William Christopher Hoover came to Columbus from Sapulpa, Oklahoma, with his wife Iva and young daughter Mary Ethelyn in December 1911. Hoover had been involved in banking and had also served as an attorney and judge in Oklahoma. Mary Ethelyn died in late 1912 and was buried in the Columbus cemetery in an unmarked grave. Dorothy Carter was born in the Hoover Hotel on August 11, 1912, William Christopher Jr. was born there on May 6, 1914, and David was born in the Hoover home in 1917. Hoover was mayor of Columbus at the time of the Villa raid, when the Hoover Hotel became the center of some of the heaviest fighting on the morning of March 9. Lieutenant Castleman set up his machine gun and line of defense in the street just north of the hotel to protect the bank, block the Villistas from going north up East Boundry where Camp Commander Colonel Herbert J. Slocum lived, protect Castleman's own family on East Boundry, and protect the hotel residents. The hotel was the scene of two deaths during the raid. The only woman killed in the raid was Bessie James, who was shot in the chest at the west entrance to the hotel while her husband Milton James was shot through the hips; their young companion Alice escaped by running for the brush. Hoover and hotel residents pulled Bessie and Milton into the hotel and carried them to the room of Hoover's mother Sarah at the back, where Bessie died while pregnant. Milton survived, remarried, and had several children. Charles Chase Miller, a Hoover Hotel resident, was awakened during the raid, found that the residents were unarmed, and set out to go to his drug store across the street to get guns and shells for their protection, but he was shot only a step or two from the west side.