BIO: Jacob F. HOOVER, Huntingdon County, PA

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Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of the Juniata Valley: 
Comprising the Counties of Huntingdon, Mifflin, Juniata and Perry, 
Pennsylvania, Containing Sketches of Prominent and Representative 
Citizens and Many of the Early Settlers.  Chambersburg, Pa.: J. M. 
Runk & Co., 1897, pages 263-264.
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  JACOB F. HOOVER, Grafton, Huntingdon county, Pa., was born in Penn 
township, April 27, 1826. He is a son of John and Catharine (Fink) 
Hoover. The Hoover family is of German origin; the ancestor of this 
branch settled in Maryland some time in the eighteenth century, and 
from that state Ludwig Hoover, grandfather of Jacob F., came to Penn 
township, Huntingdon county, then called Hopewell township, Bedford 
county, in 1795. He bought of Robert Lee a farm of 160 acres; a place 
which was at a somewhat earlier time the scene of a massacre by the 
Indians. Mr. Hoover had been a farmer in Maryland, and continued the 
same business, with stock raising, in Huntingdon county. He was of the 
Democratic party. Ludwig Hoover had been married before he left 
Maryland, to Miss Geisser, a native of that state, of German descent. 
Their only child was John Hoover. Ludwig Hoover and his wife died in 
Penn township. He was a captain of State militia in Huntingdon county, 
and a member of the Grange. The son, John Hoover, was born in 
Washington county, Md. Like his father, he made farming his occupation, 
and also conducted flax, hemp, linseed oil and chopping mills in Penn 
township. He owned and cultivated 500 acres of arable land, besides the 
same extent in timber. His politics were the same as those of his 
father. John Hoover was married in Penn township, to Catherine Fink, 
daughter of a farmer of Penn township. Mrs. Hoover was born in Berks 
county; the family is of German descent. The children of this marriage 
are: Ludwig, deceased; Valentine, deceased; Solomon, deceased; John, 
deceased; Elizabeth, deceased, wife of Benjamin Grove; Catherine, 
deceased, wife of David Stover, of Juniata county, Pa. The parents died 
on the homestead. John Hoover was a consistent member of the Reformed 
church, active in church enterprises. He was successively deacon and 
elder.
  Jacob F. Hoover has been all his life a farmer. His education, 
acquired at a subscription school in the old-fashioned log school 
house, was limited. He continued until he was thirty years old to be 
his father's assistant on the homestead; at that age, he took a part of 
the home farm to work on his own account, and has ever since cultivated 
the same land. He now farms 150 acres, and has 130 acres in timber on 
the mountain. The improvements made by Mr. Hoover, including a handsome 
brick dwelling, barns, etc., have cost him over $5,000, all made by his 
own industry. He is an enterprising farmer, using plenty of good 
machinery; he deals in cattle, and other live stock. Mr. Hoover is a 
Democrat, and has several times been elected to office on his party's 
ticket. He has been assessor for his township, and for a number of 
years was school director. In 1884, he was elected commissioner of 
Huntingdon county, by a large majority, and filled that office very 
efficiently. Mr. Hoover visited Kansas and Nebraska in 1883, and in 
1893, he went on a pleasure trip to Oklahoma.
  Jacob F. Hoover was married in Penn township, in 1856, to Martha 
Simonton, a native of Hopewell township. Their children are: Annie, 
wife of George W. Barrick, of Spruce Creek, a miller; Franklin Scott, 
farmer, of Oklahoma; Elizabeth, wife of Elmer W. Snyder, residing in 
the State of Indiana; Cyrus, farmer, in Oklahoma; Catherine, died in 
early childhood; and Maggie, wife of Charles Carmer, of Ohio. Mrs. 
Martha Hoover died in 1871. Mr. Hoover was again married in Penn 
township, to Mary E. Shaffer, born in Cass township. Their children 
are: Minnie M.; Della A.; Clarence B.; Ernest W.; Roy T.; and Jacob F. 
Mr. Hoover has been both deacon and elder in the Reformed church, and 
is active in church work. He is a genial and kindly man, and is held in 
high esteem in the community.