William Dempster Hoard

Background

William Dempster Hoard was born on October 10, 1836, in Stockbridge, New York, United States. He was the eldest son of a poor Methodist circuit rider, William Bradford Hoard, and his wife, Sarah Katherine White. He was a descendant of Hezekiah Hore, of Norman ancestry--the name having originally been Le Hore--who came to America in 1637. After a time the spelling of the name was changed to Hoar, and in 1760 the "d" was added by Hoard's great-great-great-grandfather. As a child, William spent many days on the farm of his grandfather, a shrewd judge of cows. It was there the boy first learned facts about dairying and the good points of a dairy animal.

Education

At sixteen, Hoard was hired as a helper to Waterman Simons, a nearby dairyman, who taught him butter and cheese making and the care and feeding of cattle, and insisted on his spending an hour each day in reading the best farm papers and books of the time. The lure of Horace Greeley's "West" took Hoard to Wisconsin in 1857. He received a license to be an exhorter in the Methodist Church, but because he differed with some of its doctrines he finally burned the license and went to cutting wood.

Career

Hoard taught singing school and gave violin lessons in many southern Wisconsin towns. He enlisted in 1861 for service in the Civil War and was with General Butler at the capture of New Orleans. Hoard's work as founder of the modern dairy industry is closely linked with his work as editor.

In 1870 he started at Lake Mills the Jefferson County Union, a weekly newspaper in which he voiced his ideas of what dairying might do for the wheat-weary soil, and how the dairy cow might be made more profitable. In 1885 he established Hoard's Dairyman at Fort Atkinson, a paper which before long was circulating in every state of the Union and in most foreign countries. In 1871 he started the Jefferson County Dairyman's Association, and through his editorial influence he was able in 1872 to found the Wisconsin State Dairyman's Association which in 1890 was partly responsible for the establishment of the dairy school at the University of Wisconsin. In 1872 also he helped to organize the Northwestern Dairyman's Association, and the next year the Watertown dairy board of trade.

Through his direct efforts in 1873 low rates were secured for the first time to take the state's yearly output of millions of pounds of cheese to the Atlantic Coast in refrigerator cars. It was Hoard who introduced alfalfa into Wisconsin; he was one of the first to use the tuberculin test for cattle; and he was among the few who early recognized the value of the silo and urged its use to solve the dairyman's feeding problems. He was influential in securing legislation in 1885 establishing farmer's institutes.

As the "Jersey Cow candidate" he was elected governor of the state in 1888. In 1907 he was appointed to the University board of regents of which he became president the following year. It was while serving on this board that he helped to make possible the state soil survey.

His death occurred at Fort Atkinson, in his eighty-third year.

Achievements

• Hoard went down in history as the 16th Governor of the U. S. state of Wisconsin and a prominent dairyman. He was widely considered the father of the Wisconsin dairy industry. He began the first national dairy magazine in the country, Hoard's Dairyman, still published to this day. During his term of office he secured a law creating a dairy and food commission. In honor of Hoard's service to the dairy industry, a statue of Hoard by Gutzon Borglum was erected in 1922 at the head of Henry Mall of what is now the University of Wisconsin–Madison, which was the original quadrangle of the university's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Gutzon Borglum later went on to create Mount Rushmore. Wisconsin Statute W. S. A. 995. 24 creates a Wisconsin state holiday called William D. Hoard Day. It reads "October 10 is designated as William D. Hoard Day. Appropriate exercises and celebrations may be held on that day, William D. Hoard's birthday, to honor him and remember him as the 16th governor of Wisconsin and the leading promoter of the dairy industry through his weekly magazine, Hoard's Dairyman. "

Works

More photos

• book

  • Memorial Service In Honor Of William Freeman Vilas (1908)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

Religion

Hoard was a member of the Methodist church.

Politics

Hoard was a member of the Republican Party, but was an outsider and an amateur in politics.

His lifelong interest in education led him to sign an act compelling all schools to give instruction in the English language. This law, known as the Bennett law, created a furor, especially among the foreign-speaking classes, and among the Lutherans and Catholics, who regarded it as an attack on the parochial schools; and it cost Hoard his second term as governor.

Membership

Hoard was a member of the Jefferson County Dairyman's Association.

Connections

In 1860 Hoard married Agnes Elizabeth Bragg of Lake Mills, who encouraged him in all his undertakings and bravely shared the poverty of his young manhood. They had three sons, Halbert Louis, Arthur Ralph, and Frank Ward.

Father:

William Bradford Hoard

Mother:

Sarah Catherine (White) Hoard

Spouse:

Agnes Elizabeth (Bragg) Hoard

Sister :

Sarah Elizabeth (Hoard) McGuinness

Brother :

Hiram Eugene Hoard

Son :

Arthur Ralph Hoard

Son :

Halbert Louis Hoard

Son :

Francis Ward Hoard

References

• W. D. Hoard: A Man for His Time
• William Dempster Hoard