Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Hoyt, Charles

Born: 1797-12-03 Connecticut

Charles Hoyt was a millwright, machinist, merchant, and businessman. Hoyt spent most of his early years in Danbury, Connecticut, where he received only a basic education. At the age of twenty, he moved to South Lee, Massachusetts, where he married Temperance Perry, with whom he would have three sons. Hoyt moved his family to Madison in Geauga County, Ohio, where Temperance Hoyt died. In January 1828, he married Susanna Williams, with whom he had one child. Hoyt moved his family to Aurora, Illinois, where he opened a mercantile store and began building a mill. Upon completion, Hoyt named his mill the Black Hawk Mills. The mill and store proved successful and prosperous, and Hoyt became one of the leading businessmen in Aurora. In 1850, Hoyt was operating his grain mill in Aurora and owned real property valued at $25,000. In addition to his store and mill operation, Hoyt was an innovator in the conception and development of machinery, and in July 1856, he received a patent for a device to improve stave machinery. In 1857, Hoyt retired from active involvement in his business. In 1860, he was retired and owned real property valued at $70,000 and a personal estate of $1,000.

Commemorative Biographical and Historical Record of Kane County, Illinois (Chicago: Beers, Leggett, 1888), 303; Ohio Marriage Records, 24 January 1828, Geauga County, OH, Geauga County Courthouse, Chardon, OH; M. D. Leggett, comp., Subject-Matter Index of Patents for Inventions Issued by the United States Patent Office from 1790 to 1873, Inclusive (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1874), 3:1417; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Aurora, Kane County, IL, 189; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Aurora, Kane County, IL, 187; Gravestone, West Aurora Cemetery, Aurora, IL.