Monroe Allen Hoyt 1839-1914

HOYT

Posted By: Georgea Clinton (email)
Date: 6/3/2011 at 10:52:20

Dec 31, 1914 - Carroll Times - Monroe Allen Hoyt, the oldest attorney of the Carroll county bar, and one of the earliest settlers of Carroll, died Sunday, December 27, at 7 a.m. at his home in this city. The cause of death was aedema of the lungs. He has been in poor health for the past year and a half and had been weakened by an attack of pneumonia, shortly preceding his death, being confined to his home for about six weeks before the fatal termination.

Mr. Hoyt was born at Maria, Essex county, N.Y., December 27, 1842, (his grave stone say he was born in 1839) so that his death occurred on the seventy- second anniversary of his birth. His father was Samuel Hoyt, and was a native of Vermont. In 1843 the father moved his family to Maquoketa, Jackson county, Iowa, and erected the first business block in that now flourishing city. In 1856 the father moved to Davies county, Missouri, but in 1862, he again moved to Jackson county and bought a farm near Bellevue, where he passed the remainder of his days, dying in 1868.

Monroe was the youngest of a famly of twelve children, consisting of six sons and six daughters. Two of the twelve died in infancy and Monroe was the last of the family to survive. Mr. Hoyt's early educational advantages were limited, as school opportunities were meager in the early days in Iowa and Missouri, where his boyhood was spent. He was eager for knowledge and improved every opportunity to fit himself for his future work.

At fourteen years of age he left home and from that time forward provided for himself, being in the fullest sense a selfmade man. By dint of hard study he fitted himself as a teacher, his first school being in Bates county, Missouri, and later he taught at Panora, Guthrie county, Iowa. In the early part of the sixties he spent a winter trading with the Indians of the Orage nation, but the breaking out of the war interrupted this business and he returned to Davies county, Missouri, where he enlisted in a company of Home Guards, which saw active service, being sent in pursuit of the rebel forces under Colonel Patton.

Following this expedition he came to Bellevue, Iowa, where he entered the law office of Booth & Graham, in which he studied for two years and a half. During the last two years of the war he was employed as a clerk in the quarter master's department of the Union army first at Stevenson, Alabama, and later at Eastport, Miss. At the close of the war he entered the law office of Colonel Byam, at Marion, Iowa, where he renewed his law studies. Later he went to Panora, Iowa, where he had charge of the office of the county recorder and where he was admitted to the bar in 1867, Judge Maxwell presiding.

Mr. Hoyt came to Carroll in 1868 and first engaged in the hardware business but later engaged in the practice of law as a member of the firm of Hoyt & Beach. Mr. Hoyt was a man of great natural ability and strong individuality. He was a thorough student of matters pertaining to his business and a careful, methodical business man. He saw the opportunities that lay in the rise of Iowa real estate values and when lands were low in price he acquired a large acreage of farm lands and much city property that has since his purchase greatly increased in value. At the time of his death he was the owner of several thousand acres of farm lands in this and adjoining counties believed to be worth on an average at least $150 an acre and while no one but himself has had any definite information as to the extent of his possessions, he has for some years been accounted a millionaire and the richest man in Carroll county.

Mr. Hoyt was married April 21st, 1874, to Miss Susan Bowman, of Cedar Falls, Iowa, who survives him. She was the daughter of Rev. John Bowman, D.D., a Methodist minister, who was recognized as a leader in the Upper Iowa conference of that denomination. Dr. Bowman was a man of great ability and was considered especially strong along controversial lines, being often selected as the champion of the doctrines taught by his church in those theological discussions that were then so much more frequent between religious denomiatlons than they have been in recent years.

He was nominated for congress in 1874 by a fusion of republicans who were dissatisfied with the nominee of their party, (Hon. H.0. Pratt) in what was then the Fourth district of Iowa, and was given the endorsement of the Democratic convention of the district, but failed of an election, although Pratt's majority was less by several thousand than the usual Republican majority of the district.

Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Hoyt. The oldest of these, John True, died in his twelfth year. The other two, Beryl Anna, (Mrs. Spinney) and Monroe Allen are living in Carroll. Politically Mr. Hoyt was a democrat, and an arden believer in the Democratic doctrines as enunciated by Wm. J. Bryan.

During the war and for some years following it, he was identified with the Republican party, but later became convinced that it had passed under the control of the corporate interests and espoused the doctrines of the Peoples party and united with the Democrats on the free silver issue in 1896. He made a deep study of political questions and was always able to give a reason for the faith that was in him. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity and served as a director on both the boards appointed for the erection of the Masonic temple. In accordance with his expressed wish, the Masons had charge of the funeral, which was held at the home on Tuesday afternoon. All the members of the Carroll bar were in attendance at these services.

N.E. Hoyt, a nephew of the deceased from Danbury, Iowa, was here to attend the funeral. Louis Spinney, the son-in-law, was in Philadelphia on business at the time of Mr. Hoyt's death. He was reached by telegram and arrived Tuesday evening, but was not here in time for the funeral.

The will of the deceased was opened and read yesterday at the office of the clerk of court. It is very brief, all the property being left unconditionally to Mrs. Hoyt, the son Allen being left executer. While the children are not speciffically provided for in the will, the testator was doubtless confindent that their interests was safe in the hands of their mother who was left free to dispose of the property as she sees fit.

Mr. Hoyt was a stockholder in the Times Printing Company and has always taken a deep interest in the prosperity of the newspaper that championed the political doctrines which he held. The present editor has frequently talked with him on questions of public interest and has always found him keenly alive to all that was going on in governmental circles having a clear insight into the political problems of the present day.