James Otis Hoyt (1842-1896) was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard University, from which he graduated in 1865. Upon graduation, he spent a year as a teacher at Saint Mark's School in Southborough, Massachusetts. He returned to Harvard to pursue a degree in Law, which he received in 1868; while there, he was a proctor and teacher of history. He then moved to New York, where he worked briefly in several law firms before founding his own firm with Richard Christian (R.C.) Fellows in 1871. The firm would later become Fellows, Hoyt, and Schell (with Edward H. Schell), and finally Hoyt and Schell. Hoyt was a director and general counsel to the Manhattan Life Insurance Company, and general counsel to the National Butchers' and Drovers' bank and the Manhattan Savings Bank. In 1876 he married Fellows's sister, Emily Fellows (1847-1909), and the two had three daughters: Mary (1877-19??), Harriet (1880-19??), and Emily (1883-1919). Hoyt died unexpectedly of an illness in 1896. Mary attended Bryn Mawr from 1895-1898. From 1916-1917 she studied nursing and wireless signal work and from 1917-1919 she worked as an Auxiliary Nurse for the American Red Cross in France.
From the guide to the Hoyt Family Papers, 1855-1924, (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library, )
