My Genealogy Hound

ARTHUR D. HOSTERMAN, head of the firm of A. D. Hosterman & Co., proprietors of the Springfield Republic-Times, the Springfield Weekly Republic and the Lutheran Evangelist, is a journalist of wide experience although so young a man, and occupies a high place in the editorial profession as represented in Ohio. He was born in the town of Shippensville, Clarion County, Pa., April 12, 1860, a son of David R. and Harriet Hosterman. When he was about a year old his parents removed to Springfield, so that much of his life has been passed in this city. Early displaying an aptitude for study, he laid the foundation of a liberal education in the city schools, and afterwards became a student in Wittenberg College, from which he was graduated with honor in the class of 1881. Previous to entering college he had worked in a printing office, and during his summer vacations while a student at Wittenberg he was connected with the reportorial staff of the Daily Republic, and during his last year in college he was city editor of the Weekly Transcript. After graduation he retained his editorship six months, and was induced to take a position in the office of Farm and Fireside as compiler and editor of a series of books published by that firm. In the fall of 1882 he threw up that situation, as he desired to see something more of the world, and visiting California he engaged with the firm of Dewey & Co., as Editor of the Fraternal Record, The Ladies’ Home Journal, and the Pacific States Watchman. A year later he went to Santa Barbara as Editor of the Daily and Weekly Press , and at the end of six months he established the Daily Independent in that city, a paper which is still published there. After placing it on a solid, paying basis, he sold it, and late in 1883 retraced his steps Eastward as far as Emporia, Kan., and there he became city editor of the Daily Republican. A year later he went to Sioux City and joined the Sioux City Printing Company, which issued patent inside papers, and dealt in printer’s supplies. In January, 1888, our subject ventured into a similar enterprise on his own account in Lincoln, Neb., where he established a rival institution, known as the Lincoln Newspaper Union. Four months later he sold that business at quite an advance, and returning to Springfield with the proceeds of the sale in his pocket he bought the Daily and Weekly Springfield Republic and the Champion City Times, and consolidated the two papers and has been business manager of the company that he then formed ever since, and besides superintends the publication of the Lutheran Evangelist. His excellent and methodical business habits, his education, keen powers of observation, and sound judgment in regard to men and to affairs in general peculiarly qualify him for the position he occupies.

Mr. Hosterman has established a pleasant home in our midst, and to the lady who makes it a center of comfort and attraction to his numerous friends, he was united in marriage May 6, 1884. Her maiden name was Lizzie H. Geiger, and she is a native of this city, and a daughter of Prof. H. R. and Nancy Geiger, of whom see sketch on another page of this volume. Two children complete their household, Helen and Hazel.

A young man of more than ordinary intellectual vigor, tact and practical ability, our subject brings a strong, well-trained mind to his work, and his papers arc among the best of their kind published in this part of the State. As a man in his position should with his means for influencing the public mind, Mr. Hosterman takes an ardent interest in politics, and is a leader in the ranks of the Republican party as an active member of the Republican Central Committee. He is an important factor in religious and social circles, he and his wife being prominent members of the First English Lutheran Church, in which they do good work, and he is one of the Board of Directors of the Young Men’s Christian Association; he is identified with the college society Phi Kappa Psi, and with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks.