The Hoffman Family Reunion of 1914

This is the second newspaper article on Hoffman family reunions that was brought to my attention a few days ago by Bob Hoffman. The first article was on the 1913 Reunion. The articles were obtained from The Mahoning Dispatch, portions of which have been digitized on Chronicling America, the historic newspapers site. The Mahoning Dispatch was published weekly on Fridays in Canfield, Mahoning County, Ohio beginning on May 4, 1877 with the last issue printed on April 26, 1968. The site currently has digitized issues available from October 2, 1908 through September 30, 1921.

The Mahoning Dispatch ~ Canfield, Mahoning County, Ohio ~ Vol. XXXVIII

Friday, August 14, 1914

Washingtonville

Bright, Breezy Paragraphs Telling

The Happenings in the Village on

Mahoning's Southern

Border.

By Peter M. Herold.

                    The Hoffman Reunion.

Pursuant to adjournment last year, the Hoffman family and kindred assembled in the Washingtonville town hall last Saturday. As about everybody in town is directly or indirectly related, excepting the writer, they took me in so as to make the meeting unanimous as well as harmonious.

The attendance was fully as large as last year, some being here Saturday who were not here last year, and some were here last year that were not present Saturday. Everybody came in autos or by electric line.

The brief history of the family as published in The Dispatch last year need not be repeated here. The late Mrs. A. J. Callahan, the family historian, had collected a fund of reliable history, biography and geneology [sic] which has since passed into the hands of her half-brother and successor, J. W. Hoffman of 5408 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, Ohio, who will be pleased to communicate with any member of the family.

The recently deceased members of the family are Mrs. A. J. Callahan, who died and was buried at Salem; L. E. Hoffman, who was killed in an auto accident in Virginia, and Mrs. Lucinda Yaggi.

There are no Hoffmans residing in this community, but the mother of all the Weikarts, their sisters and intermarried relatives, inclusive of the Bostons, the Bates', the Hilmans, Gilberts, Bosserts, Rollers, et al., was a Hoffman, and by this collateral process the neighborhood has been largely populated.

Another branch of the Hoffman family is holding a family reunion at Southern park today (Aug 13). The branch which met here last Saturday were descendants of Dietrich Hoffman. It is not our intention, however, to deal with family history, but to simply state that 150 persons were present and the reunion was a success.

Among the Hoffmans present were John Hoffman's sons by his second marriage, J. W. and O. C. Hoffman, of Cleveland; his widow by the third marriage, Mrs. Elizabeth Hess Hoffman, her son Curtis C. Hoffman and family of Chagrin Falls and his sister, Mrs. Mattie Hoffman Greasel of Cleveland.

At the noon hour Saturday, all being seated at the well filled tables, John R. Hoffman arose and pronounced a blessing upon all those present and returned thanks for the bounties spread before them. After dinner a vote of thanks was extended for the numerous bouquets of beautiful carnations furnished for the tables, and a motion carried to present the flowers to John A. Weikart, who be reason of illness was unable to be present last year and this.

After all had gratified the needs of the inner man, a business meeting was held and the same officers were re-elected for another year, the reunion to be held at Rockhill park on the second Saturday of August, 1915. Before adjournment the following program was rendered:

Piano solo, Miss Anna Hoffman, Homeworth; recitation, Dorothy Woods, Washingtonville; recitation, Ethel Weikart, Washingtonville; vocal solo, Thelma Bossert, Washingtonville; short address, Mrs. Mollie Norton, Niles (aged 75 years); recitation, Miss Helen Woods, Washingtonville; Piano solo, Miss Marie Weikart, Washingtonville; remarks, Mrs. Margaret Osborne, Alliance, (past 80 years of age); vocal solo, Mercedes Gilbert, Washingtonville; address, Rev. Cowgill, Salem; vocal solo, Mrs. Grant Greasel, Cleveland; invocation, Rev. Cowgill.

The officers elected are: President, Howard Hoffman, Homeworth; vice president and treasurer, James C. Weikart, Washingtonville; secretary, Mrs. Howard Hoffman, Homeworth; historian, Miss Yaggi, Salem.

The out of town guests were: Mrs. Johnson of Indiana, came to meet her sister, Mrs. Norton, and accompany her home for a visit, Rev. Cowgill of Salem, who brought the beautiful cut flowers, roses, carnations, etc., for table decoration.

The guests from Alliance and vicinity were: Mrs. Osborne, John Hoffman and wife, George Hoffman and wife, Madison Walker and wife, Howard Hoffman and family, Milton Hoffman and John R. Hoffman and their wives. The Cleveland guests were: O. C. Hoffman, J. W. Hoffman, Mrs. Lizzie Hoffman and her daughter, Mrs. Grant Greasel and son. From Chagrin Falls came Curtis Hoffman and family. Lisbon, Mrs. Lydia Burnap. North Lima, Ed Crook, wife and son Robert.

Published under a Creative Commons License.
Becky Wiseman, "The Hoffman Family Reunion of 1914," Kinexxions, posted June 19, 2012 (http://kinexxions.blogspot.com/2012/06/hoffman-family-reunion-of-1914.html : accessed [access date])

The 1913 Hoffman Family Reunion

This article (and a second one) was brought to my attention a few days ago by Bob Hoffman (see this post), courtesy of the two wonderful ladies who volunteer at the Columbiana County Archives and Research Center.

The Chronicling America website (part of the Library of Congress) shows that The Mahoning Dispatch was published weekly on Fridays in Canfield, Mahoning County, Ohio beginning on May 4, 1877 with the last issue printed on April 26, 1968. The site currently has digitized issues available from October 2, 1908 through September 30, 1921. I haven't yet taken the time to go through all of the issues but a search for Hoffman and related surnames provides quite a few hits.

As a side note, there are two options for downloading the images - a high quality, large "jp2" file and a smaller pdf file of lower quality. After downloading the jp2 file I discovered that I didn't have a graphics program that would open the file! A quick search showed that Irfanview along with a JPEG2000 plugin will open the downloaded images.

The article consumes the entire first column of the first page and a small portion of the second column so it had to be "clipped" in sections. It includes quite a few surnames, some of which I recognized from information that was given to me in September 2004 by Stephanie Martin Shively. She is a descendant of Daniel Coy, half-brother of Catherine Coy who married John Hoffman. Catherine and John are my 4th great-grandparents.

Stephanie had some information on all of the eleven children of John and Catherine, more on some than on others. This article contains quite a bit of information on the family of John Hoffman, Jr., which is one of the children for which Stephanie had little information.

Since obtaining the article two days ago, I have found quite a bit more information on the family of John Jr. and have been able to trace all of his children and some of the grandchildren through census records from ancestry.com as well as marriage and death records from FamilySearch. but still have a few holes to fill in. Several passages have been emphasized in bold and will be discussed in future posts, as will other portions of the article.

The Mahoning Dispatch ~ Canfield, Mahoning County, Ohio ~ Vol. XXXVII

Friday, August 15, 1913

WASHINGTONVILLE

Bright, Breezy Paragraphs Telling

The Happenings in the Village on

Mahoning's Southern

Border.

By Peter M. Herold.

Hoffman Family Reunion.
When we asunder part,
It gives us inward pain;
But we shall still be joined in heart
And hope to meet again.

The largest family gathering held in Washingtonville for many years assembled in town hall last Saturday, when the Hoffman family held their annual reunion and picnic. Other families have had larger gatherings, but they are held statedly in groves especially fitted up for the purpose; while that of the Hoffman family held last Saturday was all under cover and had the privileges of the town property and the school grounds.

The out-of-town members of the family came by electric line and automobiles from Cleveland, Chagrin Falls, Canton, Homeworth, Alliance, Freeburg, Paris, Salem, North Lima and Leetonia - the Washingtonville kinship being divided among the Weikarts, the Bostons, the Hilemans, the Fitzsimmons' and their intermarried relatives, so that when dinner was announced 138 relatives surrounded the tables and partook of a bountiful meal, which none can prepare and enjoy than persons of German extraction. Before adjournment everybody present was served with ice-cream and cake.

Order being restored, the meeting was opened with devotional exercises conducted by Rev. S. Z. Cowgill of Salem, whose mother was a Hoffman. Then followed the following program, conducted by Mr. and Mrs. Howard C. Hoffman, president and secretary of the reunion: 

Piano solo..... Marie Weikart

Recitations by Willie Bowker and Ethel Weikart.

Vocal solo..... Thelma Bossert

Recitation........Helen Woods
Song - "Count Your Blessings," by Dr. H. K. Yaggie of Salem, whose mother was a Hoffman.

Recitation....... Mary Grim

Piano duet... Ruby and Marie Weikart

Recitations... Rose Woods and Glen Van Skiver

Piano solo......... Freeda Paisley

Recitation....... Dorothy Woods

Vocal solo..... Mercedes Gilbert

Short talks by Rev. S. Z. Cowgill, J. R. Hoffman and others interested and entertained the audience. Some of these talks were for the benefit of the family historian who is preparing a book of some 800 pages and dates the family tree to Germany in the 17th century, when Adam Hoffman and his brothers Michael and Robert sailed for America, locating in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. Another branch whose paternal head is Didrich Hoffman (first son of Michael Hoffman) was born in Philadephia, Pa., and located in this part of Ohio. He owned the Cherry Valley farm now covered by the coke ovens. The brown stone marker in the Lutheran graveyard at Washingtonville bears the following inscription:

"In memory of Didrich Hoffman who was born June 23rd, 1751, and departed this life on the 10 of March A. D. 1826, aged 74 years, 8 months and 13 days."

His son, John Hoffman, sr., owned the Fairview farm north of town and his son, John Hoffman, jr., resided in Washingtonville; was thrice married, all of whom bore him children - Mrs. N. C. Fitzsimmons of this place being by his first marriage with Nancy Koons. His second marriage was to Tabitha Crane, whose sons were here from Cleveland at the reunion. Of his third marriage with Elizabeth Hess are Mattie and Curtis Hoffman, both married. Mattie Graduated from the Washingtonville high school in the class of 1890, and was afterwards married to Grant Greasel, now of Cleveland. Curtis was in the employ of the Brown-hoist Co of Cleveland and represented his company in Cuba for a while, then in Russia and in Egypt. Both were here Saturday.And inasmuch as many of the Hoffman family attended school here, A. L. Taylor of the school board opened the new school building, and all those in attendance went through the various rooms, and some from basement to bell tower. Curtis Hoffman was one of the Hoffman Bicycle Co. a few years ago, but now resides upon a small farm near Chagrin Falls. When going through the various school rooms on Saturday with his wife and three children he remarked to "Buck" Taylor that after all the carving he had done, getting his name and initials, upon the seats and benches in the old building, it was a pity to have all his labor destroyed by fire. So that it can be seen that C. C. Hoffman was much like the average boy of his day.

It should have been stated in the proper connection that the elder John Hoffman and his wife Catharine are also buried in the Lutheran grave yard with the following inscriptions:

   "Catharine, wife of John Hoffman died Feb. 10, 1857, aged 77 years."

   "John Hoffman died Feb. 8, 1869, aged 80 years, 3 months."

John Hoffman, jr., was buried in the Odd Fellows (or Oakland) cemetery west of town; his first wife having been buried in the Methodist grave yard. His third wife was at the reunion on Saturday and enjoyed the day's proceedings with her children and grandchildren.

A business session was held near the close of the reunion. The old officers were retained for the coming year and Washingtonville was unanimously chosen as the place of next meeting to be held the second Saturday of August, 1914. A collection was taken and enough money was raised to pay for the use of town hall and other incidentals, leaving $6 in the hands of J. C. Weikart, treasurer of the Hoffman Reunion.

Relatives visited both church yards after adjournment, and while they found the names and dates they sought for, they found neither grave yard in an inviting condition. They may get some needed attention before next year's reunion.

Published under a Creative Commons License.
Becky Wiseman, "The 1913 Hoffman Family Reunion," Kinexxions, posted June 17, 2012 (http://kinexxions.blogspot.com/2012/06/1913-hoffman-family-reunion.html : accessed [access date])

Cousins Connecting, Contributing, Collaborating

Three months ago (March 2012) I began a series of posts on my Hoffman-Huffman Family of Columbiana County, Ohio and Berks County, Pennsylvania, which is one of my Maternal Grandfather's Lines: Becky Wiseman >>> Virginia Phend Wiseman >>> Rolland Victor "Vic" Phend >>> Susie Lula Yarian >>> Lovina Berlin >>> Susannah Huffman >>> John Hoffman >>> Dietrich Hoffman >>> Michael Hoffman.

In August 2011, prior to the publication of those posts, I had been contacted by Nick Hoffman, a descendant of Dietrich's son, Michael. At that time I hadn't really done any research on the Hoffman line - most of the information I had was from two other researchers and had been received several years ago. Then I went to Salt Lake City for a couple of months, concentrating on researching the lines for whom I had little information, one of which was the Hoffman family. That series of posts in March was the result of the information that had been found in Salt Lake City.

I contacted Nick to let him know about the blog posts. In the meantime, he had made contact with Mike Lies, a descendant of Barbara Hoffman Lies - sister of Dietrich. It was Nick who had sent the information on the 1750 marriage of a Michael Hoffman and Engel Schedlerin, which lead us to reconsider the "known" information regarding Michael's wife. (I wrote about that in Questioning the Status Quo :: Oh, Maria!)

As a result of the Hoffman-Huffman posts in March, I was contacted by Bob Hoffman, a descendant of Jacob Hoffman who is another son of Dietrich. Bob wasn't able to provide any additional information on Dietrich or Michael but did send along a nice report on Jacob's descendants.

Yesterday I got a very nice (to say the least!) email from Bob. Nice enough to that I let out a shout causing my friend Cindy (working in another room) to ask if I was okay ;-)

Bob and his brother, Tom, spent the day at the Columbiana Archives (Columbiana County Archives and Research Center). I know from personal experience that the two ladies working there - volunteers - are very nice and extremely helpful. While Bob and Tom were perusing the shelves, the ladies were on the computer doing some look-ups.

What the ladies found were two articles on Hoffman family reunions at Washingtonville, published in the Mahoning Dispatch - one on August 15, 1913 and the other on August 14, 1914 - both on the Chronicling America website.

The articles are a treasure trove of information that provide leads for further research. I'll be transcribing the articles and posting them here in the near future - primarily for 'cousin bait' since there are a lot of names given, but also just because the articles are interesting and give a little more insight into a different era, of the life and times of people of a hundred years ago.

One of the paragraphs really got my heart pounding:

"Some of these talks were for the benefit of the family historian who is preparing a book of some 800 pages and dates the family tree to Germany in the 17th century, when Adam Hoffman and his brothers Michael and Robert sailed for America, locating in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania."

There was a book published on 'MY' Hoffman family? Where? When? By Whom? I want it! And then there is that "Three Brothers" myth again. Oh, my!

But Bob had even more good news. He and his brother had found the grave markers for Dietrich and for "my" John and Catherine in the Washingtonville Cemetery. Bob says the stones are in terrible condition, broken and illegible but he's going to send me photos! (I hadn't been able to find the stones on my visit there last year.) Oh, and that first reunion article? It gives transcriptions of their stones! I had that from "The Henry R. Baldwin Genealogical Records" but it is confirmation of the inscription from yet another source.

Bob's email was definitely worthy of the 'happy dance' don't you think? And to those naysayers who think blogging about your genealogy is a waste of time - don't you believe them! I've lost track of how many times I've been contacted by other researchers as a result of blog posts. Most are inquiries and not 'exciting' but I appreciate each and every contact. You just never know what you'll find when you open your email! Yes, folks, blogging works!

Published under a Creative Commons License.
Becky Wiseman, "Cousins Connecting, Contributing, Collaborating," Kinexxions, posted June 15, 2012 (http://kinexxions.blogspot.com/2012/06/cousins-connecting-contributing.html : accessed [access date])