J. J. HOAG, the subject of
this sketch, is a representative
of that large class of enterprising business and professional men who began to
make Manchester their home, and
the scene of their activities, in the latter part of the
"sixties," and to whom the capital city of the county is indebted for
much of its prestige and importance.
Mr. Hoag located here in
1866. During all
the intervening years since that date he has given the weight of his
influence and the labor of his hands to the upbuilding of the interests of his
adopted home, having been for ten years of the time identified with one of the
chief industries of the place — the milling
interests. He has never aspired to be more than an humble
citizen, and his record, therefore, is the record of a man of affairs, unmixed
with any entangling alliances, political or otherwise, and unembarrassed by
any failures or vain striving after the unattainable — the record of a quiet, unobtrusive, successful
man of business. Mr. Hoag is a native
of Michigan, but comes of York State parentage, and originally of Scotch
ancestry. His father, Jacob Hago, was
born and reared in New York, and there also married, moving in
the early “thirties" to Michigan, and settling in Marion county. He resided in Michigan till 1865, when he came to this
county, locating in Manchester, and here died in 1870, at the age
of sixty-five. He was a miller and
farmer, and followed both successfully at different periods in life. While he lived in Michigan he was mainly engaged in
farming. After moving to this county he
erected a grist-mill in
Manchester, to which he gave his attention for some time, then turned
it over to his son, the subject of this sketch, and Egbert Hoag, who have since
owned and operated it, the latter now being
the owner of the property. The elder Hoag was an industrious man and a
useful citizen. He devoted the labors
of a long life to his own personal
pursuits, finding in these
his greatest pleasure as well as his highest reward. He was greatly devoted to his family
and had the success.and welfare of his children
always in mind,
being prompted to his best exertions through a desire to leave to
them something with which to begin the race of life. In this wish and purpose he was successful,
for by great industry, economy and successful management he was enabled to give
each a fair start. But greater than any amount of property, greater even than
any special training that he was enabled to give them, was the heritage he left
them of an honored name and a character distinguished for industry, sobriety
and usefulness.
Mr. Hoag's
mother bore the maiden name of Lydia Martin. Accompanying her husband West in
an early day she stood side by side with him, helping him to fight
the battles of the pioneer, bearing him a faithful and
affectionate companionship for more than a quarter of a century, dying in 1857
at a time when she was just beginning to reap the reward of her many labors and
hardships. She was fifty-five years of age at her death. She
laid down her burden where she had settled
with her husband early in the thirties in Marion
county, Mich.
To Jacob and Lydia Hoag were born six children, of whom the subject of this
notice is next to the youngest. The
eldest is a daughter, Emaline, now the wife of Row-land Burbridge, of
Manchester; the second, Egbert, is a representative business man
of Manchester; William B., resides
at Buchanan, Marion
county, Mich.; Eliza J., wife of M. I. B. Richmond, is a resident of this
county, living near Manchester;
and the youngest, Elmira, wife of Dr. Ross Pierce,
lives in her native state of Michigan, being a resident of Buchanan, Marion
county.
J. J. Hoag
was born in Marion county, Mich., September
16, 1836. That was an early date for Michigan, and the boyhood days of the subject
of this sketch were spent amid the primitive scenes of frontier life,
and were marked more for their toil and hardships than for their advantages in
the way of the refinements of polite
society which they
witnessed. Young Hoag grew up
on his father's farm and divided his
time between his labors as a farm boy and
his attendance at the district schools. His educational opportunities were limited
to the usual three months' term during
the winter and covered the ground designated by the "three R's." He made the
best, however, of these opportunities and managed through industry to acquire
the rudiments of a good English education, finishing with a year's course at
Notre Dame college, South Bend, Ind. He settled to farming on quitting school, remaining
with his father and giving him the benefit of his labors for two or three
years, even after reaching his majority. In 1860, however, having attained
his twenty-fourth year, he started out for himself, buying, with the aid of his
father, a small place in Marion county, where he was successfully
engaged in agricultural pursuits for about four years. He was still unmarried
and therefore not tied to the soil he cultivated by any family restraints. His
father moved to this county in 1865, and hither also came the son the following
year. He settled in Manchester. He and his brother, Egbert, took
charge of the mill his father had built, and to the business of that mill he
gave his undivided time and attention for the next twelve years. With the
general prosperity of the country incident to the cessation of hostilities
between the North and South and the revival of trade in every industry, the
business of Hoag Bros, became good and increased from year to year. Mr. Hoag
made some investments, and these also yielded him good returns so that when he
decided to give up the milling business in 1878, selling out his interest at
that date to his brother, he found himself in possession of considerable
property, enough to employ most of his time to look after, and he accordingly
has not since then engaged in any active business pursuits. He has been in the
broker business for more than twelve years, operating mainly on his own funds,
doing a general loan business. He is, probably, to-day, one of the best fixed
men in Manchester, and each succeeding year witnesses a corresponding rise
in his fortune. Fortunate by circumstances, he has had the energy and the rare
good sense to prompt him to avail himself of these circumstances. He has never
sought to make a fuss in the world, avoiding even the appearance of a self-seeker
and propitiator of the popular favor. He has employed his talents in the fields
where they have found their best play, working along the line marked out for him
by nature. The apostle of no special creed, the exponent of no great political
thought, the champion of no "burning issue," he has moved easily,
profitably and pleasantly along life's pathway, discharging his duties as a
citizen, a neighbor and friend, and in so doing performing, in the highest and
best sense, the whole duty of man.
Mr. Hoag
was a comparatively young man when he came to this place. He was still
unmarried, although his worldly affairs would have permitted of his taking a wife
some years before coming here had he chosen to do so. He married, however,
after settling in Manchester, the event occurring May
10, 1868.
The lady whom he took to share his fortunes was a daughter of one of Delaware county's oldest and most highly
esteemed citizens, Miss Sarah J., daughter of Joseph S. Belknap, a sketch of
whom appears in this volume. The fruit of this union has been three children,
all sons—Harry Martin, Joseph Belknap, and William Francis. While Mr. Hoag has
never sought public office nor suffered political agitations to disturb him, he
has, nevertheless, taken considerable interest in matters of public note. He
is well informed on the general political issues of the day and well read in
the teachings, history and traditions of the two great parties. He affiliates with the democrats, and is a
staunch supporter of the principles and methods of his party. The only secret order of which he has ever
been a member is the Masonic fraternity.
He is zealous in his support of that order, taking more interests,
however, in its broad charities and benevolent purposes than in its ritualistic
tendencies.
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