Charles Hoag

For American basketballer, see Charlie Hoag.

Charles Hoag was the city of Minneapolis’s first school master, second Treasurer of Hennepin County and a classical scholar. He is also known to have played a part in the naming of Minneapolis.

Hoag was born June 29, 1808, in Sandwich, New Hampshire and was educated in the public schools of the time. He attended Wolfboro Academy and Friends' Boarding School, at Providence, Rhode Island. By the time he was 16 he was teaching and would continue to practice for the next 27 years. He also served as the principal of a Philadelphia Grammar School for 13 years.

He moved to Minnesota in 1852 where he taught in Saint Anthony for two terms. Upon his arrival in the state he claimed 160 acres (0.65 km²) of land in the future site of Minneapolis and as time went by became more involved in public affairs. He served as the second treasurer of Hennepin county, was an Odd Fellow and served one term as Grand Master of the Minnesota Grand Lodge. He was also Hennepin County Superintendent of Schools from 1870 and 1874.

Hoag was also President of the Agricultural and Horticultural Societies of Minnesota and purchased a farm in 1857 which he called Diamond Lake Farm.

Charles Hoag is said to have played a central role in the naming of the city of Minneapolis. In 1852 the Hennepin county commissioners selected Albion as the name for the city. Not wanting to accept the new name, Hoag, along with George Bowman, editor of the St. Anthony Express, set about finding an alternative name. That night, Hoag was thinking about Indianapolis and having been trying to form a word from Indian suffixes decided on the Greek "polis," meaning city, joined with part of Minnehaha which was and is mistakenly thought to be Dakota for "laughing water" but really means something closer to "curling water" or "waterfall" (see Minnehaha Falls). The next morning he had an article published with Mr. Bowman's help that proposed the name Minnehapolis, explaining that the “h” was silent. Writing in the Express: "I am aware that other names have been proposed such as Lowell, Brooklyn and Addiesville, but until some one (sic) is decided upon, we intend to call ourselves Minnehapolis." In a town meeting on December 1852 John Stevens accepted the names without the “h”.

Charles Hoag moved to Diamond Lake Farm and lived there until his death in 1888.

Two lakes in McLeod County, Lake Addie and Lake Marion, were named for Hoag's daughters.

External links

• Minnesota Historical Society
• Hennepin County biography at the Wayback Machine (archived November 21, 2002)