Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/423

 HOYT

HOYT

the mechanic arts; was secretary and manager of the Wisconsin State Agricultural society and vice-president of the U.S. Agricultural society, 1860-73; U.S. commissioner to the Worlds exhi- bition, London, 1862; to the Paris Universal ex- position, 1867, afterward making an educational tour of both Europe and America, and by request of Secretary of State Seward, submitting the re- port published by congress in 1870. In 1869 he was made chairman of a committee of the Na- tional Teachers' (now Educational) association on a national universit}^, and submitted three annual reports, which were unanimously adopted, be- sides offering a bill to congress which was unani- mously reported by the house committee on education, 1872. He founded the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, 1870; reorganized the Chicago Historical societj^'s great librarj-, 1871; was prime mover in the efforts which secured the enlargement of the Wisconsin State university. In 1878 he wis U.S. executive commissioner at the Vienna Universal exposition, and final acting chief commissioner, as well as president of the international jury for education and science. He was commissioner of water-routes to the seaboard and state railway commissioner for Wisconsin. 1873-76, submitting voluminous reports which led to a revision of the railway laws, and receiving the formal tlianks of the governor in the name of the people, and of all railway presidents in behalf of the corporations. He was U.S. commissioner to the Centennial exposition at Philadelphia, 1876, and final presi- dent of its international jury for education; submitted the educational report published by order of congress in 1877, and by invitation of the President, assisted in planning reforms in the civil service. Having declined the President's offer of the Spanish and other foreign missions, he accepted the office of governor of Wyoming in 1878, so discharging its duties that his reai^point- ment was unanimously petitioned for by joint reso- lution of the legislature, one house being Demo- cratic and the other Republican. He was president of the international jurj' for education. New Or- leans Universal exposition, 1884-85; originator of development enterprises, public libraries, the Wyoming Academy of Sciences and the Uni- versity of Wj'oming, of which last he was first president, 1887-91; meanwhile, as member of the constitutional convention, assisting to secure the admission of Wyoming into the union of states, and, though not a candidate, receiving generous support for the U.S. senate. Repairing to the seaboard in 1891, for reasons of health, he was successively vice-president of the Pan-Republic congress at Philadelphia, 1891; chairman of the Russian famine relief committee of the United States, 1891-92; the World's Columbian commis-

sion's special representative for foreign affairs at Chicago, 1893, so settling the differences between the American and foreign world that he received the grateful acknowledgments of all the national commissions; commissioner plenipotentiarv of his majesty the king of Korea to the universal postal congress of Washington, 1897; and chair- man of a national committee of four hundred to promote the establishment of the University of the United States. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the University of Missouri in 1876, medals from the French and German governments in 1867 and 1893, and was decorated with the commander's cross of the imjierial order of Francis Joseph in 1873. He was elected officer of the leading national educational, scientific and patriotic organizations, and is the author of many published writings.

HOYT, Joseph Gibson, educator, was born in Dunbarton, N.H., Jan. 19, 1815; son of Joshua F. and Olive R. Hoyt. His father was a farmer. He prepared for college at Hopkinton and An- dover academies, taught school five winters, en- tered Y^ale in 1836 and was graduated in 1810, standing sixth in a class of one hundred. He re- ceived his A.M. degree in 1818. While in col- lege he was an editor of the Yale Literary Mag- azine. He was principal of an academy at Ply- mouth, N.H., 1840-41, and professor of mathe- matics and natural philosophy in Phillips Exeter academy, 1841-59. He was married, April 13, 1842, to Margarette T. Chamberlain, of Exeter, Mass. In 1851 he was a member of the conven- tion for the revision of the state constitution. He was chancellor and professor of Greek in Washington university, St. Louis, Mo., 1859-62. He received tiie degree of LL.D. from Dart- mouth in 1859. He revised Colton's Greeh Reader (1845-46) and published Miscellaneous Writings, Addresses, Lectures and Reviews (1861). He died in St. Louis. Mo., Nov. 26, 1862.

HOYT, Oliver, philanthropist, was born in Stamford, Conn., Aug. 23, 1823; son of Joseph and Maria Blackley (Weed) Hoyt, and a grandson of Joseph and Sarah (Weed) Hoyt and of Eliphalet and Martha (Hoyt) Weed. He began life as a currier and in 1844 removed to New Y''ork city, where with his brother William he established the leather business of W. & O. Hoyt, which became a leading liouse in the trade and was known from 1849 under the firm name of Hoyt Bros. He was a Connecticut state senator for three yeai's, 1877-79, serving for two terms as president of the senate, and on several important committees, being chairman of the committees on humane institutions and Federal relations in 1879. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal churcli and contributed liberally to its various institutions, especially to the church at