Lydia Hoyt Farmer

Lydia Hoyt Farmer (née, Hoyt; July 19, 1842 or 1843 – December 27, 1903) was a 19th-century American author and women's rights activist. For many years, Farmer contributed to the leading newspapers and magazines, on various lines: poems, essays, juvenile stories, historical sketches and novels. She was of a deeply religious nature, and endeavored to tinge all her writings with a moral as well as an amusing sentiment. She edited What America Owes to Women, for the Woman's Department of the World's Columbian Exposition. Her works included: Aunt Belindy's Point of View; The Doom of the Holy City; A Story Book of Science; A Knight of Faith; Short History of the French Revolution; Girls' Book of Famous Queens; What America Owes to Women; and others.

Early life and education

Lydia Hoyt was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 19, 1842. Her father was the Hon. James Madison Hoyt (1815–1895), of Cleveland. Ohio. Her mother was Mary Ella Beebe, daughter of Alexander M. Beebe, LL. D. of New York. Her father practiced law before he engaged in the real estate business, with large and lucrative results. He was a member of the First Baptist Church in Cleveland, and for twenty-five years, superintendent of its Sunday School. For twenty years he was president of the Ohio Baptist State Convention, and for many years president of the American Baptist Home Mission Society. In 1870, he was elected a member of the Ohio State Board of Equalization. In 1871 he visited Europe, and was the author of Glances on the Wing at Foreign Lands. He was honored by Denison University with a degree in LL. D., and subsequently, for twenty years Mr. Hoyt served as a lay preacher in Baptist, Congregational and Presbyterian pulpits, accepting no pay for his services. Her siblings who reached adulthood included Rev. Dr. Wayland Hoyt, of Minneapolis, James H. Hoyt, of Cleveland, Colegate Hoyt, of New York, and Elton Hoyt, of Minnesota.