rogue and Umpqua rivei's, Oregon, in 1850, and opened the region to settlers. He was employed in the U.S. custom house, 1851- 54; by an English insurance company at their Sac- ramento agency 1854-56; represented Hartford, Conn., companies at San Francisco, 1856-61; organized the California Mutual Marine In- surance company in 1861, and was its secre- tary, 1861-64. The company was then re- incorporated as the California Insurance com- pany, added fire risks to its business, and he was president of this company, 1866-85. He organized the board of marine underwriters in 1864; was secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, 1868-69; and drafted the law creating the office of insurance commissioner in 1866. He was president of the California Immigrant union, 1870-71. He was a leading spirit in organizing the compact among the underwriters of the Paci- fic coast in 1884. He promoted and was president of the Pacific Social Science association and was a member of the committee of one hundred organized to check the power of the Southern Pacific railroad. He was prominent in

religious circles, and devoted to church music. For many years he was a church organist, and director of music, serving without jiay for years at a time. In 1885 he removed to Pasadena, where he engaged in fruit raising and in building operations. He was married in 1853 to Almira, daughter of Daniel Burnett, of New York. She died in 1875, leaving six children. Mr. Hopkins was married in 1877 to Mrs. Jane E. Taylor, of Glastonbury, Conn. He received the degree of A.M. from the University of Vermont in 1855. He is the author of: Suggestions to Masters of Vessels in Distress (W6Q); Manual of American Ideas (1872); and articles in the Overland Month! )/^ He died in Pasadena, Cal., Oct. 4, 1893.

HOPKINS, Charles Jerome, musician, was born in Burlington, Vt., April 4, 1836; son of the Rt. Rev. John Henry and Melusina (MuUer) Hopkins. He was educated at home and studied one year at the University of Vermont. He gave his time largely to the cultivation of his musical talent, which was early manifested, and while he Avas self-taught, save the instruction received in his own home and in his father's church, he gained a thorough knowledge of the art, serving- as oi'ganist and choir-leader in his father's church at Burlington, Vt., and in various churches in New York city. He took a course in chemistry in the New York Medical college, but devoted himself to music, giving concerts and concert-lectures in over one hundred cities in the United States. His compositions were not only popular in America but were introduced in England and Germany. He founded the Orphion free classes of choir-boys in New Y'ork city in 1866; originated piano lecture-concerts for lyceums in 18G7, and trained the first choir of child voices to sing Handel's "Hallelujah Cho- rus." His orchestral music was played at the Crystal Palace, London, 1874, and his chamber music at Liszt's house at Weimar, Germany, in 1885. His compositions included operettas, can- tatas, church music, secular songs and piano- forte pieces. He also published: First Book of Church Music (1860); Class-Book of Xotation Study (1865); Second Book of Church Music (1867). He died at his home, the Hermitage, near Passaic, N.J.. Nov. 4, 1898.

HOPKINS, Edward Washburn, educator, was born at Northampton, Mass., Sept. 8, 1857; son of Lewis Spring and Frances (Washburn) Hop- kins; grandson of John Hopkins, of Boston, and a descendant of Stephen Hopkins, of Waterbury, Conn. (16.33). He was graduated from Columbia college in 1878, and was a fellow in letters there, 1878-81, and tutor in Latin and Zend. 1 881 -85; asso- ciate professor of Greek and Sanskrit at Bryn Mawr college. Pa., 1885-92, and professor of the same, 1892-95. He was elected professor of Sans-