His parents were poor and his mother Ruth was left with the children when his father Benjamin died, so four of the children were indentured out to her relatives. Hosea was indentured to Joel Cushing on 2 Feb 1816 at St Johnsbury. He built a farm about 1830 in Middlesex in an area called Shadyrill.

 

Marriage 1: 22 Nov 1825, Montpelier, Vermont Matilda Fisher.  She died in 1840.