Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/832

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814 HOPKINSON HOP TREE Providence," published in the " Providence Gazette." He also published "The Rights of the Colonies Examined," reprinted in London. HOPKINSON. I. Franeis, one of the signers of the American Declaration of Independence, born in Philadelphia in 1737, died May 9, 1791. He graduated at the college of Philadelphia, having been the first student who entered that institution, and afterward studied law. In 1766 he went to England, where he remained two years, and then settled at Bordentown, N. J. In 1776 he was sent from New Jersey as one of her representatives in congress. During the revolution he distinguished himself by satirical and political writings, which at- tained great popularity. In 1779 he was made judge of the admiralty of Pennsylvania, which office he held for ten years, until the organiza- tion of the federal government, when it ex- pired. As soon as Washington entered upon his duties as president of the United States, he appointed Hopkinson United States district judge for Pennsylvania. He was not only familiar with science as it then existed, but skilled in painting and music, composing pop- ular airs for his own songs. His political wri- tings include " The Pretty Story " (Philadel- phia, 1774), "The Prophecy" (1776), and " The Political Catechism " (1777). The best known of his poems are " The Battle of the Kegs," a humorous ballad (new ed., Philadel- phia, 1866), and " The New Roof, a Song for Federal Mechanics." The "Miscellaneous Es- says and Occasional Writings of Francis Hop- kinson" were published by Dobson (Philadel- phia, 1792). II. Joseph, an American jurist, son of the preceding, born in Philadelphia, Nov. 12, 1770, died there, Jan. 15, 1842. He graduated at the university of Pennsylvania, studied law, and began to practise at Easton, Pa., in 1791, whence he returned to Philadel- phia. In the celebrated case of Dr. Rush against William Cobbett in 1799, he was lead- ing counsel for the plaintiff, and for the defend- ants in the insurgent trials before Judge Chase in 1800. Subsequently, when Judge Chase was impeached before the United States senate, he chose Mr. Hopkinson to defend him. From 1815 to 1819 he was a member of the house of representatives from Philadelphia, where he opposed the recharter of the United States bank. In 1823 he resumed the practice of his profession, and in 1828 was appointed judge of the United States court for the eastern dis- trict of Pennsylvania. He is best known as the author of the national song " Hail Colum- bia," written in 1798 for the benefit of an actor named Fox, after an air entitled "The President's March," composed in 1789 by a German named Feyles. He was for many years a confidential friend of Joseph Bonaparte, then residing at Bordentown, and during his absence always managed his affairs. HOPKINSVILLE, a city and the county seat of Christian co., Kentucky, on Little river, and on the St. Louis and Southeastern railroad, 71 m. N. W. of Nashville, and 170 m. S. W. of Frankfort; pop. in 1870, 3,136, of whom 1,460 were colored. It is well built and regular- ly laid out, many of the streets being paved and bordered with shade trees. It contains a botanic garden, manufactories of tobacco, ploughs, carriages, &c., two banks, a hand- some court house, two weekly newspapers, a monthly periodical, and eight churches, and has an extensive trade in tobacco. It is the seat of one of the state lunatic asylums, a handsome building 368 ft. long, with rooms for 300 patients. Hopkinsville was laid out in 1799, and incorporated in 1806. It was partly burned by the confederates during the civil war. HOPPIN. I. Augustus, an American artist, born in Providence, R. I., July 13, 1828. He graduated at Brown university in 1848, and was subsequently admitted to the bar of Rhode Island ; but his love of art proved too strong to admit of a legal career, and he went to Europe to study the works of the great masters. Of late years he has devoted himself exclusively to drawing upon wood. He has illustrated Butler's poem of " Nothing to Wear," " The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," "The Poti- phar Papers," " The Arabian Days' Entertain- ments," "Mrs. Partington," and a variety of other publications. Some of his elaborate pen and ink drawings are full of character and noted for graceful execution. II. Thomas F., brother of the preceding, born in Providence in August, 1816. He studied painting with Paul Delaroche in 1837-'8, and subsequently de- signed the figures on the great window of Trinity church in New York. He has pro- duced a spirited model of a dog, which has been cast in bronze, and numerous etchings in outline and designs on wood. HOP TREE (ptelea trifoliata), an American shrub of the rue family (rutacece), also called shrubby trefoil. It is a tall shrub, forming if kept trimmed to a single stem a tree 30 or 40 ft. high, and is found from Pennsylvania south- ward and westward. The leaves are trifoliate with ovate, pointed leaflets, which are downy when young; the flowers, borne in cymes at the ends of the new shoots, are small, greenish, and inconspicuous ; they are polyga- mous staminate, pistillate, and perfect ones occurring on the same plant; each has three to five sepals and petals, and in the stami- nate and perfect ones as many stamens ; ova- ry one with a short style ; the fruit is two- celled and two-seeded, being surrounded by a broad wing and resembling very much the fruit of the elm ; the name ptelea is the Greek for elm, applied to this plant on account of the similarity of the two in their fruit. The flow- ers have an unpleasant odor, as do the leaves when bruised. As an ornamental shrub the hop tree has the merit of being exceedingly neat in appearance, is not subject to the at- tacks of insects, and from the peculiar charac- ter of its compound leaves makes a marked contrast with other shrubs and trees ; it has