Fred Hoy is one of the younger factors in the agricultural enterprise of Champaign County. He took hold of farming as a practical proposition in early life, and the ten years or more he has applied to that business have been in a high degree profitable. He now looks after the management of one of the best places in Urbana Township, located in section 24.
Mr. Hoy was born on the old farm in that township June 10, 1885, a son of Rufus B. and Martha (Arrington) Hoy. His father was born in Ohio and his mother in Indiana. They came to Champaign County in 1880 and his father was actively identified with farming until 1903, when he removed to the city of Urbana, where he still resides. They were the parents of five children: Jesse; Bertha, wife of A. Duvall, of Rantoul; May, wife of Earl Swartz, of Matthews, Missouri; Fred; and Lucy, still at home with her parents.
Mr. Fred Hoy attended the district schools as the source of his early education. He learned farming under the direction of his father and at the age of twenty took active charge of the home place. He now has 180 acres in section 24 of Urbana Township and conducts it with high power efficiency and in a way to get the best results consistent with wise and conservative methods of agricultural management.
Mr. Hoy married, January 1, 1910, Opal Lockwood. She is a daughter of David and Sarah E. (Woodard) Lockwood, both natives of Indiana. The Lockwood family came to Champaign County in 1889, locating at Sidney. Her father, however, died in Indiana and her mother is now living in Urbana. Mrs. Hoy was the youngest of three children. Her sister Media is the wife of Truman O. Cord, of Sidney Township. Her sister Bertha is the wife of Roy Rankins, of Monticello, Illinois.
Mr. and Mrs. Hoy have two young children. Marjorie Helen was born November 19, 1912. The only son, Donald Frederick, born March 28, 1913, lived only a few months and was taken away by death September 12, 1913. Politically Mr. Hoy is a Republican. Mrs. Hoy is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Their home is on Rural Route No. 5 out of Urbana.