George Alexander Pope (1830 - 1918)

Born 23 Sep 1830 in Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Hannah Lounes Betts — married 11 Jun 1857 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Descendants

Died 4 Feb 1918 at age 87 in Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, United States

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Biography

GEORGE A. POPE

A LTHOUGH his years numbered eighty-seven, George A

Pope spent them all in Baltimore, his business life begin- ning as a clerk at the age of fifteen and terminating with retirement half a century later. Important as were his busi- ness connections and literary taste, he was best known for his long association with Sheppard Asylum, afterward the Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital, an institution which he served as trustee thirty-six years, as president thirty-one years, and whose growth and present usefulness is largely due to his able guidance and broad vision. In fact, after his retirement from business in 1896, he gave himself unreserved!;.' to the affairs of that institution, and continued its faithful, deeply- interested friend until the last. This was but one of his philan- thropies, however, his generous heart finding many outlets for his unfailing kindness and charity- Although he hail been in failing health for several months and was bearing an unusual weight of years, he retained his mental vigor to a remarkable degree until the very last. He was one of the pioneers of the copper refining industry in Baltimore, and one of the best known of the older business men in the city.

George A. Pope was born in Baltimore, Maryland, Sep tember 23, 1830, and died at the home of his daughter, Mrs Julian Stuart Jones, Fortieth and Oak streets, Baltimore, Feb- ruary 4, 1918. He attended Hallowell's School, in Alexan- dria, Virginia, until fifteen years of age, then became a clerk with Thompson & Oudesluys, and continued in mercantile lite until 1858, when he became interested in the refining of ^ per and other metals, a business with which he was connected in varied form and manner until his retirement in 1896. He was the senior partner of Pope & Cole until the dissolution of that firm, and then was manager and head of the Canton Copper Works, also of its successor, the Baltimore Copper Smelting and Refining Company. He was a pioneer in the

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business and won both reputation and fortune through his long connection therewith. For several years he was a director of the Savings Bank of Baltimore and of the Maryland Casualty Company.

His literary tastes were cultivated and given free rein, his interest increasing with his years. He was first a director and later, for a great many years, president of the Mercantile Library Association, and made that association a real benefit to the public, not only as a library, but as an educational cen- tre through his medium of entertaining and instructive courses of lectures. After the close of the war he was active in pro- viding school advantage for the newly-made freedmen, and accomplished a great deal of good in their behalf. He was a birthright member of the Society of Friends, connected with the Baltimore Meeting, Park avenue and Laurens street. He was a member of the Maryland Club and of the Maryland Historical Society. His greatest interest was displayed toward the Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital, an institution with which he was connected from 1882 until his death. He served five years as a member of the board of trustees, 1882- 1887, and as president of the board, 1887-1918.

Mr. Pope married (first), in 1857, Hannah L. Betts, of Philadelphia, who died in 1868, leaving a daughter, Eba, now a resident of Baltimore. He married (second), in 1871, Zayde A. Hopkins, who died in 1891, leaving two daughters: Mrs. Charles Sydney Winder, and Mrs. Julian S. Jones, both resi- dents of Baltimore, and a son: George A. (2) Pope, an enljsted member of Battery D, 1 10th Regiment, United States Field Artillery, who was in training for foreign service at Camp McClellan, Alabama. For a quarter of a century the family has spent their summers at their cottage, "Ninigret," at Watch Hill, Rhode Island, Mr. Pope being deeply in- terested in the success and development of that beautiful sea- side resort.

Sources

• Richard Henry Spencer. Genealogical and memorial encyclopedia of the state of Maryland, a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation; (Volume 2) online. (page 29 of 30)