Henry M . Hoyt Henry Martyn Hoyt , Sr . ( June 8 , 1830 – December 1 , 1892 ) was the 18th Governor of Pennsylvania from 1879 to 1883 , as well as a general in the Union army during the American Civil War . Early life and career . Hoyt was born in Kingston , Pennsylvania and attended Wyoming Seminary . He initially attended Lafayette College before moving on to Williams College where he graduated in 1849 , with Phi Beta Kappa honors , as a member of The Kappa Alpha Society . From 1851 to 1853 he taught Mathematics at Wyoming Seminary and then studied law . Hoyt first held elected office as a district attorney . He was married to Mary Loveland and had three children , one of them the minor poet Helen Hoyt , and Henry Martyn Hoyt , Jr . ( December 1856 in Wilkes - Barre , Pennsylvania – 1910 ) and Maud Buckingham Hoyt ( July 12 , 1859 in Wilkes - Barre , Pa . – ? ) . He was also the grandfather of the poet Elinor Wylie . A member of the Whig Party , Hoyt participated in John Fremont ' s 1856 presidential campaign . Henry M . Hoyt was the son of Ziba and Nancy ( Herbert ) Hoyt . Ziba Hoyt was born in Connecticut on September 1788 died in December 1853 Luzerne County , Pennsylvania . Henry M . Hoyt was grandson of Daniel and Ann ( Gunn ) Hoyt , nephew of Levi Hoyt . The Hoyts settled in Luzerne County , Pennsylvania . Henry M . Hoyt married Mary Elizabeth Loveland daughter of Elijah and Mary ( Buckingham ) Loveland . Henry and Mary Elizabeth ( Loveland ) Hoyt were married On September 25 , 1855 . Mary Elizabeth ( Loveland ) Hoyt was born April 1833 and died October 1890 Luzerne County , Pennsylvania . Military career . As a soldier in the Civil War , Hoyt was initially commissioned as Lieutenant Colonel , then as colonel of the 52nd Pennsylvania Infantry , leading it during the Peninsula Campaign and subsequent actions of the Army of the Potomac until January 1863 , the regiment was ordered to Charleston , South Carolina . He participated in the siege of Morris Island under Brig . Gen . Quincy A . Gillmore . Hoyt led troops in a rare night attack on Fort Johnson , steathily arriving in the darkness via boats . He initially captured the fort , but was unable to hold it for lack of reinforcements and he and many of his men were captured in a Confederate counterattack . After being confined in Macon , Georgia , Hoyt was taken back to Charleston , and escaped briefly before being recaptured . Upon his eventual exchange , he rejoined his regiment , with which he remained till the close of the war , when he was mustered out with the rank of brevet brigadier general . Law career . After the war , Hoyt returned to his law practice . After briefly serving as a judge , he rose in influence with the Republican party and chaired the state Republican party from 1875 to 1876 . He won the governor ' s seat in 1878 , the third consecutive Civil War general to hold the office . During his term , the debt of the state was reduced to $ 10 , 000 , 000 , and refunded at the rate of three per cent . In 1881 he received the degree of LL . D . from the University of Pennsylvania and also from Lafayette College . He authored two books — " Controversy between Connecticut and Pennsylvania " ( Philadelphia , 1879 ) and " Protection vs . Free Trade " ( New York , 1885 ) . In memoriam . Hoyt has a residence hall in the South Halls section of the University Park campus of the Pennsylvania State University named after him . He is buried next to his wife in the Forty Fort Cemetery in Luzerne County , Pa .