Hone

cestry, vol. I (1887); Nezv-Eng. Hist, and Geneat. Reg.,
July 1888; Lewis Tappan, Memoir of Mrs. Sarah Tap-
pan (1834) ; Gen. Cat. of the Theol Seminary, An-
dover, Mass., 1808-1908 (1909); Obit. Record of
Grads. of Amherst Coll. for the Acad. Year Ending
June 27f 1888 (1888); E, A. Bowen, Lineage of the
Bowens of Woodstock, Conn. (1897); N. Y. Times,
N. Y. Tribune, Nov. 5, 1887,] A. E. P.

HONE, PHILIP (Oct. 25, i;8o~May 5,1851),
diarist, was born in New York City of German-
French ancestry, his father being a joiner of
limited means. At sixteen he began assisting his
elder brother John in an auction business, and at
nineteen became a partner. The firm rapidly
grew to be one of the most profitable in New
York, its net profits in the single year 1815 reach-
ing $159,000, and it gave Hone at forty a fortune
of at least a half million. Retiring from business
in May 1821, he made a tour of Europe, and then
settled himself, his wife, Catharine Dunscomb,
whom he married Oct. I, 1801, his six children,
his large library, and his art collection in his
Broadway house, overlooking City Hall Park.
His wealth, his cultivation, his affable personal-
ity, and his public spirit, made him a prominent
figure in city affairs. Elected mayor for one
year when in 1825 the Democratic city counsel
split upon two rival candidates, he ably repre-
sented the city at the reception of Lafayette and
the opening of the Erie Canal, He became con-
spicuous in the most exclusive social circles, was
a local leader of the Whig party from its birth,
served as a vestryman of Trinity, a trustee of
Columbia College and the Mercantile Library,
and an officer of the Bank for Savings, and was
active in civic and charitable undertakings.

Hone's claims to repute as an able, honorable,
and conservative citizen were known to every-
one; but his immortality rests upon the secret
diary which he kept from 1828 to 1851, and which
furnishes the best extant picture of New York
life in that period. Most of his activities are
therein described. He was one of the projectors
of the Delaware & Hudson Canal, and part own-
er of the coal mines opened near its Honesdale,
Pa., terminus, named in his honor* He was a
shareholder in the first unsuccessful Italian opera
house in New York, and in a hotel venture at
Rockaway which also failed. He made frequent
visits to Boston, Saratoga, and Washington, and
in 1836 toured Europe again. His chief inter-
ests, however, were in politics, letters, and the
drama. He was intimate with Webster, Clay, J.
Q. Adams, and Seward, and often entertained
them at his home; once, presiding at a Whig din-
ner in Washington between Clay and Webster,
he placed his hands on their shoulders and made
the assemblage swear "to make one of us Presi-
dent of the United States." tie paid Webster ex-

Hontan — Hood

tended visits at Marshfield. Only once did he
again run for office, being defeated for the state
Senate in 1839; but he was indefatigable in or-
ganizing the Whigs, addressing meetings, and
raising party funds. Till late in life he assidu-
ously attended the theatre, and knew all the stage
folk of note. Washington Irving, Henry Bre-
voort, and John P. Kennedy were close friends,
and he knew Cooper, Halleck, and other writers
well. The diary records a constant succession of
dinners with or to the city's leading business and
professional men. He was one of the founders
of the Union Club, and a dinner group called it-
self the Hone Club in his honor.

In the panic of 1837, Hone, who had signed
much paper to launch two sons in business, lost a
large part of his estate. Disappointed in an effort
to obtain the New York postmastership from
Tyler, he reentered business as head of the Amer-
ican Mutual Insurance Company, and after its
bankruptcy was appointed naval officer of the
port by President Taylor. A tour of the Western
prairies in 1847 left him with impaired health,
but he maintained his diary till within five days
of his death.

[The MS. diary of Philip Hone, in twenty-eight
quarto volumes, aggregating not less than two million
words, is preserved by the N. Y. Hist. Soc. A selection
in two volumes was published in 1889 by Bayard Tuck-
erman, with a short introduction; a fuller selection in
two volumes was published in 1927 under the editorship
of Allan Nevins. J. W. Francis, Old New York; or
Reminiscences of the Past Sixty Years (1858) sketches
Hone and the Hone Club. See also J. G. Wilson, Me-
morial Hist, of the City of N. Ytl vols. Ill and IV
(1893) ; N. Y. Daily Tribune, May 6, 1851.] ^.N.

HONTAN, LOUIS-ARMAND DE LOM
D'ARCE, Baron de la [See LAHONTAN, Louis
ARMAND DE LOM D'ARCE, i666-c. 1713.]

HOOD, JAMES WALKER (May 30, 1831-
Oct. 30, 1918), bishop in the African Methodist
Episcopal Zion Church, was born in Kennett
Township, Chester County, Pa., the son of Levi
and Harriett (Walker) Hood. He went to school
a few months only in Newcastle County, Del.,
and Chester County, Pa., between 1841 and 1845.
When he was about twenty-one he was impressed
with his call to the ministry. Removing to New
York, he was in 1856 granted license to preach
and the next year he removed to New Haven,
Conn., where he was received into the Quarterly
Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal
Zion Church. Having been appointed to Nova
Scotia, he worked in a hotel in New York for
thirteen months, at the end of which time he had
saved enough money to provide for his family
and to take him to his field of labor. He was or-
dained a deacon in Boston, Mass., the first Sun-
day in September 1860, and sailed for Halifax

192