James M. Hoyt was born in Utica, New York, January 16, 1815. The circumstances of his parents were such that he was enabled to acquire a good education, and graduated at Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, in 1834. On leaving College he commenced the study of law in Utica, but soon removed to Cleveland, where, in February, 1836, he read law in the office of Andrews & Foot. He remained with them in that capacity for one year, when a partnership was formed under the name of Andrews, Foot & Hoyt, which lasted about twelve years, and was dissolved only by the appointment of Judge Andrews to the bench of the Superior Court of Cuyahoga county. The firm of Foot & Hoyt continued four years longer, until in 1853, Mr. Hoyt withdrew from the practice of law and turned his attention wholly to the business of real estate, not as a broker, but as an operator on his own account, or in company with others, nearly all his operations being adjacent to the city. For the last twenty years his transactions have been very heavy, having made of land belonging to him wholly, or in part, in the city of Cleveland and its environs, thirty-one recorded sub-divisions, covering an area of five hundred acres, on which he has personally, or in connection with others interested with him, opened and named no less than seventy-six streets, including the well-known Croton, Laurel, Greenwood, Humbolt, Mahoning, Kelly, Lynden, Maple, Mayflower and Siegel streets, and Longwood avenue. He was also largely instrumental in opening Prospect beyond Hudson, and sold nearly half of the land on Kinsman street, besides selling a large amount of land on Superior and St. Clair streets; also on the West Side, Madison avenue, Long street, Colgate street and Waverly avenue. He has sold in all 3000 lots in Cleveland. Mr. Hoyt united with the Baptist church in Utica in 1835. Soon after coming to Cleveland he became connected with the First Baptist church Sunday school, and was its superintendent twenty-six years, when he resigned, and became teacher of a congregational Bible class, which labor of love he has performed for about three years, and still continues. In 1854, he was licensed to preach the Gospel, by the church with which he was connected. He was never ordained, and never contemplated being, but simply desired to testify to Christian truth as a business man on the principle of "He that heareth, let him say come." For the past fifteen years he has labored in that capacity more or less in nearly all the Protestant denominations in the city and elsewhere.