Existing comment:
John Hopkins
By 1863, Gettysburg College had employed John Hopkins for nearly two decades. As the school's janitor, Hopkins made a decent wage and provided well for his family. They lived in an on-campus home just north of Pennsylvania Hall. The approaching Confederate army, however, posed the disturbing threat of enslavement. The Hopkins family fled Gettysburg, forced to become refugees alongside much of the town's Black community. When the family finally returned to their home, they found that it had been ransacked by Southern soldiers. When John Hopkins died in 1868, much of the College community attended his funeral, mourning the man who had become a popular figure on campus. |