Eliza Wise and Anthony Hoffman Update

A trip to the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne yesterday (Sunday 02/03) provided some additional information on Eliza Jane Wise Hoffman and her family. I checked the ACPL online catalog earlier this week to see what books they had on Miami and Wabash counties in Indiana and Ashland and Wayne counties in Ohio. There were enough books that I thought a trip to the library was justified. The five hours spent there were productive and they went by very quickly. I ran out of time and didn't get completely through my list of books that I wanted to check.

Books of compiled transcriptions for cemetery records, death records, and marriage records for Miami County provided some (not all) of the needed dates. I'm debating whether the new information should be added to the existing post or not. Perhaps in a different color of text?

There was an interesting, short biography of Anthony W. Hoffman, Eliza's husband, on pages 435-436 of The History of Wabash County, Indiana edited by Thomas B. Helm (John Morris, Printer, Chicago, 1884).

Anthony W. Hoffman, clerk, Roann. The subject of this sketch was born in Stark County, Ohio, March 29, 1838. When a mere infant, his father, Jacob Hoffman, removed from there to Miami County, this State, and settled in Perry Township (in 1838) at a time when the country was full of Indians and wild game. He lived on his farm until February 22, 1849, when he deceased, a victim to that plague (erysipelas), that carried so many citizens away during that year. His wife, the mother of A. W. H., survived him some eight years. After the death of his mother, the subject of our sketch lived among strangers, attending school during the winter until he arrived at the age of seventeen, when he began teaching. His first school was taught in Pleasant Township of this county, after which he entered Fort Wayne College, but on account of limited means he was in a short time obliged to give up the idea of an education, and he at once took up the trade of carpenter, working at the same during the summer and teaching in the winter. He was married, October 14, 1861, to Miss E. J. Wise, of Gilead, Ind. He kept up the practice of teaching and carpentering for several years after his marriage. The first school of Roann was taught by him. He became a resident of this county in 1867. In the spring of 1878, he was elected Justice of the Peace, in Pleasant Township, having served in that capacity in Pleasant and Paw Paw Townships for over nine years. Mr. Hoffman's family consists of wife and five children, viz.: Minnie, Dayton, Effie, Ellie, and Jennie. For the past six years. Mr. Hoffman has been employed as a salesman in the principal dry goods houses of Roann. He is widely known through this and Miami Counties as a thorough gentleman, and an earnest worker in the ranks of the Republican party. His liberality prevents his becoming a man of wealth.