Hopkins

(1021), vol. III. For genealogy, see W. L. Hopkins,
Hopkins of Va. and Related Families (1931) J and for
death notice, Mobile Advertiser and Register, Nov. n,
1865.] H.F,

HOPKINS, CYRIL GEORGE (July 22,
i866-Oct. 6,1919), agricultural chemist, agrono-
mist, was born in a primitive farm home near
Chatfield in the hills of southeastern Minnesota.
He was a son of George Edwin and Caroline
(Cudney) Hopkins, and was one of a family of
nine children. On this farm and in Deuel Coun-
ty, Dakota Territory, whither the family moved
in 1880, he grew to manhood, receiving his early
education in district schools. Before and after
he entered the Agricultural College at Brook-
ings, S. Dak., he taught in country schools and
spent his vacations on his father's farm, where
he always carried his full share of the work. He
graduated from college in 1890, received the de-
gree of M.S. (1894) and that of Ph,D. (1898)
from Cornell University, and spent another year
(1899-1900) in graduate work at the University
of Gottingen. On May II, 1893, he was married
to Emma Matilda Stelter of Brookings. His
earlier scientific work was in chemistry, and in
connection with this subject and that of phar-
macy he held positions at the South Dakota Agri-
cultural College. He also served as experiment
station chemist in Cornell University, and at the
University of Illinois. In 1900 he was made
professor of agronomy and soil fertility at the
University of Illinois. This position he held to
the end of his life, becoming vice-director of the
experiment station in 1903.

Early in his career he visioned a permanent
agriculture, based upon the maintenance of soil
productivity, to further the realization of which
he planned and carried forward an investigation
of Illinois soils along three lines. The first com-
prised classification and mapping of the soils of
the state; the next a chemical study of the dif-
ferent soils with the thought that the resulting
data would reveal something of their productive
capacity as well as their needs; and the third, an
investigation, by means of field plots, of various
methods of soil management. More than a decade
after his death, his name is a household word in
hundreds of Illinois farm homes and his work
is known and respected by agricultural scien-
tists throughout the United States. There are
many who question the economic soundness of
some of the methods which he advocated for
putting his principles into practice, but these
principles themselves, which he cemented to-
gether into the "Illinois System" of permanent
soil fertility, will stand the test of time. Besides
many papers he published Soil Fertility and

Hopkins

Permanent Agriculture (1910); The Story of
the Soil, from the Basis of Absolute Science and
Real Life (1911); and The Farm That Won't
Wear Out (1913). He was also the inventor of
the Hopkins condenser, the Hopkins distilling
tube, and the Hopkins limestone tester.

When in 1918 a request came to him from the
Red Cross to take charge of the agricultural re-
habilitation of Greece, he regarded it as a call to
duty. Given a year's leave of absence from the
University, and commissioned a major in the
Red Cross, he worked desperately to complete
the necessary investigations and round out a
program for the restoration of the depleted Gre-
cian soils. For this work he was decorated by
the King of Greece. Upon embarking for home
he became violently ill, and was transferred to
the British military hospital at Gibraltar, where
he died

[Breeder's Gazette, Oct. 23, Nov. 6, 1919; Dakota
Farmer, Nov. i, 1919; Orange fudd Farmer, Oct 18,
1919; Whos Who in America, 1918-19; Thirty-third
Annual Report, Agricultural Experiment Station, Univ.
of III. for the Year Ended June 30,1020 (1921) ; Ex-
periment Station Record, Jan. 1920; L. H. Smith in
the ///. Agriculturist, Mar. 1927; In Memoriam Cyril
George Hopkins (Univ. of III, 1922) contains bibliog,
of his more important writings.] gt & DeT.

HOPKINS, EDWARD (r6oo-March 1657),
governor of Connecticut, was bora at Shrews-
bury, England. He was apparently the son of an
Edward or Edmund Hopkins who married
Katherine, sister of Sir Henry Lello, the couple
having six other children. Practically nothing
is known of his early life until he had become
prominent as a Turkey merchant in London. He
either made or inherited a considerable estate
and was a wealthy man when he emigrated to
New England with Theophilus Eaton and John
Davenport [qq.v.] in 1637. After a stay of some
months in Boston his two companions settled at
New Haven, but Hopkins chose the already es-
tablished town of Hartford, It has been stated
that he was a son-in-law of Eaton (Winthrop's
Journal, edition of 1908, I, 223, note), but it is
established that his wife was Ann, sister of
David Yale and aunt of Elihu Yale. She may
have been a step-daughter of Eaton. Hopkins'
wealth, ability, and public spirit soon caused him
to become one of the leaders of the Connecticut
colony, and he was elected assistant in 1639 and
governor in 1640. He was reflected to the for-
mer office in 1641, 1642, 1655, and 1656 and to
the governorship in 1644, 1646, 1650, 1652, and
1654. Most of that time he alternated in office
with John Haynes, since the Connecticut law did
not allow the same individual to serve two suc-
cessive terms. When not governor, he was usual-
ly deputy governor, as in the years 1643, 1645,

207