Born in Cornwall, England, in 1812, Samuel Hoskins emigrated to Wisconsin in 1837. Hoskins was trained in mining and worked in the lead mines of southeastern Wisconsin until 1842, at which time he entered into commercial ventures with his brother, John Hoskins, and Edward and Benjamin Thomas. Hoskins, Thomas and Co. began as an early Dodgeville, Wis. general store, providing goods bought in New York, Chicago and St. Louis. The firm soon added land investments and lead smelting to their ventures. In 1869, Hoskins and his partners formed Bennett, Hoskins and Co., a major dealer and shipper of Wisconsin lead until late in the 19th century.
John Hoskins was killed in a mining accident in 1851. His wife, Elizabeth and their son, James J., born in 1849, remained as partners in the business following John's death.
After Samuel Hoskins death in 1889, the various family investments, including sizeable land purchases in northern Wood County, were maintained by his nephew, James J. Hoskins.
In 1866 James attended business college in Chicago and from 1869 to 1871 he studied at Lawrence College in Appleton. He received his B.L. degree from Union University in Albany, New York, and passed his state bar exams in New York and Wisconsin in 1875. James practiced law in Dodgeville from 1875 until his death in 1929. He was a Republican and held a number of city and county offices before the turn of the century. He married Cory A. Schell on September 11, 1889. They had one child, Eunice, born in 1890. Following the death of James J. Hoskins in 1934, most of the Hoskins family investments were liquidated.
