[1] After a stint as a journalist, he graduated from the General Theological Seminary in 1850, and became a deacon, author, illustrator, and designer.
[2] He was the seminary's first music teacher from 1855 to 1857, composed several hymns, and edited the Church Journal.
He wrote words and music to his most famous hymn, "We Three Kings", as part of a Christmas pageant for his nieces and nephews.
[2] His nephew, John Henry Hopkins III, is credited with the music for "I Sing a Song of the Saints of God", a popular children's hymn in the Episcopal Church.
He delivered the eulogy at the funeral of President Ulysses S. Grant in 1885, and died in Hudson, New York.