Edwin and Clarence were the sons of my gg-grandparents, George W. Hoy Sr. and his wife Sarah Lovejoy Root. Even though the Michigan GENDIS begins with the year 1867, Clarence was not listed. Edwin was listed as Edward in the GENDIS database. Their aunt, Ellen (Root) Gilbert, her husband, and family are all buried near Clarence and Edwin, and from photos have the same style of headstones, possibly placed by their aunt. Her only child, David H. Gilbert, had also died young. The headstones clearly don't date to the era of their death, and their aunt Ellen survived their parents by several years. I suspect that Ellen (Gilbert) Fargo was Henry Clay Gilbert's older sister, thus related by marriage to the Hoy children.

George Hoy Sr. and his wife Sarah, along with sons George Jr. (died at the age of 18), Willis and Charles are all buried together in a family plot in Monmouth, Warren County, Illinois. Their son, my great-grandfather, Frederick Arthur Hoy is also buried at the Monmouth Cemetery, surrounded by his wife and several of their sons.

The name Clarence seems to have some significance to the Hoy family, but I have yet to find out why. George and his brother William H. Hoy both had sons named Clarence, while their sister Emily (Hoy) Bostedor named a daughter Clara. The name Clarence reappeared for several generations in George's descendants.

Thank you for looking and passing along the information.