An important investor in the nation's first major railroad, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Having amassed a great fortune after a long and highly successful career in trade and banking, he felt an obligation to share his wealth. Guided by the strong social consciousness of his Quaker faith, he chose to use his fortune to benefit humanity.

Full Name: Johns Hopkins

Birth Date &. Place: May 17, 1795
Anne Arundel County, Maryland

Schooling: Formal education ended in 1807 when his parents freed their slaves and needed Johns and his brothers to work in the fields of their tobacco plantation.

Lived: Family plantation, Whitehall No. 18 Saratoga St., Baltimore, Md.

Death: December 24, 1873 in Baltimore, Md.

He was an important investor in the nation's first major railroad, the Baltimore and Ohio RR. At the time of his death, he owned $2.25 million worth of stock in the railroad.

He was instrumental in developing Baltimore's business community by helping open channels of commercial trade between the city and other areas of the United States, and by erecting buildings and warehouses.

At the time of his death, Johns Hopkins was a stockholder in every large bank in Baltimore and many of the smaller ones. He owned $1 million worth of bank stock. His obituary stated "...he accomplished much good for the business community by his influence in nerving them up in times of stringency and panic."

When Hopkins died, his nearly $8 million bequest was the largest philanthropic bequest in U.S. history. His bequests furthered his interests in humanity and education by providing funds to establish and maintain.

• The Johns Hopkins Hospital, which would include a school of nursing on the site of old Maryland Hospital for the Insane.
• The Johns Hopkins University, with scholarships for poor and deserving students from Md. and Va.
• An asylum designed to care for 300-400 orphaned African-American children.

Why Johns? He was named after his great-grandmother, Margaret Johns.

Johns Hopkins was born a Quaker.

"Uncle Johns" was in the habit of giving the young people in his family a small amount of money at Christmas. One year they decided he should be giving them more. They pooled their resources and gave him an unusually nice present, thinking it would shame him into giving them something nicer. He was pleased, but noted, "I do not feel that my small gifts are any longer needed." They never again received Christmas presents from him. Those who did not send him a present at all received larger gifts in the future.

Johns Hopkins; a silhouette
Written by Helen Hopkins Thom

http://www.medicalarchives.jhmi.edu/aboutjh.htm

http://jhu.edu/~gazette/1999/jan0499/obit.html

http://webapps.jhu.edu/jhunivers/