Tombstone Tuesday: Freda E. (Hoffman) Grill

Freda's gravestone is the last of those of John Hoffman's children in the Savanna City Cemetery. She was born in Savanna, Illinois, 15 August 1888 and married Otto Grill there on 28 June 1916, Paul Froehlke, a Lutheran minister, officiating. Otto was born in Chicago to Bohemian immigrant parents. They lived their lives in Savanna where Otto worked for the railroad. They lived next door to Freda's sister Tillie and her Bowers family. The Grills had no children.

The cemetery photo is from 19 June 2002. Freda's picture is cropped from a portrait of all five of John Hoffman's daughters copied from an original provided by Ruth Whalen.

Sunday’s Obituary: Irene (Hoffman) Anderson, 1987

Irene Anderson was a special person that it was my misfortune never to know. She was a granddaughter of Caspar and Louise (Schmidt) Hoffman, the daughter of Henry H. and Alice (Houlton) Hoffman. She gathered photos and stories from her family and those of her Uncle Albert and Aunt Suzie. She copied them and compiled them into books for herself and her children. Her children have shared that treasure with the rest of us in the family. The obituaries for Irene and her husband were provided by the San Mateo County Genealogical Society from their Redwood City Tribune files.

Tombstone Tuesday: Mathilda K. (Hoffman) Bowers

Another of the children of John Hoffman buried in the Savanna City Cemetery is his daughter Mathilda K. (Hoffman) Bowers who was known as Tillie. She was married 28 June 1906 to Clarence Elmer Bowers who died 10 April 1951. Tillie passed away 8 September 1973 in Florida but was buried with her husband in Illinois. John and Kunigunda (Schneider) Hoffman had twelve children. Five of them died very young and are buried in the Elizabeth City Cemetery in neighboring Jo Daviess County, one without name or stone. Four of the remaining children are buried in the Savanna City Cemetery as are their parents: Emma, Mathilda (Tillie), Freda, and Rudolph. Margaret (Maggie) is buried in Colorado, Bertha in Wisconsin and Harry in another Carroll County, Illinois, cemetery. (Photographed in June 2002.)

Sunday’s Obituary: Clarence J. Rose, 1977

Clarence John Rose was the first grandson of immigrant John Hoffman. Clarence was born 14 October 1892 in Savanna, Illinois, to Emil and Margaret "Maggie" (Hoffman) Rose. Like his uncle, Rudolph G. Hoffman, and second cousin, Aaron H. Kelly, he served in World War I. He later lived in Denver, Colorado. About 1929 Clarence married Mary M. Spangler. As noted, they had two sons, James Allen Rose and Lawrence J. Rose.
    Funeral Notice of Clarence J. Rose, Rocky Mountain News, Denver, Colorado, Aug. 8, 1977.
    Funeral Notice of Mary M. Rose, Rocky Mountain News, Denver, Colorado, Jan. 25, 1988.

 

This photograph must have been sent to Clarence's Aunt Bertha. He is with his mother who was by that time married to James Frank Rush and living near Lamar, Colorado.

(not so) Wordless Wednesday: more on Rudolph G. Hoffman

Ruth remembered this photo as special because of its connection to this letter sent by her Uncle Rudolph from France in 1918. To create this scrapbook page I looked into his area of service finding he must have been working in intelligence. That was probably because of his knowledge of German learned, no doubt, from his parents John and Kunigunda (Schneider) Hoffman.

Tombstone Tuesday: Rudolph G. Hoffman

Rudolph G. Hoffman, youngest child of immigrant John Hoffman is buried in the Savanna Cemetery, Savanna, Illinois. Buried with him is his wife Celia Azalea (Vandervate) Hoffman. Rudolph's dates are 13 August 1892 to 27 January 1958. Celia's are 23 October 1897 to 18 September 1970. They were married 21 June 1923 in Savanna by Rev. G. W. Fischer. They had no children. (Photographed in June 2002.)

Military Monday: Sgt. Rudolph G. Hoffman

Rudolph G. Hoffman (or George Rudolph) was the youngest child of immigrant John Hoffman. Rudolph grew up in Savanna, Illinois, and worked for the railroad. In 1918 he joined the army, going to Europe in the AEF. As a fluent speaker of German, from his German mother and Swiss father, he was useful to the army both during and after the war. In January of 1919 he wrote letters to his sister Bertha in La Crosse, Wisconsin, from Coblenz, Germany where he was happy to have a feather bed to sleep in. His address was then Sgt. R. G. Hoffman, Headquarters 3rd Army, G 2 B Coblenz Germany. I believe a set of photos shared by two of his nieces, Ruth Whalen and Lucille McCue, are from the family's celebration of his return home. They were thankful for his return and that the entire family survived the influenza epidemic.

Sunday’s Obituary: Aaron H. Kelly, 1947

Immigrant Caspar Hoffman left four young children when he died. The youngest was his daughter Louise. Like her siblings she eventually went to San Francisco, but then wed John B. D. Kelly and lived in Snohomish County, Washington. They had three children, the oldest their only son, Aaron. He was born 17 August 1893 in Snohomish County. He appeared in the census with his parents through 1920 on farms near the Snohomish/King County border. During World War I he served, between 10 April 1917 and 6 December 1918, in the U.S. Navy as a Seaman 2nd class. Aaron was enumerated on 3 April 1930 in Snohomish Road, Maltby Precinct, Snohomish County as a boarder in the Nels W. Pearson home. He was a farmer on a dairy farm. He registered as Aaron Hoffman Kelly for the World War II draft on 25 April 1942. He lived with his mother at 3803 Meridian and worked at the University Dairy in Seattle. He was recorded as 6' 1" tall, weighing 190 pounds with brown hair, hazel eyes and a ruddy complexion.

At the age of forty-nine he married Isabelle Mullin on 22 June 1943 at the University Methodist Temple, Seattle, King County, Washington, Rev. James Brett Kenna officiating, witnesses Bernice O. Jobson (Aaron's sister) and G. F. Martinson. I don't know if Mullin was her maiden name or not. By 1947 he resided in Woodinville and worked as a deputy sheriff in Snohomish County. In that capacity he must have spent time at the county courthouse in Everett. It would then have looked similar to this postcard though today it is dwarfed within the county complex.

As indicated in his obituary, he died on 30 May 1947. He was in the Providence Hospital in Everett where he died from complications following surgery related to a peptic ulcer. He was fifty-three. His widow was a witness to the marriage of his sister Bernice O. Jobson to Hugh J. Stack 17 July 1950. I have yet to find evidence of children of Aaron or his sisters.

Aaron's name was recorded in a scrapbook of his San Francisco cousin, Irene Anderson, as John. One census recorded his name as the homophonic counterpart, Erin. His signature on his marriage certificate authenticates Aaron.

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  1. 1900 U.S. census, Snohomish County, Washington, population schedule, Bear Creek Precinct, ED 210, sheet 15B, dwelling 319, family 322, John B. Kelly household; National Archives microfilm, T623, roll 1750.
  2. 1910 U.S. census, Snohomish County, Washington, population schedule, Bear Creek Precinct, ED 269, sheet 4B, dwelling 83, family 84, John B. Kelly household; National Archives microfilm, T624, roll 1668.
  3. 1920 U.S. census, King County, Washington, population schedule, Maple Leaf Precinct 2, ED 351, sheet 5A, dwelling/family 41, John B. Kelly household; National Archives microfilm, T625, roll 1925.
  4. 1930 U.S. census, Snohomish County, Washington, population schedule, Maltby Precinct, ED 31-89, sheet 2A, dwelling/family 41, Nels W. Pearson household; National Archives microfilm T626, roll 2519.
  5. Aaron H. Kelly, Certificate of Death State File # 231 (June 4, 1947), Department of Health, Center for Health Statistics, PO Box 9709, Olympia, WA.
  6. "Aaron H. Kelley (death notice)," The Seattle Times, Seattle, WA, 1 June 1947, p. 21, col. 4; digital images, GenealogyBank.com (http://access.genealogybank.com : accessed 24 May 2010).
  7. Descendants of Caspar Hoffman (1837-1877) Hoffman Family Notes by Irene Hoffman Anderson including photographs, information provided to which the author was a witness plus information handed down to her by older family members and completed Aug. 1, 1979; copies provided to the author by her sons.
  8. King County Marriage Certificates, 1855-1990, Kelly - Mullin 1943, King County Archives, Seattle, WA, digital images online, Washington State Digital Archives (http://www.digitalarchives.wa.gov/ : accessed 14 November 2010).
  9. “Selective Service Registration Cards, World War II: Fourth Registration” draft cards, Aaron Hoffman Kelly card no. 2158, Draft Board 4, Seattle, Washington; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 14 November 2010); from National Archives records.

Tombstone Tuesday: At Albrecht Cemetery & "Is it a genealogy poem?"

I just read Harold Henderson's post at Midwestern Microhistory from last month in which he asked if Wallace Steven's poem "A Postcard from the Volcano" was a genealogy poem. I was so impressed that I created a scrapbook page with the poem and some ideas it inspired. Click on the image to see it larger.

The images are: 1. the gravestone of Jacob Weible, M. D. who died 5 June 1875 at the age of twenty-four; 2. the gravestone of Casper Hoffman, his second wife, her second husband and infants (see previous post); 3. A document from Kaspar Hoffman's probate packet in Carroll County, Illinois; 4. the gate to the cemetery. The name on the sign is Albrecht but it is also called Albright and also Fehler for a family in the area.

The note appears to be in the hand of Henry Hoffman, administrator of the estate of his late brother Kaspar. (Note different spellings of the name.) It was signed by George Weible who was a neighbor. Young Jacob was his son. Mr. Weible acknowledged receipt of the full amount of all his claims against the estate. It is dated 28th March [18]79. There were debts to most family members, but while the Weibles were not relatives, they were related in the way of friends and neighbors. The lives of the mostly German immigrants in Derinda Township were intertwined in various ways, but most often I don't write about these others. Perhaps I should.
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Scrapbook page credits:
All from Oscraps:
-sandy paper: Fei-fei's Stuff - .. Like Home
-flower overlays: Fei-fei's Stuff - Profiles no. 2
-striped paper (blended): Fei-fei's Stuff - Party On Add On
-wrinkled paper (reduced and blended): Vicki Stegall - Rock On (sneak peek)