Sioux City Academy of Science and Letters. 41 
MR. J. C. C. HOSKINS. 
By WILLIS MARSHALL. 
Our esteemed and venerable friend, Mr. J. C. C. 
Hoskins, was born at Lyman, New Hampshire, on the 
18th of January, 1820. His father was Samuel Hoskins, 
a reputable country physician of large practice although 
of small income. It will be remembered that money was 
not so abundant in those days. His mother was Harriet 
Byron, daughter of Caleb Cushing, Esq., of Orange, N. H. 
Mr. Hoskins was one of eight children—five sons and 
three daughters—all of whom exemplified the character 
of their paternal ancestry by a respectable mediocrity of 
ability, so far as the accumulation of wealth and ex- 
tended influence go, and their maternal ancestry by a 
‘considerable fondness for reading and literature, which 
doubtless led to the college education of the subject of 
this sketch. Three of the sons—all that were physically 
able—also proved that the family hatred of oppression 
retained its ancient strength, by enlisting at the very 
outset of the war against slavery, and fighting for free- 
dom until all were free. So in the Revolutionary war his 
grand-father Hoskins and four brothers fought from 
beginning to end. In Mr. Hoskins’ boyhood there was not 
much money in his father’s house. What fees his father 
‘collected from his farmer patients—the community was 
entirely agricultural—were paid in the products of the 
farm. So he, with an earnest desire for books and a 
college education, like most New England boys, had a 
poor show for success in a career that seemed to him as 
far off and as much to be desired as heaven itself. But 
the succeeded. By dint of working on the farm in the 
summer vacation, and teaching school in the winter, 
together with some aid from home, he worked his way 
through college, and at the age of twenty-one found 
