Hezekiah Lord Hosmer (judge)

Hezekiah Lord Hosmer (born Hudson, New York, December 10, 1814; died San Francisco, California, October 31, 1893) was a lawyer, judge, journalist, and author.[1]

For his father the politician, see Hezekiah L. Hosmer.

Biography

Hosmer was born into a prominent family. His grandfather Titus Hosmer signed the Articles of Confederation for Connecticut; his uncle Stephen Hosmer was Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court; and his father, Hezekiah Lord Hosmer, was a U. S. Representative from New York who died six months before Hosmer's birth.

Hosmer started studying law in Cleveland, Ohio at the age of 16. At 22 he moved west to the Maumee Valley of Ohio. From 1848 to 1854 he was the editor of the Toledo Blade newspaper. After serving as secretary to the Committee of Territories of the U. S. House of Representatives, Hosmer was appointed first Chief Justice of the Montana Territory Supreme Court in 1864 by President Abraham Lincoln, serving until 1868. From 1869 to 1872 he was the postmaster in Virginia City.[2][3] He then moved to San Francisco, California, where he had obtained a position in the Customs House, and remained there until his death.

Hosmer was active in Freemasonry for most of his life. While in Toledo he was Master of a lodge and held offices on the state level, serving as Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Ohio. In Montana he was the first Master of Montana Lodge #2 and served several terms as the Grand Secretary of the Montana Grand Lodge.[4][5] At his death he had for ten years been the Grand Prelate of the Grand Commandery of California.

Hosmer was one of the original incorporators of the Montana Historical Society and was its first Historian.

Works

Hosmer authored a number of works on various subjects: a history, Early History of the Maumee Valley (1858); an anti-slavery novel, Adela, the Octoroon (1860); and Bacon and Shakespeare in the Sonnets (1887).

Family

He was married four times: to Sarah E. Seward (died July 8, 1839), Jane Eliza Thompson (died March 4, 1848; their only child, Richard Alsop Hosmer, died April 16, 1848 aged less than six months), and Mary Daniels (Stower) b. July 8, 1818 in Abergavenny, Monmouth, Wales (sister of New York Supreme Court Justice Charles Daniels[6][7]), married Sept. 12, 1849, with whom he had three children.[8][9] His son John Allen Hosmer (1850–1907) self-published a travel narrative A Trip to the States, By Way of the Yellowstone and Missouri in Virginia City in 1867; it was the first such book published in the Montana Territory.[10] Hosmer's wife Mary died April 30, 1858 and is buried in Collingwood cemetery in Toledo, Ohio. In August 1864 in Philadelphia he married his fourth wife, Sallie Cotney (marriage license has it hand-written as Cottney), b. May 22, 1842, who survived him.[8][11]

Hosmer is buried at the Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California.

References
  1. Biography of Hosmer, Montana Memory Project
  2. Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States of America, Vol. XVII, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1901, p. 116
  3. Virginia City post office records kept by Hosmer
  4. Online Masonic bio of Hosmer
  5. Proceedings of the M. W. Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of California, San Francisco: Frank Eastman, 1871, p. 485
  6. History of the Bar and Bench of California, John A. Hosmer, 1901, p. 873
  7. New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Vol. 37 (1906), The Throope Family and the Scrope Tradition, Winchester Fitch, p. 46
  8. Hezekiah Lord Hosmer II
  9. Genealogy of the Hosmer Family, James Hosmer, 1861
  10. Montana: A State Guide Book, Federal Writers' Project, revised ed. 1949, p. 102
  11. The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record (volume 83)
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