John W. Hoyt was born in Worthington, Ohio, on October 13, 1831. He graduated from the Ohio Wesleyan University in 1849 and went on to study at the Cincinnati Law School, Ohio Medical College and the Eclectic Medical Institute where he received his Doctor's degree in 1853. Hoyt was appointed Professor of Chemistry and Medical Jurisprudence at Cincinnati and later became Professor of Chemistry at Antioch College. From 1857-1867 he published and edited an agricultural journal in Wisconsin and was the secretary and manager of the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. Hoyt served on the Wisconsin State Railway Commission from 1874 to 1876. Founding the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, Hoyt became its first president.

As he later described it, "like a bolt of lightening out of the clear blue sky" President Hayes appointed him Governor of Wyoming Territory on April 10, 1878. He served until August 22, 1882. While in Wyoming he founded the Wyoming Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters and was its first president from 1881-1890. After his gubernatorial term, Hoyt was appointed as the first president of the University of Wyoming from 1887-1890, served as a member of the Wyoming Constitutional Convention in 1889, published a bulletin on Wyoming Agricultural Resources in 1892, and served as special representative for Foreign Affairs at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893. In 1897, he became the Commissioner Plenipotentiary of Korea to the Universal Postal Union. Emperor Francis Joseph knighted Hoyt after he served three terms as president of International Juries of Learning. John W. Hoyt died on May 23, 1912 in Washington, D.C.

The John W. Hoyt Collection

The correspondence from Governor John W. Hoyt’s office deals with routine matters associated with the office. This includes communications with federal government offices, and topics such as requisitions, inquiries, the census, reports, prisons, petitions for pardon, and various visitors including Presidents Grant and Hayes.

Even though the territory was in its infancy a history of Wyoming was being planned, there is an explanation for the delay in writing that history is included in these records.

The records from Governor Hoyt's term in office include:

• General Records
• Insanity Records
• Insanity committals
• Correspondence
• Administrative Records
• Correspondence
• General Correspondence
• Penitentiary Correspondence
• Financial Records
• Appointment Records
• Proclamations
• Petitions for Pardons
• Requisitions and Extraditions
• Indian and Military Affairs

Additional Resources

• Memorial in Regard to a National University by John Wesley Hoyt (accessed May 2015 on Google Books)