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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 [sic], 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 gristmill 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 Rowland 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, today, 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. |
