Hosmer

nd (1908), He was a member of several his-
torical societies, a fellow of the American Acad-
emy of Arts and Sciences, and, in 1902, president
of the American Library Association. He was
twice married; on Oct. 15,1863, to Eliza A. Cut-
ler, who died in 1877, and on Nov. 27, 1878, to
Jenny P. Garland.

[In the last years of his life Hosmer wrote an exten-
sive autobiography, a copy of which is in the possession
of the Minn. Hist. Soc. Other sources include: Report
of the Secretary of the Class of 1855 of Harvard Coll.
(1865); Apocrypha Concerning the Class of 1855 of
Harvard Coll. (1880) ; G. L. Hosmer, Hosmer Geneal.
(1928) ; Proc. of the Am. Antiq. Soc., n.s., XXXVII
(1928); Who's Who in America, 1926-27; Library
Jour,, June i, 1927 '> Libraries, June 1927; the Christian
Reg., June 2, 1927; New Eng. Hist, and Geneal. Reg.,
Oct. 1928; Minneapolis Morning Tribune, Nov. 26,
1902, May 12, 13, 1927.] SJ.B.

HOSMER, TITUS (i737-Aug. 4, 1780),
statesman, lawyer, was born at Middletown,
Conn., the third son and eighth child of Capt
Stephen and Deliverance (Graves) Hosmer. He
was descended from Thomas Hosmer of Hawk-
hurst, Kent, England, who settled at Newtown
(Cambridge, Mass.) before 1632 and went with
Thomas Hooker to Hartford in 1636. After re-
ceiving his preliminary education, Hosmer en-
tered Yale College and was granted the degree
of A.B. in 1757, receiving a Berkeley scholarship
at graduation. He then studied law and upon
his admission to the bar settled in Middletown
to practise his profession. A year later, in No-
vember 1761, he was married to Lydia Lord
They had seven children, the eldest of whom was
Stephen Titus Hosmer, later chief justice of the
supreme court of Connecticut. A lawyer of abil-
ity, Hosmer speedily won for himself a success-
ful practice as well as sundry civil offices. After
holding several town offices and serving as jus-
tice of the peace, he was elected in October 1773
a representative to the General Assembly. He
was repeatedly reflected until May 1778 when
he was elected an Assistant, and this office he
held by annual reelection up to the time of his
death. As speaker of the House of Representa-
tives in 1777, he did much to influence the legis-
lature to prosecute vigorous measures against
Great Britain, During part of the Revolutionary
War he was a member of the Committee of Safe-
ty and in 1778 was a member of the Continental
Congress and one of the signers of the Articles
of Confederation (July 9, 1778).

Hosmer had a natural taste for good literature
and collected a library of more than two hundred
books. His home was a rendezvous for people of
culture for he was a courteous and genial host
and found great pleasure in intelligent company.
Joel Barlow credits the writing of his chief poet-
ical attempt, The Vision of Columbus, to the in-

Hosmer

terest and encouragement given him by Hosmer
(Joel Barlow, post). In deliberative bodies,
Hosmer commanded attention and admiration
by his clear and logical argumentation. Noah
Webster ranked him with William Samuel John-
son of Stratford, and Oliver Ellsworth of Wind-
sor, chief justice of the United States. By an act
of Congress of Jan. 15, 1780, a court of appeals
consisting of three judges was formed, its prin-
cipal function being the revision of maritime and
admiralty cases. To this court Hosmer was elect-
ed a member, but he never entered upon the du-
ties of the office for he died suddenly within a
few months after his appointment

[Joel Barlow, An Eulogy on the Late Hon. Titus
Hosmer (1780); David D. Field, Centennial Address
(1853), PP- 96-98; F. B. Dexter, Biog. Sketches of the
Grads. of Yale Coll., vol. II (1896); J. B. Hosmer,
Geneal. of the Hosmer Family (1861) ; G. H. Hollister,
Hist, of Conn. (1855), II, 643; C. B. Todd, Life and
Letters of Joel Barlow (1886) ; Conn. Hist. Soc. Colls.,
vol. II (1870); The Pub. Records of the Colony of
Conn.f vol. XV (1890), ed. by C. J. Hoadly.]

L.H.S.

HOSMER. WILLIAM HOWE CUYLER

(May 25, i8i4-May 23, 1877), Poe*> was born
at Avon, N. Y., the son of George and Elizabeth
(Berry) Hosmer, and the sixth in descent from
Thomas Hosmer of Hawkhurst, Kent, who emi-
grated to Newtown (Cambridge, Mass.) before
1632 and followed Thomas Hooker to Hartford
in 1636. His grandfather, Timothy Hosmer, a
brother of Titus Hosmer \_q.v.], served as a sur-
geon in the Continental Army, migrated from
Farmington, Conn., to the Genesee Valley in
1792-93, and became the first judge of the court
of common pleas of Ontario County. His father
was a lawyer; his mother spoke several Indian
languages and imparted her sympathy for the
Indians to her son, who studied them not only in
western New York but in Wisconsin (1836) and
Florida (1838-39). Hosmer was educated at
Temple Hill Academy, Geneseo, and Geneva
(now Hobart) College (A.B., 1837) and spent
the greater part of his life in the practice of law
at Avon. His local reputation as a poet began in
his student days. He married Stella Hinchman
Avery of Owego, Oct. 16, 1838; was a clerk in
the New York custom house, 1854-58; enlisted
Nov. 12, 1862, as a private in the 26th Battery
of New York Volunteers; and, though rejected
by the surgeon, managed to accompany the bat-
tery to New Orleans and on Gen. N. P. Banks's
Red River expedition. Meanwhile his son Wil-
liam was drowned; another son Charles was
killed, May 3,1863, at Chancellorsville; his wife
died in 1864; and Hosmer, with his health enfee-
bled by dysentery, returned home forlorn and
prematurely old Beginning as a young man, he
had contributed poems to newspapers, maga-

245