Herbert Melville Hoxie

Herbert Melville "Hub" Hoxie (December 18, 1830 to November 23, 1886) was a pioneer, abolitionist, railroad executive and the first Republican United States Marshal in the State of Iowa.

Descended from early pioneers of the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts, Hub Hoxie was born in Palmyra, Wayne County, New York on December 18, 1830 to Benjamin Tobey Hoxie and Ruth Peck; his siblings were Melissa Peck Hoxie Fagen, Melville Benjamin Hoxie, Rose M. Hoxie Stevens Hoyt, and William H. Hoxie.

When he was five years old, his parents moved the family to where Des Moines, Iowa now stands. There his family worked the trading post near Fort Des Moines No. 2, and young Herbert assisted his father in farming and in trading with the Indians. By 1840, his father kept the Hoxie House — later known as the Jefferson Hotel. Hub’s father was also a trustee of the Methodist Society by 1844.

In 1850, Hub traveled overland to California to seek his fortune in the gold rush. His sister, Melissa, joined him and married Dr. Pierce Bye Fagan. Not as lucky as Melissa's husband, Hub returned to Iowa, where he became interested in politics. In 1857 married Anna Maria Patrick, the niece of Des Moines' founding father, Thomas Mitchell, who in around 1844 became Polk County’s first permanent English-speaking settler and its first sheriff. He also served as legislator. Their only child, a son named Seward, died at the age of three.

Hub joined the new Republican Party with Thomas Mitchell and helped the Underground Railroad. Hub rose from secretary to chairman of the Republican State Central Committee by 1860 when Abraham Lincoln won the presidency and the Republicans took control of Congress.

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