Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/296

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268
HOSKINS
HOSMER

and again under Lincoln. In 1860, 1865, and 1866 he was a member of the legislature, and was speaker of the house in 1865. He was commissioner of public accounts in 1868-'71, and in May, 1871, was appointed by President Grant collector of internal revenue for the 29th district of New York, resigning in 1873 to become a member of congress, having been elected as a Republican. He served till 1877, and was a defeated candidate for re-election in 1878, became lieutenant-governor of New York in 1879, and was a delegate to the Republican convention held in Chicago in 1880.


HOSKINS, Nathan, author, b. in Wethersfleld, Vt., 27 April, 1795 ; d. in Williamstown, Mass., 21 April, 1869. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1820, taught in St. Albans, Vt., in 1821-2, and the next ten years practised law in Vergennes, Vt., and edited "The Vermont Aurora." In 1831-9 he resided in Bennington, and in 1840 removed to Williamstown, Mass. He published "History of Vermont" (1831); "Notes on the West" (18*33); and "The Bennington Court Controversy and Strictures on Civil Liberty in the United States" (1847-8).


HOSMER, George Washington, educator, b. in Canton, Mass., in 1804; d. there, 5 July, 1881. He was graduated at Harvard in 1826, and at the divinity-school there in 1830. He was pastor of the Unitarian church in Northfield, Mass., the next two years and a half, and from 1835 was pastor in Buffalo, N. Y.., till his election to the presidency of Antioch college, Yellow Springs, Ohio, in 1862. While discharging these duties he was also non-resident professor of divinity in the Unitarian theological school at Meadville, Pa. Resigning the presidency of Antioch in 1872, he continued the next year to occupy the chair of history and ethics there. From 1873 till 1879 he was pastor of the Channing religious society of Boston, Mass. Dr. Hosmer was one of the most noted preachers in the Unitarian church of his day. — His son, James Kendall, author, b. in Northfield, Mass., 29 Jan., 1834, was graduated at Harvard in 1855. During the civil war he served in the 52d regiment of Massachusetts volunteers. He was professor in Antioch college in 1866-'72, in 1872-'4 occupied the chair of English and German literature in the University of Missouri, and in 1874 was elected to a similar professorship in Washington university, St. Louis, Mo., where he now (1887) resides. He has published “The Color-Guard” (Boston, 1864); “The Thinking Bayonet” (1865); “A Short History of German Literature” (St. Louis, 1879); “Life of Samuel Adams” (“American Statesmen” series, Boston, 1885); and “Story of the Jews” (“Story of the Nations” series, New York, 1886).


HOSMER, Harriet, sculptor, b. in Watertown, Mass., 6 Oct., 1830. She was a delicate child, and was encouraged by her father, a physician, to pursue a course of physical training by which she became expert in rowing, skating, and riding. She travelled alone in the western wilderness, and visited the Dakota Indians. She began to model in clay at an early age, and, after completing her school education in Lenox, Mass., followed the course of anatomical instruction in the St. Louis medical college, and practised modelling at home, after receiving a few lessons in Boston. Her first work was a reduced copy of Canova's Napoleon, which was soon followed by an ideal head called “Hesper,” exhibited in Boston in 1852. Going to Rome with her father and Charlotte Cushman in November of the same year, she entered the studio of John Gibson, the English sculptor. She copied from the antique, and executed ideal busts of “Daphne” and “Medusa,” which attracted much attention. “Œnone,” her first figure of full size, was completed in 1855. In the summer of the same year she modelled a statue of “Puck” in a style so spirited and original that nearly thirty copies were ordered, and her reputation was established in her own country. It was followed by a companion figure of similar conception, called “Will-o'-the-Wisp.” In 1857 the reclining statue of “Beatrice Cenci” was completed for the St. Louis public library, and in the following winter she executed a monument that found a place in the church of San Andrea del Frate in Rome. The colossal statue of “Zenobia,” on which she worked for two years assiduously, and to the detriment of her health, was completed in 1859; followed by a statue of Thomas H. Benton, that was cast in bronze, and erected in Lafayette park, St. Louis. Among her other works are a “Sleeping Fawn,” which was exhibited at the Dublin exhibition of 1865 and the Paris exhibition of 1867; a fountain representing a siren and cupids a statue of the queen of Naples as the “Heroine of Gaëta”; a fountain representing the myth of Hylas and the water-nymphs; a monument to Abraham Lincoln; and a gateway for an art-gallery in England. The “Sleeping Fawn,” which was twice repeated, was followed by a companion-piece called the “Waking Fawn.” Miss Hosmer resides in Rome. Besides her skill in sculpture, which is executive and technical rather than creative, she has exhibited talents for designing and constructing machinery, and devising new processes, especially in connection with her own art, such as a method of converting the ordinary limestone of Italy into marble, and a peculiar process of modelling, in which the rough shape of a statue is first made in plaster, on which a coating of wax is laid for working out the finer forms.


HOSMER, Jean, actress, b. near Boston, Mass., 29 Jan., 1842. She first appeared on the stage in a ballet at Buffalo, N. Y., and rose to be a star actress, performing the part of Juliet at the Chestnut street theatre, Philadelphia, in December, 1858. Soon afterward she retired from the stage, but returned in May, 1866, when she played the part of Camille at the Winter Garden theatre, New York, and subsequently performed with success in the principal cities of the United States.


HOSMER, Margaret, novelist, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1830. She was educated in the public schools of that city, went to California in 1852, and settled in San Francisco, where she became principal of a public school. Returning to Philadelphia in 1860, she engaged in literary work, published two novels, and contributed to magazines. In 1864 she returned to San Francisco, but since 1875 has resided in Philadelphia. She has published two novels, “The Morrisons” (New York, 1863), and “Blanche Gilroy” (1864), and about twenty-five volumes for juvenile readers.


HOSMER, Titus, statesman, b. in Watertown, Conn., in 1736; d. there, 4 Aug., 1780. His grandfather, Col. Thomas Titus, of Hawkhurst, England,