George and Almira Hoyt, Pioneer Settlers of Perkins Township

The names of George and Almira (nee House) Hoyt are seen above in the 1850 U.S. Census for Perkins Township, Erie County, Ohio, along with several of their children. An article which appeared in the January 12, 1894 issue of the Sandusky Register reported that George Hoyt and Almira House were married in Erie County, Ohio in 1834, and they had a total of ten children, five girls and five boys: Philo, Charles, James, William and Isaac; Jemima, Celia, Lucretia, Sarah and Phebe. George Hoyt was born in Franklin County, Vermont in 1808, and he moved to Ohio in 1833. He worked for a time on the Erie Canal in New York. In Huron he worked for Tower Jackson. He resided briefly in Sandusky, before finding employment on the farm of William Bush in Perkins Township. Miss Almira House was born in East Glastonbury, Connecticut in April of 1815. When she was quite young, she traveled with her parents, Lazarus and Hannah House, to Perkins Township in Erie County, Ohio, where her family lived on a farm. Two of the sons of George and Almira Hoyt, Phili and Charles, died before the outbreak of the Civil War. Sadly, William and James Hoyt both died of disease while they were in military service during the Civil War.

Mr. George Hoyt endured long hours of continuous labor on the farm. It is said that he once cut four cords of wood in four hours. "He was an early figure in the early history of Yankee Street, and did his full share in directing and shaping the future destiny of the township." George C. Hoyt died on December 31, 1893. He was buried in the old Perkins Cemetery. (No stone remains for either Mr. and Mrs. George Hoyt in the present Perkins Cemetery.)

Mrs. Almira Hoyt delighted in recalling incidents that took place in her family's journey to Ohio from Connecticut, according to her obituary which appeared in the Sandusky Register of August 11, 1897. She joined the Perkins M.E. Church when she was age 15, and was a member of that church for sixty-seven years. When she was widow, she enjoyed that her children lived nearby. Daughters Mrs. Ewing and Mrs. Minkler lived in Berlin Heights, and Mrs. Hill resided in Florence Township. Mrs. Celia Johnson made her home with her mother. Her son Isaac Hoyt remained devoted to his mother as long as she lived. Almira House Hoyt passed away on August 5, 1897. She was laid to rest in the old Perkins Cemetery. During World War Two, the old Perkins Cemetery, along with several farms, was purchased by the U.S. Government for the construction of a munitions factory, for the war effort. Local residents removed the tombstones and caskets of hundreds of their ancestors to the site of the present Perkins Cemetery.