WILLIAM H. HOYMAN.
The life of the scholarly or professional man seldom exhibits any of those striking incidents that seize upon the public feeling and attract attention to himself, but when such a man has so impressed his individuality upon his fellow men as to gain their confidence, and through an expression of that confidence be elevated to an important public position, he becomes a conspicuous figure of the body politic. The subject of this review is one of the scholarly and able men who have made striking successes in their work as educators. He has succeeded as an instructor and executive, and has kept abreast of the times in educational matters to such an extent that he has raised the schools of Exira, this county, to a high and definite standard of efficiency.
William H. Hoyman, now superintendent of the Exira public schools, was born on November 27, 1883, at Clarence, Cedar county, Iowa, son of Henry S. and Mary (Maley) Hoyman, the former a native of Holmes county, Ohio, born in 1848, the latter of Warren county, Illinois, born in 1853. Henry S. Hoyman was the son of John Hoyman, born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, who migrated to Holmes county, Ohio, where Henry was born. John Hoyman left the Buckeye state and moved to Iowa in the early fifties, traveling on foot the greater part of the distance; walking to Fort Dodge and thence to Des Moines while looking over the country and seeking a location. He had saved about three thousand dollars, and this sum he invested in Cedar county land, on which tract he erected his home and established the nucleus of a famous stock farm which the son, Henry S. Hoyman, developed into what is now widely known as "Stanwood Stock Farm." This fine farm consists of three hundred and sixty acres and is noted for its fine thoroughbred Shorthorn cattle, Percheron horses, and Duroc-Jersey swine. Not long ago, Henry S. Hoyman disposed of this farm and his live stock and retired to a residence in the town of Stanwood, Cedar county. It was in Stanwood that Henry S. Hoyman was married, his wife having moved from Warren county, Illinois, to Cedar county, Iowa, with her parents, S. H. Maley and wife, in the early sixties. S. H. Maley platted the town of Stanwood in the fall of 1869, and it is a matter of note that Henry S. Hoyman hauled the first load of stone used in the building of that now thriving little city.
To Henry S. and Mary (Maley) Hoyman were born eleven children as follow: C. E., a farmer living in Stanwood, Iowa; Mrs. Mary Davidson, also of Stanwood; F. S., a missionary at the head of the United Presbyterian missions in Egypt; Mrs. Joseph O'Brien, of North English, Iowa; Dr. H. J., of St. Joseph, Missouri; Mrs. Henry A. Warmuth, wife of Doctor Warmuth, of Stanwood; Prof. William H., of Exira, this county; Mrs. H. H. Hamilton, of Stanwood, and Avis, a teacher in the Tipton, Iowa, public schools.
William H. Hoyman received his elementary education in the public schools of his native locality and studied for four years in Monmouth College. In preparation for undertaking the profession of teaching, he completed his education in the Iowa State Teachers' College, at Cedar Falls, from which he was graduated in 1909, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, following which he pursued post-graduate work in the Chicago University and began teaching in the fall of 1909, for two years serving as superintendent of the public schools at Clarksville, Iowa. In the fall of 1911 Professor Hoyman was called to take charge of the Exira public schools and has been very successful in the performance of his duties as superintendent of that excellent educational plant. He has placed the schools in the front rank of the public schools in the county and his administration has been marked by progress, harmony among pupils and patrons, and the high class of the student work being done in the schools.
In August, 1913, Prof. W. H. Hoyman was married to Deana Merrick, daughter of H. N. Merrick of Floyd county, Iowa. Professor and Mrs. Hoyman are members of the United Presbyterian church and are warmly interested in all good works hereabout. Professor Hoyman is independent in his political views, casting his ballot for the men who seem to be best fitted to serve the people. This successful educator comes of an intellectual family, every child in the Hoyman family of nine members who grew to manhood or womanhood was educated in the high school. Four of the sons are college graduates and three daughters of the family were college students.
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Transcribed from History of Audubon County, Iowa Its People, Industries and Institutions With Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families, by H. F. Andrews, editor, Indianapolis: B. F. Bowen & Company, 1915, pp. 411-413.
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