Hob an

culin test for cattle; and he was among the few
who early recognized the value of the silo and
urged its use to solve the dairyman's feeding
problems. At his request in 1884 the legislature
established farmer's institutes.

As the "Jersey Cow candidate" he was elected
governor of the state in 1888. During his term
of office he secured a law creating a dairy and
food commission. His lifelong interest in edu-
cation led him to sign an act compelling all
schools to give instruction in the English lan-
guage. This law, known as the Bennett law,
created a furor, especially among the foreign-
speaking classes, and among the Lutherans and
Catholics, who regarded it as an attack on the
parochial schools; and it cost Hoard his second
term as governor. In 1907 he was appointed to
the University board of regents of which he be-
came president the following year. It was while
serving on this board that he helped to make pos-
sible the state soil survey. His death occurred at
Fort Atkinson, in his eighty-third year.

[G. W. Rankin, William Dempster Hoard (1925) ;
E. N. Wentworth, A Biog. Cat. of the Portrait Gallery
of the Saddle and Sirloin Club (1920); L. S. Ivins,
and A. E. Winship, Fifty Famous Farmers (1924) ; W.
E. Ogilvie, Pioneer Agricultural Journalists (1927);
files of Hoard's Dairyman, especially the memorial is-
sue of Dec. 6, 1918; Who's Who in America, 1918-19;
Wis. State Jour. (Madison), Nov. 22, 1918; N. Y.
Times, Nov. 23, 1918.] W.A.S.

HOBAN, JAMES (c. i;62-Dec. 8,1831), ar-
chitect, builder, was born in Callan, County Kil-
kenny, Ireland, the son of Edward and Martha
(Bayne) Hoban. As the parish registers are not
preserved, the dates for his year of birth are con-
flicting. The latest comports best with the years
he studied in schools of the Dublin Society. Here
Thomas Ivory gave instruction in drawing to
boys who generally entered at from twelve to
fourteen years of age. On Nov. 23, 1780, it was
resolved that several boys deserved medals. In
the school for drawing in architecture Hoban
was awarded the second premium for drawings
of "brackets, stairs, roofs, &c." He was next
concerned, probably as an artisan, in several
Dublin buildings: the Royal Exchange, finished
soon after; the bank of Glendower, Newcomen
& Company, built in 1781; and the Custom
House, begun in the same year. He speaks of
himself later as "universally acquainted with men
in the building line in Ireland."

After the Revolution Hoban emigrated to
America, and on May 25, 1785, he advertised in
Philadelphia that "Any Gentleman Who wishes
to build in an elegant style, may hear of a person
properly calculated for that purpose, who can
execute the Joining and Carpenter's business in
the modern taste" (Prime, post, p. 275). He

Hoban

next appears in South Carolina where he re-
mained until 1792. There he designed the state
Capitol at Columbia, completed in 1791. For the
front, with its central portico and high basement,
he followed the suggestion of L'Enfant's design
for the Federal Hall in New York, which had
been reproduced widely in American magazines
of 1789. The Capitol stood until it was burned in
1865. From Carolina, Hoban moved north in
1792 with letters of introduction from Henry
Laurens and others, and after seeing Washing-
ton in Philadelphia he went to the Federal City
to take part in the competition for the proposed
public buildings. None of his drawings for the
Capitol is preserved, but for the President's
House—later to be called the White House—he
produced a design which on July 17 was award-
ed the first premium, consisting of a lot in the
city and the sum of five hundred dollars. The
elevation is preserved by the Maryland Histori-
cal Society; the plan, which later came into the
hands of Jefferson, is with his drawings in the
Coolidge collection deposited with the Massa-
chusetts Historical Society. The front is acade-
mic, and was based on a plate in James Gibbs's
Book of Architecture (London, 1728, plate 51).
Certain modifications of this design suggested
the influence of Leinster House in Dublin, gen-
erically similar, and gave rise to the legend that
the White House was copied from this building
of Hoban's native place.

Hoban was retained to supervise the construc-
tion of the building at three hundred guineas a
year. At the laying of the corner-stone by Presi-
dent Washington, Sept. 13, 1793, Hoban assisted
as master of the Federal Masonic Lodge, which
he had helped to organize on Sept. 6. He con-
tinued in charge until it was occupied, still un-
finished, by Adams and Jefferson in 1800 and
1801. Meanwhile he was also employed as one
of the superintendents at the Capitol, where he
was active at intervals until Latrobe was ap-
pointed surveyor of public buildings in 1803,
Quiet and conciliatory, but self-respecting and
capable of firmness when occasion demanded,
Hoban was the only personage connected with
the Federal City who remained continuously
identified with it from its inception. His knowl-
edge, abilities, and probity were called on in
many other enterprises in Washington. He de-
signed and built the Great Hotel (1793-95 ) > con-
ceived as the first prize in the Federal Lottery,
and built the Little Hotel (1795). Architectural
practice was not yet established on an exclusive-
ly professional basis and was not considered to
preclude activity as a contractor for the erection
of buildings from the designs of others. Thus

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