WILLIAM HARRISON HOXIE

HOXIE

Posted By: Jake Tornholm (email)
Date: 4/20/2020 at 14:01:58

WILLIAM HARRISON HOXIE, editor and proprietor of the Adams county Gazette , was born in Lee county, Iowa, in 1840, of New England stock; his parents, Benjamin T. and Ruth (Peck) Hoxie, were natives of New York and remotely of English ancestry. At an early age he returned East and was fairly educated in the seminaries of Vermont and later in the Baptist College of Des Moines, Iowa. He began life for himself as a clerk and later as a newsboy; he learned the printer’s trade, and at length became editor of the Commonwealth at Des Moines. During the war he enlisted first with the Fremont men, then for three years in Company D, Second Iowa, Colonel Crocker. This was the first regular regiment to leave the State for active service. He was first assigned for duty in Fremont’s expedition to Bird’s Point and afterward was at various places in Missouri, Kentucky, etc. At the siege of Fort Donelson his regiment was accorded a distinction enjoyed by no other. He was also at the siege of Corinth and in the rest of that campaign; was promoted Captain of Company B, Seventeenth Iowa Infantry, and served with distinction. Afterward, on the organization, he was appointed Captain of Company M, Eighth Iowa Cavalry, and took part in the services of that regiment. At Altoona Pass a ball struck his eye, and he received altogether seven wounds, but he stuck to his post to the end of the war. Few soldiers can show a better record for bravery and devotion to the flag. In 1875 he was honorably discharged, but lie continued in the Quartermaster’s department of the regular army at Fort Leavenworth until 1868, and since then he has been at his present post. He is also Pension Agent, is a prominent member of the G. A. R. and F. & A. M. He has reared a family of children and is spending the evening of life in content.

He was married to Ellen M. Peck, of Nashville,Tennessee. Hiis children are: Ruth M., Herbert Oscar, William L. and Clay E.