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FRED ELBERT HOYT

In investigating the commercial interests of Fayette county one soon meets the well known name of the Hoyt Hardware Company of West Union, of which Fred Elbert Hoyt, of this review, is the principal moving spirit. He is one of the representative native sons of this county, his birth having occurred in Dover township, December 16, 1864, the son of Hiram B. and Juliet (Kent) Hoyt, both deceased. A sketch of the father, whose death occurred January 3, 1907, appears elsewhere in this work. His second wife was Hattie Booth, by whom two daughters were born, Fred Elbert, of this review, being the only son by the first marriage; he has two sisters, Ella S., wife of E.P. Sears, of Salt Lake City, and Florence Andrews, of Alliance, Nebraska; his half sisters are Minnie, wife of Eugene Sawyer, of Alhambra, California, and Grace, wife of Fred Schneider, of West Union.

Fred E. Hoyt was educated in the West Union schools and at Ainsworth Academy, also a business college in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, thus becoming well equipped for life’s subsequent career. It might be said that he grew up in the hardware business, hence took quite naturally to this line of endeavor, soon mastering its “ins and outs” and he has been unusually successful in his chosen line.

On September 4, 1889, Mr. Hoyt married Margaret Smith, a native of Quincy, Illinois, where her family is well and favorably known. Four children graced this union, namely: Fred is a high school graduate; Agnes graduated from the local high school in 1910; Philip and Eugene are the youngest of the group.

Mr. Hoyt is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America. Politically, he is a Republican and belongs to the Presbyterian church. He has long been one of the active and progressive men of the county, interested in whatever tended for the general good, and he stands in the front rank of her citizens.

The Hoyt Hardware Company, to which the remaining paragraphs of this sketch will be devoted, is composed of Fred E. Hoyt, of this review, and F.E. Hoyt, though for several years after his father’s retirement the property was owned jointly by Fred E. and Joseph Butler, Hoyt & Wright and Hoyt & Lawyer. During the past three years Fred E. Hoyt has been managing the business alone, and he has not only succeeded in maintaining the high standard of excellence which the store had maintained for so many years previous, but also in greatly extending its prestige, enjoying a liberal patronage throughout the county.

The building in which this pioneer hardware business is now located was erected for the purpose in 1873 and 1874 by the late H.B. Hoyt, father of Fred E., it being a part of the Bank block. Previous to the construction of this building the store was located at the southwest corner of Vine and Main streets and operated there by Hoyt & Holton for many years.

Fred E. Hoyt, better known among his intimate associates as “Ebbie,” is one of the successful young business men of West Union. He is a tireless worker and takes the lead and the hardest place in all of his extensive plumbing and heating work, and is recognized as the most capable mechanic along these lines in West Union. The residences in which he has installed heating apparatus and plumbing are of the best type in the city and county.

~transcribed for the Fayette Co IAGenWeb Project by Nancy Schroeder