Erastus B. Hoag was born around 1816 in New York. He married Eliza Catherine Dingman on October 15, 1838, and they had at least seven children: Cynthia, born around 1840; George, born around 1842; Rosaltha, born around 1845; William, born around 1848; Ezine, born around 1852; Eugene, born around 1856; and Anetta, born around 1859. They lived in Elbridge, New York, in 1840, and they moved to Ohio in the late 1840s. By 1850, Hoag was working as a gardener in Cuyahoga County, and a decade later, he was a farm laborer. He remained devoted to the Union, writing in November 1862 that he was "glad that my son [George] is still able to help to defend his country." In 1865, Eliza testified that Hoag had “wholly abandoned the support of his family,” and that she was “wholly dependent on her…son George W. for support.” By 1875, Hoag was working as a janitor in Cuyahoga County. He died there in April 1883, and he was buried in Woodland Cemetery.

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