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.

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.)

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.)

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:
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Treasure Chest Thursday: Alma Rose posed with pooch

This photo of young Alma Rose and the pooch is quite charming. I wonder if it was her dog or the photographer's? The photo is a postcard mailed to her Aunt Bertha. Bertha was very fond of her older sister Maggie, Alma's mother and kept in touch, even visiting after Maggie moved to Colorado. It passed down to Bertha's daughter Ruth who shared it with me so that I could share a scan of it. I think all these old family photos are real treasures.

 

Alma E. Rose was born on 29 October 1894 to Emil and Margaret K. (Hoffman) Rose in Illinois. She was the second grandchild of immigrant John Hoffman of Savanna, Illinois. Her brother Clarence turned two fifteen days earlier. In 1900 Alma and her mother lived in Pearl City in Stephenson County, Illinois. Margaret, also known as Maggie, was working as a milliner and claimed to be a widow. Clarence was living with his grandfather Hoffman. Frank Rush became step-father to Alma and Clarence and in 1910 they all lived on Main Street in Pearl City where Frank had a barber shop. His full name was James Frank Rush. Not long after, the family moved to eastern Colorado and took up farming.

About 1916 Alma married widower Hugh L. Jenkins who had a son, Roy M. Jenkins. Hugh was a farm worker near Lamar in Prowers County, Colorado. Alma gave birth to a daughter, Margaret Rose, in 1917 and a son, Hugh L. Jenkins, Jr., at the end of 1918. Alma’s mother died in 1924, buried in Home Cemetery near McClave in Bent County, Colorado. Her step-father lived with the Jenkins family in 1930. Prowers County is part of the area affected by the Dust Bowl in the 1930s, but Alma and Hugh must have continued to live there as both were buried in Lamar’s Riverside Cemetery with Hugh’s first wife Lillian M. Jenkins. Alma died on 20 February 1949 at the young age of fifty-four.

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1900 U.S. census, Stephenson County, Illinois, population schedule, Pearl City, Loran Township, ED 100, sheet 6A, dwelling 95, family 99, Margaret Rose household; National Archives microfilm T623, roll 346.

1910 U.S. census, Stephenson County, Illinois, population schedule, Pearl City Village, Loran Township, ED 110, sheet 1B, dwelling/family 22, James F. Rush household; National Archives microfilm T624, roll 327.

1920 U.S. census, Prowers County, Colorado, population schedule, Precinct 6, ED 185, sheet 5A, dwelling 87, family 94, Hugh L. Jenkins household; National Archives microfilm T625, roll 169.

1930 U.S. census, Prowers County, Colorado, population schedule, Precinct No. 6, north, ED 50-11, sheet 7B, dwelling 144, family 149, Hugh L. Jenkins household; National Archives micropublication T626, roll 248.

Leon Barton, “Find A Grave Memorials,” Home Cemetery, McClave, CO, Memorial# 31922399 (Margaret Rush), Dec. 3, 2008, digital images Find-A-Grave (http://www.findagrave.com: accessed 28 October 2010)

Leon Barton, Riverside Cemetery, Lamar, CO, Memorial# 54570168 (Hugh), 54570097 (Alma), 54581885 (Lilian), Jul 06, 2010, digital images Find-A-Grave (http://www.findagrave.com: accessed 28 October 2010).

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fonts: Ahnberg, ScriptSERIF, James Fajardo

Tombstone Tuesday: Emma Anna (Hoffman) Acker

Some of the adult children of John and Kunigunda Hoffman are also buried in the Savanna Cemetery in Savanna, Illinois. The oldest of those buried here is Emma Anna Hoffman. She was born on 14 May 1878, probably in Jo Daviess County, Illinois. On 23 April 1902 she married John Acker in Savanna. He was involved in politics and earned a name for himself. They had two daughters, Clara (Acker) Gholson who lived in their house on the hill until her death in 2001 and a baby who died 10 December 1910. The gravestones in the front row of the photo are those of Emma, John, the family marker, and the baby.

Tombstone Tuesday: Jesse R. and Helen A. Hoffman

Jesse Ralph Hoffman and his wife Helen Anna Charlotte Dianiska are buried in the Brooklyn Heights Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio. New graves like theirs have these flat stones so they can be mowed over. Helen's parents and two siblings are buried here as are Jesse's mother, step-father and cousins of his mother. This is lot 410 in the Roselawn section, graves #3 and #4, reading:

Hoffman
Beloved Husband, Jesse R., 1904 - 1997
Beloved Wife, Helen A., 1907 - 1990

Tombstone Tuesday: No marker for Christian Hoffman

Instead of a tombstone for Christian Hoffman, next to the youngest of the immigrant family, all we have are these pages from the Lucas County Infirmary in Toledo, Ohio.



Lucas County Infirmary, County Home Registers, 1855-1882, (Vol. 1, filmed by Bowling Green State University), p. 88, "Name: Christ Hoffman, Age: 35, Place of Birth: Germany, When Received: July 11, When Discharged: July 12, No. of Days: 01, Township: Toledo, Remarks: Died July 12 th 12 1864 Congestian brain."

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Henry Hoffman's brothers Christian and John came from Switzerland with their mother. They arrived in the port of New York on June 25, 1864 aboard the Goeschen from Le Havre.¹ Having this information, I was puzzled to find no other records of 25-year old Christian. The sad answer came in Henry's 1889 biographical sketch which states that Christian had died at Toledo, Ohio, from smallpox.²

I couldn't imagine how to verify this death from long ago. At the Western Reserve Historical Society I looked at the books for Lucas County, Ohio, and checked cemetery transcriptions. Then I found a slender volume, an index to the register of the county home infirmary 1855 - 1882. And there was "Christ Hoffman" on a page immediately following the census of residents in June of 1864.³ This did not look like coincidence.

Dick and I later went to Toledo to visit the Lucas County Courthouse. At the Toledo library we viewed microfilm of the original register of the county home and printed the pages reproduced here. Three things seem to be in error: the name is shortened, the age is 35 and the birthplace is Germany. Since the 1889 bio said Christian was in delirium when accompanied there by a stranger from Switzerland, he probably couldn't provide information himself and we don't know if the stranger spoke English. I don't think this could be anyone else.

The entry shows Christian arrived on July 11 and died the next day, July 12, 1864, of "congestian [of the] brain." We don't understand how he came to be left at the home. The family must have traveled from New York by canal or train to Buffalo and then to Toledo on a Lake Erie steamer. There Christian was clearly too ill to transfer to land transportation.

Did they speak English? Did they have money to cover an emergency? And had they purchased tickets for their travel in advance in New York? It is likely that leaving Christian was the only thing they knew to do. Giving the contagion of smallpox and the awareness of it at this time, I wonder if the fatal disease was something else. It could easily have been epidemic typhus which can induce high fever and delirium and had common names such as "ship fever" and "brain fever."

Originally the poor farm, the county home and infirmary had a small cemetery, but it was moved for development. Most graves were unmarked. I hope to find records from the move, but it is unlikely Christian's grave was marked.

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1. Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1820-1897, microfilm publication M237 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives, ), roll 242; Ship Goeshen, 25 June 1864, Christian Hofmann, p. 3, line 100.

2. Portrait and Biographical Album of Jo Daviess County, Illinois: containing full page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county, together with portraits and biographies of all the governors of the State, and of the Presidents of the United States (Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1889), 780, biographical sketch of Henry Hoffman: "[died] at Toledo, Ohio, from small-pox contracted on the vessel on the passage across the Atlantic. The particulars of his death were never fully known, as he was accompanied to that place by a stranger from Switzerland, who left him there in delirium. from which he never recovered."

3. Beverly Reed Todd, Indexer, Lucas County Home Infirmary Register: Vol. 1, Book 1, March 1855-February 1882 ([Ohio]: Lucas County Chapter, Ohio Genealogical Society, 1994), 42.

Tombstone Tuesday: John and Kunigunda Hoffman

John Hoffman, born in Maur, Canton Zurich, was the youngest of the Hoffman siblings. He came to the U.S. with his mother, brother Christian, and niece Rosina in 1864. ¹ Arriving during the Civil War, he enlisted in the Union Army in 1865 shortly after his brother Henry and along with his cousin Jacob Homberger. I’ll tell their army stories in later posts.

After the war John married Kunigunda Schneider, a German immigrant, in Jo Daviess County and was naturalized in Carroll County, Illinois. He first lived on a Derinda Township farm, then had a billiard hall and grocery in Elizabeth, moving on to run a hotel in Hanover, all in Jo Daviess County. He finally settled in Savanna, a town on the Mississippi River in Carroll County. There he had a hotel and among many activities belonged to the R.M.A. Hawk Post 406 of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). (Read more about the GAR in Illinois.)

Kunigunda died in 1909 and John remarried in 1914 to a second German immigrant, Margaret (Kupfer) Toepfer. John passed away in 1922 at the age of eighty-one. He was buried with his first wife in the Savanna City Cemetery. Most of his adult children have also been buried in that cemetery. There is one large marker for both John and Kunigunda and two small stones, one for each of them (photographed from the opposite side of the main photo). John’s has his GAR marker with it. The main stone correctly reads

HOFFMAN
JOHN HOFFMAN
DEC. 16, 1840 – MAY 9, 1922
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KUNIGUNDA, HIS WIFE
FEB. 6, 1849 – JAN. 27, 1909



Photographed 19 June 2002

Tombstone Tuesday: Elisabeth Hoffman (1824 - 1892), wife of Jacob

Also in the Fehler Cemetery (or Albrecht/Albright), like last week's tombstone of Caspar Hoffman, is the gravestone for the wife of the oldest of the Hoffman siblings, Elisabeth (Zollinger) Hoffmann. The listing stone was very hard to read, but we could make out her name and dates:
Elisabeth
wife of Jacob Hoffmann
born 14 Oct. 1824
died 29 Dec. 1892
We don't know if Jacob was buried here as well. We have never found his death information. He was still alive at the time of the 1900 census so he should have had a county death record, but he did not. His wife is recorded in a book of funeral home records, but again, Jacob does not appear there. Transcriptions from the cemetery are online HERE.

Their daughter was buried nearby. In 1999 her gravestone was leaning over, face toward the ground making it very hard to read. When we returned in 2002, it was lying on the ground face up. Hers reads (all in German):
HIER RUHT IN FRIEDEN
MARIA BENZ
Geb. Hoffmann
GEST. 17 JAN. 1875
Im Aller von
23 J. 2 M. 14 T.

Photos taken 18 June 2002

Tombstone Tuesday: Caspar Hoffman (1837 - 1877)

Caspar Hoffman was one of the younger siblings of the immigrant Swiss family. He was born 7 January 1837 in Maur, Canton Zurich. He was baptized there as Kaspar Hoffmann, his father Johannes a citizen of Oberglatt, Canton Zurich. The witnesses were Kaspar Sennhauser and (Mrs.) Barbara Hofmann.

He arrived in the U.S. and Illinois in 1867 with his wife Louisa Schmid and two children. Louisa died and he married Wilhelmine (Minnie) Sievert in 1872. He had a farm in Carroll County but died there 19 June 1877 leaving a widow and four minor children of his first marriage. His brother Henry Hoffman administered the estate. The land had to be sold to meet the debts but still fell short. He had taken a number of loans, some from his brothers and brother-in-law John Hagie, or co-signed by them. The children were scattered among relatives and associates.

With no money left over, I'm sure he had no gravestone at the time. His widow remarried and had this slightly cryptic marker erected in the Albrecht (or Albright or Fehler) Cemetery. Where it says "Minnie His Wife," it really means wife of both men. I have no idea where Caspar is actually buried, but this cemetery is likely as other family members and friends are buried there. In rural Derinda Township, Jo Daviess County, Illinois, it was once with a church, but even the building is long gone.

photos taken 18 June 2002

Tombstone Tuesday: St. John's Lutheran Cemetery, Massbach, IL

Henry Hoffman did not agree with the local Lutheran Church but apparently attended a German language church that may have been a Methodist offshoot. His second wife and mother of his children was Eva Barbara Eberhardt. She was a devout German Lutheran and attended the St. John's Lutheran Church of Massbach, Illinois. It was close to their home. She and their daughter, Wilhelmine, were both buried at the cemetery of that church while Henry and three of their sons were buried elsewhere as shown last week.


Eva B. Eberhardt Hoffman
Feb. 5, 1850 - Dec. 9, 1927
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Her Daughter
Minnie Hoffman
Apr. 29, 1877 - Apr. 13, 1943

Tombstone Tuesday: Derinda Methodist Cemetery

Dick and I first visited Jo Daviess County, Illinois, in June of 1999. It was still early in our discoveries about the family, but we did know some of the cemeteries where family members were buried. We followed a map south from Derinda Center around and up the hill and almost missed the little cemetery on a windy hilltop in Section 16. It was once associated with a church, but the building is long gone. It is the origin of the name of Derinda Methodist Cemetery given in a book of transcriptions that is available online. The USGS name given now is the Morrison Cemetery and it has been known as the Wurster Cemetery. Apparently it is on the Wurster farm and maintained, very well, by that family.

We easily located the gravestone of Henry Hoffman (1828-1897) with its GAR marker. Next to it is one for his son Fred and then one shared by his sons Henry and William. In the row facing them is the older gravestone of Henry's mother. It is inscribed in German and reads

HIER RUHT IN FRIEDEN
ELISABETH
HOFFMAN
GEBORNE [Geboren] HOMBERGER
GEB. IN OETWEIL
CT. ZURICH, SCHWEIZ
DEN 17 SEP. 1797
GEST. [Gestorben] DEN
9 JULI 1870
SANFT RUHE IHRE ASCHE.



It states that her maiden name was Homberger and she was born in Oetweil (Oetwil am See) in Canton Zurich, Switzerland on 17 September 1797. (The date is in the month following the one in her Swiss baptismal record.) She died on 9 July 1870. I was so startled to see her birthplace on the stone! We had found the information in a biographical sketch of her youngest son, but if the transcription of this cemetery had included that part of the inscription we would have known so much sooner.



Her second son Henry and three of his sons are buried opposite her in this quiet pastoral setting.