Peter Hoffman
No member of the farming community of Pickaway County is more worthy of representation in this biographical work than this venerable and venerated gentleman, who is not only a son of one of the earliest pioneers of the county, but is himself entitled to be considered a pioneer on account of what he has done to promote the progress of agriculture in this favored section of the State, of which he is a native, and in whose public as well as industrial life he has borne an active part.
Mr. Hoffman was born in Washington Township, May 2, 1809, and is a son of George Hoffman, who was a native of Berks County, Pa. He came to Ohio in a wagon with his wife in 1806, and took up a tract of land in Washington Township, being among the first to locate here. The country was a wilderness, with but few attempts at cultivation, and deer were so plentiful that they had to be chased from the wheat fields, where they often did much damage. Indians often used to pass through the country, and still had their hunting-grounds in this vicinity. Mr. Hoffman built a log cabin, and every year cleared away some of the timber standing on his land, which in time he improved into a highly productive farm. During the War of 1812, he served as a soldier forty days. He was an earnest Christian, and a strict member of the Lutheran Church. This good old pioneer passed to his reward in 1862, at the end of a life long and well spent.
The paternal grandfather of our subject, Jacob Hoffman, came from his native Germany to this country when fifteen years old. He settled in Berks County, Pa., and in time became a prosperous farmer there. In 1806, he emigrated to Fairfield County, this State, where he died an old man. The mother of our subject, whose maiden name was Mary Harpster, was born in Pennsylvania, and died in this State, in 1870.
Mr. Hoffman is the eldest son and second child in a family of eleven children, of whom nine grew to maturity, and five of them are still living. His educational advantages were exceedingly limited, as there was no school for some time after he was old enough to go to one, and when a subscription school was finally established in an old log house he had to walk three miles to get to it. The building was rudely constructed, with a puncheon floor, slab seats for furniture, and greased paper instead of glass in the windows. Our subject was born in a log cabin, and underwent all the experiences of frontier life. The farmers mostly used oxen instead of horses in their work, and had the most primitive tools with which to carry on their farming.
Mr. Hoffman remained at home with his parents until 1836, when he started out as a farmer on his own account, having previously become thoroughly familiarized with every department of agriculture. On tlie 18th of March of that year, he purchased eighty acres of land, and diligently worked to develop it into a farm. In 1856, he bought the farm in his native township upon which he has ever since lived, and he has greatly increased its worth by the many valuable improvements that he has made. He has here one hundred and seventy acres of land on section 21, which is finely cultivated, and well adapted to general farming. The buildings that adorn it are of a good class, substantially built and well arranged, and everything about the place is neat and orderly. Mr. Hoffman began with but little means, but he has done so well that he is one of the moneyed men of his native county, and when his children began life for themselves he generously gave them each $1,000.
June 20, 1836, Mr. Hoffman was married to Elizabeth Leist, who was born in Washington Township, May 2, 1815. She died in 1877, leaving behind her the blessed memory of a good and true-hearted woman, who had nobly fulfilled the duties of life, and was warmly loved by all who came under her influence. She was a daughter of David Leist, a native of Berks County, Pa., who came to Ohio in 1806, and was a pioneer of this township. The following are the children that were born of her happy marriage with our subject: Jacob, who is married, and lives in this township; Catherine, the wife of Abraham Adams, a farmer in Fairfield County; George, deceased; David, who is married, and lives in this township; Noah, who is married, and lives in Madison County; Amanda, wife of Manoah Shoemaker, a farmer in Henry County, Ohio; Isaiah, who married Emma Stout, and lives on the old homestead, and Peter, who is married, and lives in this township.
In his political views, Mr. Hoffman is a tried and true Democrat, voting first for Gen. Jackson, and he has only missed one Presidential election since that of 1840. He has been much sought after to help administer local affairs, his fellow-citizens having a full appreciation of his fitness for responsible positions. He held the office of Trustee of his township fifteen years, was Director twenty years, and Supervisor a like length of time. He has also been conspicuous in promoting the religious interests of the community as one of the foremost members of the Lutheran Church, which he joined when about eighteen years old, and to which his good wife also belonged, and he has filled the various official positions of the church, among them those of Deacon and Elder.
From PORTRAIT & BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF FAYETTE, PICKAWAY AND MADISON COUNTIES, OHIO - Chapman Bros. [Chicago, 1892]