Hoyt, Hon. John P....... In the early part of the year 1819, there came to Clearfield county a young man, just turned of his twenty-fifth year, who took up his residence at a point in Pike township, about two miles southwest from Curwensville, and there commenced the practice of medicine. In this event alone there was nothing unusal, but as years came and went he began to attract considerable notice and attention from the sturdy pioneer residents in that vicinity and in the country roundabout the county seat, and the name and fame of Dr. John P. Hoyt spread throughout the entire county's boundaries, and even beyond it, there came calls for the professional services of this man. In the year 1824, then having been a resident of the county for about five years, there was no man more pressed, more occupied or more wearied with the unceasing toil and sleepless nights, than he; the terrible scourage well remembered as the "dysentery plague", taxed the skill and the endurance of the few residents physicans of the county, and none more than Dr. Hoyt. Yet, it was not in this year alone that Dr. Hoyt acquired his enviable reputation as a practitioner and as a man. From his first coming to the county until the time of his death, he was respected and esteemed as a man of professional skill and understanding, a close and thorough student, a wise counselor and a candid advisor; a man of kind disposition and generous heart. The rich and poor alike shared his attention. No matter how far distant, or how doubtul the probability of pay for service, he never refused to attend a call from the sick or the distressed.
Aside from his regular duties as a physician, Dr. Hoyt was, for some time, engaged in the mercantile business at Curwensville; moreover, as by his practice and business he acquired some means, this he put to good use by real estate investments, and by the gradual advance in values he accumulated a comfortable fortune.
In the year 1846, having become somewhat broken in health, the result of over-care and over-work, he retired from the busy field of life to the comforts and retirement of a pleasant home on the bank of the Susquehanna, about three miles above Lumber City, where surrounded by family and friends, he passed the remainder of his life.
John Pennoyer Hoyt, the subject of this sketch, was born in the city of Hudson, New York State, on the 12th day of September, in the year 1793. His father, Phineas Hoyt, was a New Englander by birth, while his mother, whose maidened name was Julia Pennoyer, was a native of the Empire State. Having acquired a preparatory education, young Hoyt entered Dartmouth College, a famous educational institution of New England, where he completed his education and laid the foundation for a practical knowledge of the medical profession, which he had determined to enter. He then read medicine with Dr. Woodward and Dr. White, both practicing physicians of Otsego county, N.Y., and still later with Dr. Wing, of Tioga county, N.Y. At the latter place he finished his course of study and was regularly admitted to practice in the early part of the year 1818. Soon after he came to Half Moon, Centre county, and in the next year, 1819, located near Curwensville.
On the 20th day of January, 1820, John P. Hoyt married Mary, daughter of Thomas McClure, one of the pioneers of the county. Of this marriage ten children were born, viz.: Hiram, who died in 1824; Julianna, who died in 1824; Harriet; a son who died in infancy; David Wilson of Louisiana; Elizabeth M., wife of Martin Watts; Mary E., wife of Martin D. Stirk, and who died in 1863; a son who died in infancy; Margaret; Christiana T., who died in 1843. In the year 1852, Mr. Hoyt was honored by his fellow citizens in his election to the ofice of associate judge of the county, in which capacity he served until 1857, his colleague on the bench at the time being Judge Richard Shaw of Clearfield.
Judge Hoyt died on the 26th day of February, 1885, in the ninety-second year of his life. His wife, Mary survived him about one and one half years and died September 6, 1886 having passed her eighty-seventh year.
Upon the occasion of the death of John Pennoyer Hoyt, the following resolutions were passed and adopted by the Clearfield bar, and ordered to be placed upon the minutes of the court:
Whereas, we have learned with deep regret of the death of Hon. John P. Hoyt who died at the ripe old age of ninety-one years and upwards, on the evening of the 26th of February, A.D. 1885, at his residence in this county, after having been an upright, honored and influential citizen of the same for a period of nearly three-score and ten years; therefore, be it
Resolved, First---That Hon. John P. Hoyt, having performed the duties of associate judge of this county for a period of five years from December 1, 1851, in a manner honorable to himself and acceptable to the people, is entitled to our grateful remembrance.
Resolved, Second--That the sympathy of the court and members of the bar are hereby extended to his family in their sad bereavement.
Resolved, Third--That in token of respect to his memory these proceedings be entered upon the records of this court, and that a copy of them, with the seal of the court attached, be furnished to the family of the deceased.
G. R. Barret
J. B. McEnally
Smith V. Wilson,
Committee
Source: Pages 689-690, History of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, edited by Lewis Cass Aldrich, Syracuse, NY: D. Mason & Co., Publishers, 1887.
Transcribed September 1999 by Gloria Gloss for the Clearfield County Aldrich Project
Contributed for use by the Clearfield County Genealogy Project (http://www.pa-roots.com/~clearfield/)
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