Jesse S. Hoy manuscript, 1952

Jesse S. Hoy was born at Hoy's Gap, Pennsylvania, in 1847. His parents were well-to-do and gave him a good education. He, however, came West at quite an early age. He spent four years freighting on the plains between Missouri and Salt Lake City. In 1865 he went to Denver, where he did odd jobs, hung around saloons, and did whacking for a trade firm. When the railroad was finished in 1867, he went to Cheyenne. In 1868 he bought a span of oxen and a wagon and hauled ties for the Union Pacific. In 1872 Hoy started working for Crawford and Thompson of Evanston. They had invested in a large herd of New Mexico cattle and had no place to winter them. Hoy, William Crawford, and some cowhands drove them the hundred some odd miles to Brown's hole. The next spring he took them back to Evanston. In the early summer he returned to Brown's Hole. He saw the possibilities of a residence there so sent for his brother, H. V. S. (Valentine). They, with George and Sam Spicer, with 300 head of cattle, set up a permanent residence. Hoy quit his job with Crawford and Thompson. Later he bought a small ranch near Evanston and managed to get himself elected to the Wyoming Territory House of Representatives.

The four Hoy brothers and their families lived on their holdings along the Green River. There was much trouble and contention through the years. On 1 March 1898, Valentine was killed. The killers were caught and charged with murder. Jesse was Justice of the Peace for the Precinct of Ladore, Routt County, Colorado. As such he issued the warrants and conducted the hearing. The men were charged but later escaped. By 1917, Jesse had become a recluse. His wife had died and the family gone.

This biography was taken from John Rolfe Burroughs' Where the Old West Stayed Young (1962).