The Hoyts: One of the First Families of Jefferson County (Wisconsin)

Comments for the Addie Hoyt Fargo blog posted 2/24/2012

Taking care of the house cleaning first:
Rosemary continues to refer to E J as a troll.....she's called me, and others that question her findings and credibility trolls, as well.  I don't find this particularly offiensive since I don't live that far from Mt. Horeb, WI.  Rosemary has no idea what E J was like as a person or his personality.  We do know he was very philanthropic and used his resources and forward thinking to move Lake Mills into the 20th century.

In contrast, Rosemary uses terms like 'dear, sweet Addie' and 'shining star' to describe her very distant relative.  Again without any idea what Addie's personality was like, her behaviors or her capabilities.  I guess cold hearted gold digger was being reserved for a later generation.

There isn't any historical indication that Addie had 'great promise and potential' or was ' talented, witty, sophisticated, etc'.  I guess the idea is to convince the Desperate Housewives of Norfolk that Addie actually had some job skill or advanced education....not historically supported.....quite the contrary, once she got off the farm she never worked another day in her life.   All of the characteristics attributed to Addie are subjective and historically unsupported. 

Rosemary continues to misrepresent the depth of Addie's grave.  While it makes little difference since it's impossible to determine the original depth we do know it was deeper than 34 inches.  Accuracy has never been Rosemary's policy.

And the same applies to continually selecting a few words from the passage in Mary's book. The complete passage makes it clear the murder of Addie was a rumor, and nothing more. We called this 'lieing by omission' in the real world. Rosemary clearly has no issue with misrepresenting information and that should bring into question anything she writes or says.

Rosemary continues to claim E J murderd Addie...............this simply is not true and through all of her efforts she has failed to prove the contrary.

I challenge Rosemary to prove there was a 'horrific crime' committed.   She's failed miserably up until now and there really isn't anywhere else to turn.  Every claim of hers, with the exception of the missing burial permit, has been refuted successfully.

This passage from Rosemary's blog is just plain unfounded, not in keeping with historical record, unfactual or made up from thin air. 
'How did this debutante end up in a shallow grave - murdered by her husband and buried illegally - in the dark of night?
Debutante? Really? When did she have her 'coming out' party?  This is just so much manure.

Other than that I'm not sure what Rosemary's purpose in this blog is other than to suggest the Hoyts came to Jefferson County a year before the Fargos.  A lot of people  came to Lake Mills before the Fargos.  Given a week or two Rosemary will have the Hoyts living in a antebellum house with field hands and house servants.  She's already laying the foundation for another unfounded claim...that Addie's family was wealthy - wealth being a relative term more than a century ago - and had great social status on their own.  The social status might be true but more in Milford than Lake Mills.

Here's what comes from applying  general historical reference and logic.  The Hoyts came to Jefferson County to farm and settled relatively near Milford.  At the time Milford was a pretty busy town with at least one church and a store, likely a blacksmith shop and a cheese factory(?).  Not sure why the Hoyts would go to Lake Mills to transact business when they could do the same thing in their own back yard.  (more on this later or in another blog)

Farming in the 19th century was hard work and very difficult.  There weren't any power tools, tractors, electricity, running water I(indoor plumbing) or central heat.  It would have been very difficult to till and harvest 100 acres with a team of horses and a single bottom plow.....  The only equipment had to be drawn by horses or a mule.  Farmers worked from sun up to sun down and into the night taking care of the stock, buildings and hand milking cows. 

Women often worked with the men in the field especially during the harvest and planting.  And the  children were expected to pitch in when they were old enough.  Additionally, women kept the house, took care of the children, cooked the meals, tended the garden and a host of other responsibilities.  There was little comfort and a short life in store for a farm wife.  Feminine hygiene (products) simply did not exist  and general bathing and cleanliness was intermittent.  After 25 or 30 years of unwanted pregnancys, hard work and lack of decent health care many women simply died from one malady or another.  Menopause was virtually unknown since women frequently didn't live long enough to reach it.

Generally, a farm family would attend church on Sunday and then go home, change clothes and get back to work. Church was the social event of the week.

With hard work and diligence a farmer could take care of the family and have a little bit left over for replacing equipment, buying food that couldn't be raised and pay the bills.

The old timers tell me that men courted women that were 'no further away than you could ride a horse in half an hour'.  That limited the marriage opportunities for Addie since she lived in a rural area.

This is the future that Addie saw for herself and it was not what she wanted.  All around her and in her family she witnessed the effects of a hard scrabble pioneer life.  Addie wanted better and resisted marrying locally in hopes that she would find a benefactor..............and she did, in E J.

E J was without a wife, had plenty of money and could offer Addie the opportunities she craved.  Unlimited funds to travel, buy clothes, entertain and have a social status she could never achieve without E J.   Without doubt Addie set her cap for E J and was successful in her endeavors.

Rosemary tries to claim that, as an early Jefferson County family, the Hoyts had the social status E J provided Addie........which exposes her ignorance of the fiercely independent agrarian life style.  Farmers seldom drew attention to themselves.  Their individual accomplishments were no more note worthy than their neighbors accomplishments. 

And finally (for now),  the reason Rosemary can't find more historical information about the Hoyts is that there wasn't anybody writing their history.  No matter how honorable and important farming was in the 19th century it just didn't get a lot of press unless the barn burned......and even then, someone would have to notice.  The public might not hear about it until there was a barn raising.

That coupled with very little rural educational opportunities accounts for a lack of historical record.  Addie had the benefit of attending some school at some time.  She learned to read and write and probably learned her "3 R's", possible in a one room school house in Milford  (I haven't seen any Lake Mills graduation records mention Addie).   Male members of farming families often did not go to school at all and never learned to read or write.  My neighbor (deceased) was born circa 1915 and never learned to read and write.....he was still a great farmer and very intelligent.

And there you have it.....another meaningless blog from Rosemary where she spends most of the time beating the same old drum while mentioning a little bit about her relatives.

I want to make it clear that nothing I've written here is meant to denegrate the agrarian life style or the contribution of agriculture in the history of the United States.  Quite the contrary,  I have the greatest respect for the farming community.......