Hoyne, Thomas

Born: 1817-02-11 New York, New York

Died: 1883-07-27 Orleans County, New York

Alternate name: Hayne

Thomas Hoyne was a lawyer, district attorney, and U.S. marshal. Hoyne began an apprenticeship under a manufacturer in 1830 and remained in that role for four or five years. During that time, he also joined a literary society that put him in contact with several prominent New Yorkers, including Horace Greeley. Hoyne also took night classes to pursue a basic education. He took a job as a grocery clerk in 1835 and began studying law the following year. In 1837, he moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he secured a job in the circuit court clerk's office. He earned admittance to the bar in 1839 and began working in J. Young Scammon's law practice. A Democrat, Hoyne won election as city clerk in 1840 and remained in that office until 1842, when he briefly moved to Galena, Illinois. He returned to Chicago two years later. Voters elected him probate justice of the peace in 1847, but he had to leave the office in 1848 because the new state constitution dissolved it. He formed a new law partnership with Mark Skinner and also began to associate himself with the Free-Soil wing of the Democratic Party. He supported Martin Van Buren's 1848 presidential bid but remained a Democrat, winning appointment as U.S. District Attorney for Illinois from Franklin Pierce in 1853. By 1856, he had come back into the Democratic mainstream, campaigned for James Buchanan, and supported the Lecompton Constitution. Hoyne served as U.S. Marshal for Illinois's Northern District in 1859 and superintended the census for the same district in 1860. During the Civil War, he joined the local Union Defense Committee. Hoyne was killed in a railroad accident.

The Biographical Encyclopedia of Illinois of the Nineteenth Century (Philadelphia: Galaxy, 1875), 120-22; The Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago, IL), 30 July 1883, 8:1-2; Gravestone, Rosehill Cemetery and Mausoleum, Chicago, IL.