Hosmer was born in
Avon, New York, as the son of lawyer
George Hosmer. He graduated at the
University of Vermont in 1841, studied law, and became a master in chancery at Avon. In 1854, he was appointed clerk in the New York City Custom House. He was a student of the character and lore of the
Native Americans in the United States, and traveled extensively among the tribes of Florida and
Wisconsin. Hosmer's lengthy narrative poem
Yonnondio, or the Warriors of Genesee may have inspired or informed a short poem of the same name by
Walt Whitman. ==Literary works==