John W. Hoyt was born in Worthington, Ohio, on October 13, 1831. He graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1849 and went on to study at the Cincinnati Law School, Ohio Medical College and the Eclectic Medical Institute where he received his Doctor's degree in 1853. Hoyt was appointed Professor of Chemistry and Medical Jurisprudence at Cincinnati and later became Professor of Chemistry at Antioch College. From 1857-1867, he published and edited an agricultural journal in Wisconsin and was the secretary and manager of the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. Hoyt served on the Wisconsin State Railway Commission from 1874 to 1876. Founding the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, Hoyt became its first president. President Hayes appointed him Governor of Wyoming Territory on April 10, 1878. The new Republican Governor took the oath of office May 29, 1878 and served until August 22, 1882. While in Wyoming he founded the Wyoming Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, and was its first president from 1881-1890. After his term as Governor of Wyoming Territory, Hoyt was appointed the first president of the University of Wyoming from 1887-1890, serving as a member of the Wyoming Constitutional Convention in 1889, publishing a bulletin on Wyoming Agricultural Resources in 1892, and served as special representative for Foreign Affairs at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893. In 1897 Hoyt became the Commissioner Plenipotentiary of Korea to the Universal Postal Union. Emperor Francis Joseph knighted Hoyt after he served three terms as president of International Juries of Learning. John W. Hoyt died May 23, 1912 in Washington, D. C., his home since 1891.