George Harrison Hoffman Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1771-1773 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	GEORGE HARRISON HOFFMAN, who is associated with his sons, Benjamin 
and John, in the ownership and management of the Park farm and stock 
range, near Bangor, Walworth county, was born in Adams county, Pennsyl-
vania, on the 21st of January, 1838, and his father, George Rosenmiller 
Hoffman, was likewise a native of the old Keystone state and of staunch 
German ancestry, the family having been founded in Pennsylvania in the 
colonial epoch, as was also that of the mother of our subject, whose 
maiden name was Sarah Jane Cramer, and who likewise was born and reared 
in the state mentioned. In his earlier life George R. Hoffman was a 
teamster or freighter by vocation, and his six-horse teams were employed 
in doing heavy freighting to and from Baltimore, Maryland; Wheeling, 
Virginia (now West Virginia); Little York, Harrisburg and Gettysburg, 
Pennsylvania. Later he was engaged in teaching in town and village 
schools in Pennsylvania, being well educated in both German and English 
and being a man of superior mentality. In 1844 he removed with his 
family to Indiana and settled on a farm in Butler township, Dekalb 
county, the section at that time being an untrammeled wilderness and 
covered with a dense forest. With the aid of his three sturdy sons he 
cleared and improved his farm, and for a number of years was employed as 
teacher in the pioneer schools of the locality during the winter months. 
He was for many years incumbent of the office of justice of the peace, 
and also practiced law in the lower courts. Later he was elected auditor 
of Dekalb county, in which capacity he served two terms. In politics he 
was an old-line Whig and was an ardent supporter of William Henry 
Harrison for the presidency. He was present at the birth of the 
Republican party and was loyal to the party and the nation, and Abraham 
Lincoln was his ideal President. He died in 1889, at the venerable age 
of seventy-two years, his devoted wife having preceded him into eternal 
rest by many years, her death occurring in 1848. They became the parents 
of three sons and three daughters, concerning whom we incorporate the 
following brief record: Elmira E., who was married to Jonathan Weaver, 
died about a decade ago; Rev. Joseph O. is now a resident of Lima, Ohio, 
having been a clergyman of the Lutheran church of that city for many 
years; he graduated from the Lutheran college at Columbus, Ohio, and was 
ordained a minister of the gospel in 1860; John Henry, who is now a 
resident of Ligonier, Indiana, and who was a member of Company K, Forty-
fourth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, during the Civil war, having been 
wounded in the battle of Shiloh and having been discharged from service 
by reason of resulting physical disability; was postmaster at Ligonier 
for eight years and is one of the substantial and influential citizens 
of his county; he was educated in the high schools of Dekalb and Noble 
counties and after the close of the war taught in the schools of Lig-
onier; George H. is the immediate subject of this sketch; Sarah J. 
Mathens is a resident of near Toledo, Ohio, and Rebecca Middleton is a 
resident of Joplin, Missouri. John Hoffman, the paternal grandfather of 
the subject, was born and reared in Pennsylvania and was a division 
wagon master in the Continental army during the war of the Revolution.

	George H. Hoffman was reared to manhood on the pioneer homestead in 
Dekalb county, Indiana, and his education was secured principally at 
home and under the direction of his honored father. He thus conned his 
lessons by the light of the tallow candle and the blaze of hickory bark 
from the great fireplace, after the day s work on the farm was done. He 
also attended the common schools as opportunity afforded and was for one 
term, of six months, a student in Kells Academy, near Hunterstown, Allen 
county, Indiana, so that he laid substantial foundations for that broad 
fund of knowledge which he has gained in the practical school of 
experience and active association with men and affairs. Mr. Hoffman 
initiated his independent career as a farmer and carpenter in 1859 and 
continued to follow these occupations until 1864, when he enlisted in 
Company A, Thirteenth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, which became a part of 
the Third Brigade, Second Division, Tenth Army Corps, the division being 
commanded by General Ames, while the corps was commanded for a time by 
General Benjamin F. Butler and later by General Terry. Mr. Hoffman was 
an active participant in the engagements at Chapin's Bluff, near 
Richmond, Virginia and in the campaign which thereafter extended through 
and including the engagements at Deep Bottom, Dutch Gap canal and 
Bermuda Hundred, and later was with the expedition which operated 
against Fort Fisher and Newbern, North Carolina. He took an active part 
in the battle at Fort Fisher, Fort Caswell being evacuated upon the fall 
of Fort Fisher, and assisted in the capture of Fort Anderson and Fort 
Sugarloaf, Wilmington, South Carolina; Mount Olive, Bentonville, 
Goldsboro and Raleigh, being stationed in the last mentioned city at the 
time of the surrender of Johnston's army. He was mustered out of the 
service, at Goldsboro, North Carolina, on the 5th of September, 1865, 
and received his honorable discharge, in the city of Indianapolis, 
Indiana, about two weeks later.

	After the close of his faithful and valiant service as a soldier of 
the republic Mr. Hoffman returned to Dekalb county, Indiana, where he 
effected the purchase of the old homestead farm upon which his father 
had originally located and upon which he himself had been reared to 
manhood. Four years later he disposed of the farm and removed to Auburn, 
Indiana, where he engaged in the handling of agricultural implements, 
building up an excellent business and there continuing operations in the 
line for a period of seven years. In September, 1883, he came to what is 
now the state of South Dakota, and with his two eldest sons, William and 
Sigel, took up government land in Walworth county, and here they have 
improved a valuable estate, the same being the present home of our 
subject and his family. The home farm comprises six hundred and forty 
acres of good land, as does the stock farm, and the improvements on the 
property are of the best order, while they are known as the most 
valuable agricultural and stock farms in this section, and Mr. Hoffman 
has attained a high degree of success in his operations, in which he has 
been ably assisted by his sons.

	When South Dakota was admitted to the Union, in 1889, Mr. Hoffman was 
nominated by the Republicans of the thirty-sixth senatorial district, 
composed of the counties of Walworth and Campbell, to represent the 
district in the upper house of the first general assembly of the new 
commonwealth. He was victorious at the polls and proved a valuable and 
popular member of the legislature, whose work was exacting, oner011S and 
important in the formative period, when much was to be accomplished and 
planned for the well-being of the state. At the state Republican 
convention held in Mitchell in 1890 Mr. Hoffman was made the nominee of 
his party for the office of lieutenant governor, being elected to this 
office and serving one term, while in 1892 he was a candidate for 
governor and in the state convention of his party, at Madison, received 
the second highest vote of the convention on the first ballot, Hon. 
Charles Sheldon being finally accorded the nomination. Mr. Hoffman cast 
his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln, in 1860 and has ever 
since given an unfaltering allegiance to the Republican party. He is a 
member of the Grand Army of the Republic and he and his life are Free 
Methodists.

	On the 27th of September, 1860, Mr. Hoffman was united in marriage to 
Miss Sarah J. Crouse, who was born in Dayton, Ohio, in the year 1841, 
being a daughter of Charles F. and Barbra (Warbel) Crouse. In 1852 her 
parents removed to Fort Wayne, Indiana, and there she was reared and 
educated, the family home having been there for many years. To Mr. and 
Mrs. Hoffman have been born eleven children, concerning whom we offer 
the following brief record: William Elmer, who is now register of deeds 
of Walworth county; Sigel F., barber and confectioner at Selby, Walworth 
county; Laura 51., the wife of Caleb Smithers, editor of the Bowdle 
Pioneer; George Henry died in 1888, at the age of twenty-one years; 
Charles Franklin and William are photographers and put in the first 
photograph gallery at the county seat of Walworth county; they both own 
farms of their own; Clara E. Clark is a resident of Selby; Edward C. 
owns and controls a farm of his own; Benjamin H. and John J. are 
associated with their father in the stock farm, consisting of six 
hundred and forty acres; Jessie Estella is at home, while Ethel Mabel is 
associate editor of the Pioneer and lives with her sister, Mrs. 
Smithers, at Bowdle, Edwards county, South Dakota.