Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/311

 HOE

HOFF

sioner of finance of the University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn. In 1879 he was vice-chancellor of the institution, and for his work in tliis capacity he asked no salary, but made his private means support the failing credit of the university in a financial crisis. His administration was marked by a steady increase in the number of students and the erection of permanent buildings both by the university and by private individuals. He resigned the A-ice-cliancellorship in 1890, con- tinuing to give his services as dean of the theo- logical department, and was succeeded by the Rev. Thomas F. Gailor. He founded and was editor of the Sewanee Revieiv, and gave to the University of the South the Hodgson Library. He received the degree of S.T.D. from the Uni- versity of the South in 1878, and delivered the baccalaureate sermon that year. Hobart college gave him the honorary degree of LL.D. in 1890. He died at Sewanee. Tenn., Sept. 11. 1893.

HOE, Richard flarch, inventor, was «born in New York city, N.Y.. Sept. 12, 1812 ; son of Robert Hoe, who was born Oct. 29, 1784, came from Hoes, Nottingham, Leicestershire, Eng- land, in 1803, settled in New York and en- gaged in the manufacture of printing presses with Peter andMath- ^^^' ew Smith, and after-

ward manufactured the Hoe press. He died in Westchester county, N.Y., Jan. 4, 1838. Richard M. Hoe was given a com- mon school educa- tion, and in 1827 be- came an apprentice in his father's work- shop, as did his broth- ers Robert in 1830, and Peter Smith in

1833. Upon the death

of his father, in 1833, he became senior member of the firm. He constantly improved the printing presses man- ufactured, introducing the fixed cylinder, on which the electrotype plates were placed, with impression-cylinders travelling around it, Avhich evolved into the revolving type-cjdinder, or ro- tary press, gradually increasing the number of cylinders from two to four, six. eight and ten. He then made a press that would print upon both sides of a sheet or web of paper, the roll being passed through the press at the rate of eight hundred feet a minute, and the com- pleted newspaper cut. pasted, folded and ready for delivery in a single operation of the one ma- chine. He combined with the manufacture of printing presses that of steel circular saws,

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and patented in the United States and Europe a process for the rapid and automatic grinding of saws. As their factory increased in the number of workmen Richard's son Robert became inter- ested in the business. They introduced an ap- prentice's school for the free instruction of two hundred pupils. His brother Robert, born in New York, July 19, 1815, died in Tarrytown, N.Y., Sept. 13, 1884. Richard March Hoe "died in Flor- ence, Italy. June 7, 1886.

HOE, Robert, manufacturer, was born in New York city, N.Y., March 10, 1839; son of Robert Hoe, and grandson of Robert Hoe, who introduced in America the use of iron and steel in the place of wooden plates and wooden screws in the printing press. Robert was educated in tl)e public schools and served an apprentice- ship in his father's printing press manufac- torj', learning all the details of the business. He was admitted as a partner in 1860, and on the death of his uncle, Richard March Hoe, in 1886, he became senior member of the firm of R. Hoe & Co. of New Y^'ork and London. He was one of

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lETROPOLI TAN

the founders of the Metropolitan ]\Iuseum of Art and of the industrial schools connected with that institution. He collected a large private library and became a member of various literary and social clubs ; was the first president of the Gro- lier club and a member of the Century asso- ciation. He was elected a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1883. He conducted an extensive model stock farm in Westchester county, N.Y., where lie raised choice dairy stock originally imported from the Channel islands and from England. The Hoe octuple press was in 1900 used by the largest circulating newspapers in the United States.

HOFF, Henry Kuhn, naval officer, was born in Lancaster, Pa., in 1809: son of George and Margaret (Hager) Hoff. He was appointed mid- shipman in the U.S. navy in October, 1823, accredited to South Carolina. He was on the Constitution of the Mediterranean sc^uadron, 1827 ; was promoted passed midshipman. March, 1829, and lieutenant, March, 1831. He was on the Potomac, of the Pacific squadron, 1833-34, and took by storm one of the forts at Qualla