Page:One of a thousand.djvu/324

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3'° HOAR. HOAR this business until 1884, when he became interested in the manufacture of soapstone, and is at present engaged in that industry. Mr. Hixon was married in Boston, December n, 1875, to Martha L., daugh- ter of Ezekiel and Catherine (Ring) An- drews. Of this union were four children : Imogene Willis, Beulah Sinclair, William Edwin and Leona Whitney Hixon. WILLIAM S HIXON. Mr. Hixon. served three years in the United States navy, having enlisted Janu- ary 17, 1864. He served on board the gunboat " Rhode Island," the "Saratoga " and the monitor "Chimo." He has been three times a delegate to the national encampment, G. A. R. ; three years treasurer of the Temple Council, R. A. ; treasurer of the Cone Axle Com- pany, and president of the Collett Car- brake Company. Mr. Hixon was a member of the common council of Chelsea in 1887 ; a member of the House of Representatives in 1888 and '89, serving upon the committee on harbors ami public lands. His residence is Chelsea. HOAR, E. ROCKWOOD, son of Samuel and Sarah (Sherman) Hoar, was born in Concord, Middlesex county, February 21, 1816. He is the brother of the United States senator, George Frisbie Hoar, of Worcester. On the paternal side he is de- scended from a long line of cultured, patri- otic and influential ancestors ; and on the maternal side is a grandson of Roger Sher- man. Having been well fitted in primary and academic schools, he entered Harvard Uni- versity, from which he was graduated in the class of 1835. He then taught school a year in the city of Pittsburgh, Pa. ; later on he studied law in the law school of Harvard University, receiving therefrom his degree of LL. B. in 1839. The same year he was admitted to the bar. In 1846 he was elected to the state Senate ; served as judge of the court of common pleas from 1849 to '55, and judge of the supreme judicial court from 1859 to '69. The honorary degree of LL. D. was sub- sequently (t86i) conferred by Williams, and a second time (186S) by his alma mater, whom he has so long and faithfully served. For nearly a quarter of a century he was a member of the board of overseers of Harvard, and for nearly half of that period he served as president of the board. In March, 1869, Mr. Hoar was appointed by General Grant attorney-general of the United States, and discharged the duties of that office until June, 1870. This posi- tion, as member of the president's cabinet, and his confidential adviser on all points involving questions of inter-state or inter- national law, proved for him a school pre- paratory to the highest diplomatic triumph. In consultation with President Grant on the affairs and administration of the gov- ernment, its relations to foreign powers, and particularly to Great Britain, neces- sarily and frequently came under protract- ed discussion. The result was his appointment as one of the members of the joint high commis- sion which negotiated the treaty between the United States of America and the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 187 1. The settlement of this treaty of Washington was one of the most notable events of the nineteenth century, dispos- ing, as it did, of five different subjects of controversy between Great Britain and the United States, some of which dated from the very proclamation of American Independence, and were perpetually rising to the surface of discussion to vex and dis- turb the good understanding between the kindred nations. The treaty has already attained the dignity of a monumental act in the estimation of mankind, and is des- tined to occupy hereafter a conspicuous place in the history of the diplomacy