William Judd Hosmer

September 28, 1914 Gary, Indiana to February 1, 2011 Carlsbad, California

William “Bill” Judd Hosmer was born to Dr. Harry Marvin Hosmer and Helen Hill Barton as only sibling to Harry Marvin Hosmer Jr. his older brother.

William is a decendent of Thomas Stephen Hosmer one of the founders of Hartford, Connecticut. His direct ancestor is Zechariah Hosmer of East Haddam, Connecticut, born 1757, fought in the Revolutionary War and died at the age of 94 in 1851. (photo: Headstone, Old Cemetery Parkman, Ohio.)

Dr. Hosmer delivered most of the babies in Gary for a number of years and volunteered to serve in World War I. He received numerous toxic gassings in France and returned to two small boys knowing his time was short. He prepared a trust for the two boys and left

His service on this earth in 1928. Bill and Harry had already lost their mother in 1917 of Spinal Meningitis which she contracted on the military base in Chicago as her husband left for Europe.

Bill and his brother grew up in Gary Indiana with their grandmother Alice Louise (Morton) Hosmer as their parent at home. (photos 2: as children) Dr. Hosmer had a brother, Dr. Charles Morton Hosmer in San Diego, California, and another brother Roland Perry Hosmer in Marysville, Missouri.

Transcribing some of his early memories:

“Harry and I used to walk to school together, then play ball after school. I always stopped on the way home to play with the neighbor’s dog through the fence. Grandmother Alice wouldn’t let us have a dog, but I would save something from my lunch and feed it to little Lassie through the fence. He was my friend. I knew when I grew up I’d have my own dog someday. I like to build things as a kid. I had a train set and it was my favorite until I started getting into model airplanes. One day when I was five or six years old a pilot with his bi-wing plane came to Gary and was giving rides for fifty cents. My dad let me go up in this plane and I swear my head never came down. I learned to fly in my teens and had my own plane by the time I was 19. (2 photos)

I was just a regular kid. Fought with my brother probably more than most. We never really did agree on much of anything. We went to San Diego on vacation and stayed at the Hotel Del Coronado. I loved that place. Loved the white sand and swimming in the bay. Uncle Jim and Aunti Dick would rent a sail boat and take my dad and me, and my brother out on the bay. I liked visiting with them. Dr. Charles Hosmer went to medical school with dad in Pennsylvania. Everybody called him Uncle Jim because he was so much like a character in a play. So Aunt Sara became Aunti Dick. I remember they had a baby boy named John, but he wasn’t quite right. I think he died before he became an adult, but I’m not sure.

Dad had another brother that lived in Marysville, Missouri, that we would visit. Uncle Rol had two daughters. Margaret Louise had a son, Mort, that’s been a good friend all of my life. His mother died when he was young and he lived with his grandparents. Meg’s little sister Betty helped raise him. (photo dad & 2 brothers)

Grandmother on my mother’s side was named Hill. Mother’s Uncle owned Judd Hill Plantation in Truman, Arkansas. That was another fun place my dad took us on vacation. Cotton fields as far as the eye could see. They had a little company store and we could walk to get penny candy or a soda and just charge it to Aunt Ester’s account. Aunt Ester, as we called her, was Judd Hill’s adopted daughter. She married Sam Chapin and together the engineer the swampland that Judd Hill had bought on speculation into a thriving plantation of share croppers. Judd Hill deeded the land to the Chapin’s, but the name was never changed.

Dad had been right on the front lines in World War I. He was an officer and a physician, but he went where he was needed. He was gone less than two years but the war took its toll. He’d gotten a dose of mustard gas that weakened his lungs. He was home with us for seven or eight years and then went to Chicago for medical care. I was heart broken when he didn’t call to wish me happy birthday as I thought becoming a teen was a milestone he should remember. I didn’t realize at the time that he was dying and would never come home again. He died at Soldier’s Hospital of Tuberculosis just a few days later.

He knew when he came back from Great Britain that his life would be short. He worked hard and made good investments in a trust for me and my brother. He never discussed this with us, probably trying to protect us. We went to Marysville, Missouri, to his funeral and then Grandmother Alice told us we would be living with Uncle Jim and Aunti Dick in San Diego. Harry was going into his senior year of High School and had been elected class president. He never seemed to recover from leaving Gary before he got to enjoy his popularity.”

Bill enrolled in the Army Navy Academy then located in Pacific Beach. At the age of 15 he bought his first Harley Davidson motorcycle by washing dishes at the Academy. (photo) He loved the freedom it gave him riding up old Highway 101 to Berkeley where he was allowed to stay with Harry in the SAE house. He also rode alone to Marysville, Missouri to visit Uncle Rol. His CO at the Academy used to promise him he’d never see his 25th birthday. At 25 he considered himself living on borrowed time. Marrying Ethel Randall Rhodes tamed him and he always cherished his three children, wife and the entire Rhodes clan. Please visit www.Hozmogram.net for more first person stories and further geneology.

Arrangements under the direction of Eternal Hills Memorial Park, Mortuary and Crematory, Oceanside, California.