BIO: Thomas W. HOSTERMAN, Centre County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by JO Copyright 2009. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/centre/ http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/centre/1picts/commbios/comm-bios.htm _____________________________________________________________________ Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania: Including the Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion: Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens, Etc. Chicago: J. H. Beers, 1898. _____________________________________________________________________ T. W. HOSTERMAN, of Coburn, who has won a high reputation among the agriculturists of Penn township, Centre county, for his able management of his fine farm, is still more widely known as a forceful and effective speaker upon religious topics, having been for years a local preacher of the Evangelical Church. Although he has not had the advantages of collegiate training, a mind well stored through private study and the diligent use of such instruction as fell to him in his youth, makes him more than ordinarily well informed. Mr. Hosterman was born in Haines township, Centre county, April 15, 1845, upon a farm which had originally belonged to his grandfather, Jacob Hosterman, a prosperous agriculturist, who had two sons and three daughters. At his death he left the estate by will to his only surviving son, Thomas, then eighteen years old. Thomas Hosterman, our subject's father, accepted at this early age the responsibilities thus devolving upon him, and conducted the farm throughout his active life. He was married in Haines township to Miss Hannah Yearick, and took his bride to the old home. Not long afterward he provided for his mother's comfort by building a good house for her in the same yard, where she spent the remainder of her life, dying when between seventy and eighty years of age. In like manner he arranged in his own later years for the quiet which the old crave, building a new home on one end of the farm when he retired from active business. There he died at the age of sixty-three, his wife having passed away four years before, aged fifty- five. Thomas Hosterman had only a district-school education, and for that he had to walk three miles daily; but he possessed a remarkable intellect, and as a public speaker on religion or politics wielded wide influence in his day. As a debater he was unusually successful, and men who had enjoyed superior educational advantages feared to meet him in open discussion. An ardent Abolitionist, he turned from the Democratic party to the Whig, and later to the Republican party. He was an active member of the Evangelical Church, in which he was an exhorter, and his estimable wife was also a devout adherent. Their children were Brumille, who died in youth; Paulina, who married Samuel Moyer, and died in Haines township, Centre county; Emanuel, who died at the age of fourteen; Amelia (Mrs. Jeremiah Vonada), who died at Woodward, Penn.; Thomas W., our subject; Charles W., a resident of Woodward; Clara, now Mrs. James Weaver, of Fiedler, Penn.; Lizzie (Mrs. William Wolf), of Fiedler; Hannah M., who died in early womanhood; and Anna (Mrs. Howard Musser), of Woodward. The subject of this biography attended the local schools of his day, one of his first teachers holding the sessions in an upper room of his father's spring house. His schooling, such as it was, ended at eighteen, when he began to devote his attention seriously to farming on the old homestead. In September, 1866, when but nineteen years old, he was married in his native township to Miss Rachel Vonada, who was born in the Nittany Valley, March 15, 1844, the daughter of Philip and Mary (Harback) Vonada. After this happy event Mr. Hosterman settled at the homestead to work for his father. Later he rented the place, and two years before his father's death he made arrangements to purchase it. When the estate was settled he became the solo owner and continued to reside there until 1886, when he moved to his present residence in Coburn. A sad affliction befell him in that year, a chestnut burr destroying the sight of his right eye. The homestead, which contains 180 acres, still receives his superintendence, but except for that he has now retired from active care. He has built two houses in Coburn, each of which has a store room on the lower floor. In May, 1889, he was appointed postmaster of the village, and reappointed in August, 1897. He is a stanch Republican, taking great interest in the success of the party, and is regarded as a leader in his section. For more than forty years, Mr. Hosterman has been a member of the Evangelical Church, to which Mrs. Hosterman also belongs, and his labors for the cause have been manifold, as local preacher, exhorter, class leader, trustee and steward and in the work of the Sunday-school. Mr. and Mrs. Hosterman have reared a large and interesting family, of which any parent might be proud. There were sixteen in all, three of whom have been removed by death: Phoebe died at Coburn, Penn., May 2, 1897, at the age of thirty-three years; Ida married Thomas Motz, of 424 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. Woodward, Penn.; Warren is a farmer in Haines township, Centre county; Annie M. married Clayton Bower, of the same township; Edith married N. B. Shaffer, of Zion, Centre county; Luther is a farmer of Haines township; Gertie married John Waite, of Rebersburg, Penn.; William is a farmer of Haines township; Tome, Thomas A. and Nathan are at home; Hannah died in infancy; Lizzie, Mabel and Bertha are at home; and an infant son still-born in 1887.