Part of the Indiana Biographies Project
A. M. Hosier
One of the boys in blue of the civil war, and at all times a loyal citizen true to the interests of county, state and nation, A. M. Hosier is numbered among the representative farmers of Wayne county, which is one of the richest agricultural districts in this commonwealth. The Hosier family was one of the first founded in this locality and its members took an active part in its development through the pioneer epoch in its history. The grandfather of our subject was a strong adherent of the Hicksite faith, which had a very large following in Wayne county. The parents of our subject were Jesse and Martha (Dunham) Hosier, the former a native of Indiana, born in 1816, and the latter of Liberty, Union county, Indiana. In 1807 Lewis Hosier, grandfather of Jesse, left the place of his nativity in North Carolina, and, emigrating westward, located in Wayne county amid the Indians, who were more numerous than the white settlers, for the tide of emigration had not then swept through the forests and over the prairies of this district. He was accompanied by his wife and two sons, and in this frontier settlement they made homes and aided in reducing the wild land to purposes of civilization. He died at the age of seventy-eight years. Jesse Hosier here continued his farming operations until his death, which was occasioned by cancer in 1866, when he was fifty-two years of age. His wife, long surviving him, passed away in 1891, at the age of seventy years. They were the parents of ten children, namely: Aurelius M., now deceased; Henderson O., Henry O., A. M., Mary Elizabeth, Caroline, Frances, Laura Ann, William and Minomia. The last named is also deceased. Four of the brothers loyally served their country through the dark days of the rebellion, but all lived to return to their homes and are yet faithful citizens of the republic save Aurelius M., who responded to the roll call above in 1895, when a resident of Iowa.
A. M. Hosier, whose name introduces this review, passed his boyhood in a manner similar to other farmer lads of the period, working in the fields through the summer months, while in the winter season he pursued his education in the district schools of the neighborhood. At the age of twenty, however, he left home and went to the front as a defender of the Union cause, enlisting in December, 1862, as a member of the One Hundred and Twenty-first Regiment or Ninth Indiana Cavalry. He participated in Hood's campaign in 1863, and in all the engagements in which his command took part was always found at his post of duty, loyally upholding the starry banner and the cause it represented. On the 10th of June, 1865, he was mustered out, in St. Louis, Missouri, and with a creditable military record returned to his home.
Mr. Hosier at once resumed the labors of the farm and throughout his business career has carried on agricultural pursuits. He located on his present farm in Harrison township, Wayne county, in 1870 and has since devoted his time and energies to the cultivation of his fields and the care of his stock. He follows advanced and progressive methods of agriculture, and his place is neat and thrifty in appearance, owing to his consecutive labors and careful supervision. In 1898 he further improved his property by the erection of a substantial and tasteful residence.
On the 25th of March, 1869, Mr. Hosier married Miss Rebecca E., daughter of Benjamin and Rachel (Myers) Hamm, natives of Berks county, Pennsylvania. His father died at the age of eighty-five, the mother when eighty-six years of age. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Hosier have been born four children: Credwell, born May 12, 1873; Roscoe P., born May 31, 1880; Frederick M., born January 5, 1884; and Scott H., born October 31, 1885.
In his political views Mr. Hosier has always been a stanch Republican, and on that ticket was elected in 1894 to the position of township trustee, in which position he has served most acceptably since August, 1895. He was at one time a member of Colonel M. D. Leason Post, at Jacksonburg, but the organization disbanded some years since. He is a man of very genial temperament, and this quality renders him an agreeable companion.
Source:
Biographical and Genealogical History of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin Counties, Indiana, Volume 1, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1899