MORGAN HOYT DIES; VETERAN EDITOR, 89 WAS A NATIVE OF BREWSTER
Columnist for Beacon News Was Confidante of F.D. Roosevelt, Wrote Own Obituary.
Morgan H. Hoyt, one of the oldest active newspaper men in the state, a confidante of President Franklin D. Roosevelt during his early political career, and a native of Brewster, died at his home at 161 Spring Valley street, Beacon, on Sunday night, February 22, 1953, after a brief Illness. He was 89 years old.
The deceased was a son of Ferdinand A. and Lydia Rogers Hoyt and was born in Brewster October 13, 1863. He attended the public school in Brewster and about 1890 went to Mattewan, later named Beacon, where he began his career as a newspaper editor.
Mr. Hoyt, one-time editor of the only Democratic daily newspaper in Dutchess county, was a member of a small group of Democratic leaders who launched Mr. Roosevelt's political career in 1910. At the time, Mr. Hoyt was chairman of the Democratic committee in Beacon and editor of the Mattewan Journal. Mr. Roosevelt was elected to the State Senate from the county in that year, the first time in nearly half a century a Democrat had been victorious in a county-wide election.
Wrote Own Obituary
In his obituary written in his own hand just a few weeks ago and delivered to the city editor of The Beacon News Monday morning, Mr. Hoyt recalled that Mr. Roosevelt, whom he always called Frank, rewarded him for his support in the 1910 campaign with the appointment as clerk of the State Senate's Forest, Fish and Game committee, of which Mr. Roosevelt became chairman.
In the obituary article, Mr. Hoyt also recalled that he introduced Mr. Roosevelt to his first political audience, and that he later introduced him six times as a candidate for Governor and President.
President Roosevelt insisted upon Mr. Hoyt introducing him whenever he made a political speech in Beacon. Mr. Roosevelt always visited Beacon on the day before election, and in 1944, he jokingly remarked "Morg Hoyt has been introducing me for 100 years."
Mr. Hoyt's close association with the late President continued through the years. Among his most prized possessions were letters from Mr. Roosevelt, one written, from Quebec Conference and another written on February 28, 1945, the day the President returned from the Yalta Conference.
In 1935 Henry Morganthau, Jr., while Secretary of the Treasury, appointed Mr. Hoyt to a post with the Internal Revenue Bureau In Albany. He retired in 1946.
The veteran newsman had served as editor of daily and weekly newspapers in Beacon since 1892. At his death he was writing a daily column of reminiscences, for the Beacon News. He wrote several columns last week that will be published shortly.
One of Mr. Hoyt's city editors during his long newspaper career was the late James V. Forrestal, who later became the nation's first Secretary of Defense.
Mr. Hoyt is. survived by his widow, Mrs. Emma H. Hoyt. His son, the late Philip D. Hoyt, was a former First Deputy Police Commissioner of New York.
Funeral Held Wednesday Funeral services were held on Wednesday afternoon at his late home, conducted by the rector of the Episcopal church in Beacon of which he was a member. His body was brought to Brewster and Interment made in the family plot in Milltown. Rural cemetery. Many old time friends here attended the committal service.
The Putnam County Courier, Carmel, New York, THURSDAY AFTERNOON, FEBRUARY 26,1953.
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