WHY MOVE THERE?
From books about the Hoppes/Hoppers family and information presented on the Hoppes Generations web site, we know a great deal about the geographical movements of various family members during the past 500 years. However, to date no single publication has dealt with the subject of “why” pioneering family members made the relocations that we now accept as well documented. It is relatively easy to state, for example, that someone was dissatisfied and sought a better opportunity or a better life for his/her children, but what were the underlying reasons that made the hardships and risks of the move more acceptable than maintaining the status quo?
In some instances, the motive for undertaking a long or risky move is abundantly clear. The youngest son of 111 John Hoppes, 1116 Henry Hoppes born July 2, 1831, for example, joined his brother-in-law 111D.S Francis Patrick and other friends and acquaintances from Fayette County, OH as part of the Robinson & Ogle wagon train that set out for the gold fields of California in 1850 in search of riches. (See Hoppes Generations publication “Diaries and Books”). In addition to Henry’s suffering from “gold fever”, the motives of several other family members afflicted by “wanderlust” are well known. Perhaps the most bizarre case is reported by Ed Hoppes in his book “Hoppes and Related Families” (See “Books about the History of the Hoppes/Hoppers Family”) and involves his own father 111351 George Lewis Hoppes, who was born in August 1881, married Ida Mae Johnson in 1901, was educated at Ohio State in law, and was admitted to the bar in June 1904. Being the only son of 11135 Joseph Henton Hoppes, young George took over and operated his father’s farm in Union Township, Fayette County, OH when his father retired. As related by Ed Hoppes of page 278 of his book:
. . . . It was evident that George and his father were not going to be able to get along and to agree on methods of farming. Joseph Henton was of the “Old School” and insisted on using tried and true methods, and young George was well educated and wanted to take advantage of his higher learning and try out a few new methods. One day in 1916, about the time of birth of the author, my father was in town and he met a real estate broker who had a farm out on the east coast. The broker sang the praises of this farm and the first thing you know, they had made a trade, sight unseen, for some real estate which my father owned in trade for the farm in Md., in Worchester Co. Along about that time in history everyone was familiar with the cry of Horace Greeley who made the saying “Go West, young man, go West” a very familiar phrase. Most of the pioneers of that day followed the advice of Horace Greeley, but my father bucked the tide. He packed up his 6 children (the author being 3 months old), his farm animals and belongings, loaded them on the train, climbed aboard and shouted “Eastward Ho!” You have heard the old phrase “from rags to riches”. Well you can turn that phrase around in this case, as our family went from riches to rags. We all just about starved to death on this God-forsaken farm near Fruitland, Md. for the next few years.
Through their hard work, perseverance, and
willingness to take new risks by entering into the local building business, Ed’s
family earned enough money on the Eastern Shore of Maryland to return to their Ohio roots
in 1939 and continue their construction activities there by building several homes in the
Springfield, Ohio area prior to World War II.
The early history of our family is characterized by many relocations that Hoppes Generations readers may find puzzling. Although we never will have enough details about these moves to satisfy our curiosities completely, I hope that the following write-ups revealing my understandings of the reasons behind each major move will be of value.
# 1. Elsbetha (Hoffman) Haps from Toess, Switzerland to Palatinate (c1655)
There is no doubt that our family originated in Switzerland and lived in the town of Toess, now part of the city of Winterthur, for many years from the late 1400’s through 1655. In fact, as readers of my book “Swiss Roots: A History of the Happes Family to 1800” know, there is good reason to believe that we are descended from a land holder/farmer from the same area of Switzerland who was enumerated in the censuses of 1290 and 1292. Our last ancestor who lived in Switzerland all his life was Joachim Haps, baptized in late January or early February 1611. His parents, Peter and Anni (Froelich) Haps along with their other two children Heinrich baptized February 28, 1602 and Barbel baptized September 1, 1607, probably died during the terrible outbreak of the Black Plague in 1611. The orphan Joachim Haps next is encountered during the Toess census of May 1634 in which Joachim is listed as a 22-year old servant in the household of Fridli Schaeltenbaum. On February 4, 1640, Joachim (Schaeltenbaum) Haps of Toess married Elsbetha Hoffman from the nearly town of Seen. They had six children, but only the following three survived to adulthood: Elsbetha baptized December 20, 1640, Ulrich baptized June 1, 1644, and Salome baptized March 11, 1649. In the early 1650’s Joachim Haps became quite ill and could no longer make the payments on the house and vineyard he was renting from the hospital in Winterthur. He died in 1653 leaving his wife with three small children.
Elsbetha (Hoffman) Haps grew up in an era of plague and poverty. The outbreaks of the black plague in 1565, 1585, and 1611 had destroyed many family units and spared few. Recurring epidemics seemed to strike like clockwork, hitting nearby localities in the 1630’s and 1650’s. But in 1648 a profound event occurred; the Treaty of Westphalia ended the bloody Thirty Years War, which had devastated the Germanic areas of northern Europe as cruelly as the plague and in some areas even more harshly, if that were possible. The Palatinate, governed from Heidelberg, was especially hard hit; its rulers began to encourage the influx of Protestant Swiss settlers to occupy the vacant lands. When Joachim Haps died in 1653, his widow Elsbetha was in a quandary. She would like to escape from the dreary prospects that characterized her homeland, but how could she do that? Where would she and her three small children go?
“Clemens Hirtzel” was the answer. He had been pastor of the Reformed congregation in Wintherthur prior to leaving for the Palatinate after the end of the Thirty Years War where he served as the Protestant minister in Reihen (in the hills near Sinsheim) from 1651 to 1670. Clemens Hirtzel was a descendant of the Hirtzel clan from Pfaffikon, about ten miles south of Winterthur. He helped arrange for his Swiss relatives and associates to emigrate to Reihen to become part of his parish. So in 1650, Elsbetha Haps and her three children journeyed northward along the Neckar River toward Reihen. As indicated on the Hoppes Generations web site in “Harry’s Ten Most Wanted List": they were headed for the parish of Clemens Hirtzel near Sinsheim but only Uli and Salome were seen again (in Brombach/Odenwald). What happened to the two women named Elsbetha? More clues needed.
#2. Georg and Michael Happes from Schoenau/Odenwald to Philadelphia (1751)
The next major move of Happes family members occurred almost 100 years later when the brothers 1. Georg Happes, born about 1715, and 2. Michael Happes, born about 1722, left the Kern farm, “the Linnebach”, south of Schoenau for America. Their father Michael Happes, born August 25, 1688, the youngest son of Uli Haps of Brombach/Odenwald had died December 12, 1850 in Altneudorf/Odenwald from tuberculosis. Their mother Elisabeth (Zimmerman) Happes had died eight years earlier of chills and fever on November 9, 1742 at age 64. Soon after their father was buried, Georg and Michael Happes along with their sister Maria Elizabeth married to Jacob Reichert made plans to join other friends and neighbors for the hazardous journey to the New Land. As related in my book “Swiss Roots: A History of the Happes Family to 1800”:In April 1751, Jacob Reichert, linen weaver from Heddesbach; Nicolaus Zimmerman, farmer from Altneudorf; and Peter Layer, carpenter from Heiligkreuzsteinach, traveled to Heidelberg on the first of several trips to make departure arrangements. They had known each other all their lives and were related through marriage. The recently deceased Michael Happes, for example, provided one common tie, being Jacob Reichert's father-in-law, related to the Layers through his aunt Salome, and to the Zimmermans through his wife Elisabeth. Although all three individuals were successful in receiving permission to leave after paying their taxes, there was one serious complication. In 1743 Peter Layer had married Maria Barbara Eckesberger, a Catholic girl living on the nearby farm, the Hasselbacher Hof, and they had raised their two sons in the Catholic faith. The authorities in Heidelberg decided to prohibit Peter's wife and children from emigrating because "in the land to which they desire to go, the practice of the Catholic religion has not been introduced.”
A month later Georg Happes and three companions from Schoenau Balthasar Koenig, Johannes Wagner, and Georg Luecker were more fortunate. Not only did they receive permission to emigrate along with their families, but they also were allowed to leave without paying the usual taxes "because of their poverty."
It was an exciting moment in their lives, marked by hasty preparations and a flurry of legal activity involving debtors and creditors. Georg's wife Catherina petitioned to have a medical bill reduced on the grounds that she had been overcharged by a medical practitioner in Neckargemuend. Susanna Kretz requested that the Heidelberg authorities restrain Georg Happes from departing until he paid an unsettled debt. . . .
Departing as a group, they passed through the familiar towns of Wilheimsfeld and Schriesheim on their way to the Rhine. No one really knew where their journey would end but all realized that their lives would never be the same again. Georg Happes was delighted; he was leaving behind troublesome debts, nagging in-laws, and depressing chores whose accomplishment was of little benefit to him. His brother Michael was less certain he would like the New Land, but with Georg moving from the Linnebach he had decided to leave Schoenau, too. Why not make his new start with others he knew and trusted, and who faced common hardships?
3. Georg and Michael Happes from Philadelphia to frontier Pennsylvania (1751)
Georg and Michael Happes’ father had left each of his six children a small inheritance upon his death. Georg used his share to pay off his debts, but Michael loaned 20 guldens to his brother-in-law Nicolaus Breitenstein and then sued him to recover the money before Michael and his family departed for the New Land. As a result, Michael had enough money to pay for his passage aboard ship but George did not. In October 1751, Georg arrived in Philadelphia aboard the Queen of Denmark, while Michael probably arrived in the New Land about the same time aboard another ship that had less space available for “indentured servants”. On page 21 of “Swiss Roots”, I indicate that:
From the viewpoint of George Happes and his family, the price of their ocean passage was high, indeed: separation and servitude for the next twelve years. Labor in America was relatively scarce, with the result that affluent colonists often were willing to pay the passage of poor immigrants in return for their servitude for an appreciable number of years. George Happes' oldest stepson George Lang was bound to a family in Brandywine for whom he labored the next dozen years, and who presented him at the end of his servitude with a testimonial letter stating that he was a "quiet, industrious person”. George Lang's younger brother Friedrich was indentured to a family living in Chester County, Pennsylvania. Years later Friedrich recalled his youth in the following words that allow us to view his life with startling clarity: . . . Since we could not pay for our freight, we children had to serve with strangers until it was paid. I was bound to Quaker Richard Dutton in Chester County, whom I served 10 � years. . . .
After arriving in Philadelphia, Georg Happes, his wife Catharine, and young son George Heinrich born in Schoenau on October 23, 1747, probably served their period of indenture near Seitztown (now Lebanon), Lancaster County, PA. On September 2, 1753, Georg Happes and his wife were sponsors at a baptism in the Quittapahilla Hill Church near the present town of Annville, PA. From Philadelphia, they apparently had followed the Schuylkill River in a northwest direction to Readington (now Reading, PA), and then up the Tulpehocken Creek to their place of servitude. Georg’s brother Michael may have traveled with them as far as Oley, two miles east of Readington and approximately 35 miles northwest of Philadelphia. The fertile and mineral-rich Oley Valley attracted a relatively large number of German, Swiss, Swedish, English and Welsh settlers throughout the first half of the 18th Century. By 1750, there were a dozen small church congregations in and around Oley. Michael Happes and his wife Catherine settled there because Michael could find work as a laborer; their first son Michael was born in Oley on January 12, 1753, the same year that Georg Happes and his wife were baptismal sponsors at Quittapahilla Church, about 40 miles west of Oley.
In the Palatinate, Georg and Michael Happes were very close brothers, living together in Schoenau and emigrating with each other. In colonial Pennsylvania, for whatever reason, the two brothers drifted apart. It probably is not a coincidence that few, if any, of Georg’s descendants were named in honor of his brother (or father) Michael and that few, if any, of Michael’s descendants were named after his brother George. Their early years in Pennsylvania remain obscure.
#4. Georg Happes from frontier Pennsylvania to
Deep Creek, NC (1766)
While they resided in Pennsylvania, George Happes and his wife Catherine (the widow Lang, nee Kern) had three more children: John, Daniel, and Barbara. From the diaries and records kept by members of the Moravian Church in Salem (now Winston-Salem), NC, as well as the valuable book “Long Family Records” published by Jasper S. Long of Yadkinville, NC in 1965, the reasons for Georg Happes’ move to Deep Creek, Rowan County, NC are crystal clear. As related on pages 23/24 of my book, “Swiss Roots”:
During the decade of the 1760's, leadership of the Happes clan passed from George Happes to his stepsons. In 1763 George Lang, free at last, headed southwest along the Appalachian Mountains for the Carolinas. With the conclusion of the French and Indian War, the frontier areas of the colonies were again safe for travel and settlement. He found work in the Moravian community of Bethabara, North Carolina, and remained there for over a year as a non-member laborer. George Lang was deeply impressed by the industry, honesty, and organization displayed by the Moravians. However, because he lacked their religious awareness and discipline, he was not particularly interested in joining the Moravian Church. When traveling into the area surrounding Bethabara, he especially liked the land along Deep Creek, a tributary of the nearby Yadkin River. He also liked 15-year-old Catherine Miller, daughter of Christian and Veronica Miller. Catherine's father was a rough, godless man, who had moved from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, to Deep Creek in 1752. In April 1765, George Lang and Catherine Miller were wed.
George Lang was anxious for his parents to join him on Deep Creek and returned to Pennsylvania to fetch them. His brother Friedrich had married Sarah Gross in Conestoga, Pennsylvania on January 7, 1765; they too were willing to settle in North Carolina. In 1766 George Lang led the Happes clan to the South Fork of Deep Creek, their new home. For George Happes it was the end of a long journey that had begun 22 years earlier when he left Altneudorf to live on the Linnebach.
Initially, George Happes and his family lived near Christian Miller on the South Fork of Deep Creek, in a locale known as “Miller’s Settlement”. Later, George Hoppes acquired land on the North Fork of Deep Creek close to the Quaker Meetinghouse there. As the families of George’s oldest children began to grow, however, he and Catherine decided to give their land on the North Fork to George Heinrich, John, and Barbara, now married to Jacob Miller. In February 1785, George obtained a land warrant for 640 acres on Fisher’s Creek, closer to the Langs and to the Millers. This tract was surveyed the following year and the official land grant issued in August 1787. In February 1790, George Happes made out his will, leaving the 640 acres to Daniel, but stipulated that: “If he moves away so as he cannot help or care for me and his mother,” then the plantation that George willed to Daniel was to be sold and divided equally between Daniel and George’s three other children. By the time that George did die in September 1800, Daniel already had moved into the Blue Ridge Mountains of Wilks County, NC. As a result, Daniel’s two brothers and sister shared in the proceeds obtained from the sale of the 640 acres on Fisher’s Creek.
#5. Henry and John Happes from the Lizard Creek in PA to Rowan County, NC (1785)
Church and tax records indicate that Georg Happes’ brother Michael gradually moved northward from Oley, into the hills above Oley, and then behind the great Blue Mountain to the Lizard Creek. The personal tax lists of Northampton County, PA published on the Hoppes Generations web site indicate that Michael Hoppes’ name first appears in Towamensing Township north of the Blue Mountain in 1768. By then his brother George had arrived at Deep Creek in North Carolina. In 1769, Michael Happes is listed as the collector of taxes for Penn Township, Northampton County, but the following list for Penn Township dated November 26, 1770, records that he still is “poor”. By this time, Michael and his wife Catharine (nee Machler) had a family of five boys and three girls, the boys being 21 Michael born January 12, 1753; 23 Adam born October 1, 1760; 24 Jacob born about 1764; 25 Henry born January 1766; and 26 John born May 1767. The Hoppes Generations publication “Eight New Lines” reports that:
About the time his father made his will of March 5, 1785, however, and even before his older brothers Adam and Jacob left Pennsylvania, Henry with his younger brother John and sister Catharine trekked southward along the Blue Ridge to Rowan County, NC. There Henry attended Lutheran services at Old Pilgrim Church and met and married young Barbara Spraker, daughter of George Spraker, whose Rowan County will of 1810 refers to Henry Happas as his “dearly beloved son-in-law”. Barbara and Henry’s first child Catharine was born in Rowan County on March 13, 1786, and their next child Elizabeth on June 20, 1788. Shortly thereafter, they re-crossed the State line into Wythe County, VA with members of the Spraker family. On June 2, 1793, their oldest son Johannes Jacob Hoppes was baptized in a Lutheran ceremony in the German church on Cripple Creek, the sponsors being Jacob Spraker and his wife. . .
Actually, it appears likely that the Happes and Spraker
families already were well acquainted before Henry moved south. Barbara’s
father George Spraker had lived south of the Blue Mountain in Lynn Township, Northampton
County during the early 1760’s before moving to the Abbott’s Creek area of Rowan
County, NC. Although some accounts have Barbara (Spraker) Hoppess’ birth as
October 28, 1762 in Rowan County, other members of the Spraker family didn’t move
south until 1765.
John Hoppis accompanied his older brother Henry and his sister Catharine south along the Blue Ridge into Rowan County, North Carolina in 1785. There he served on several County juries in November 1791 and received a security bond in connection with a guardianship case in 1792. When his older brother Henry moved to Wythe County, VA with members of the Spraker family about this time, John accompanied them and met young Catharine Mack there. They were married in Wythe County on October 10, 1797 when John was 29 years of age and Catharine almost ten years younger. For the next dozen or so years, they resided there, being enumerated in the first census for Giles County, VA, which had been formed out of Wythe and several other counties in 1806. By the 1810 Census, their family consisted of one son under 10 years of age (William), one daughter age 10 - 16 (Elizabeth), and three daughters under 10 (Barbara, Christena, and Hannah). Their fifth daughter Sarah was born in Giles County, VA shortly after the 1810 Census was taken. During the next decade, they moved to Porter Township of Scioto County, Ohio and had one more boy (Michael) and another girl (Mary).
#6. Adam and Jacob Happes from the Lizard Creek in PA to Lincoln County, NC (1787)
Adam Happes born October 1, 1760 was the second oldest son of Michael and Catherine Happes to reach maturity. In 1784, he began to pay Northampton County taxes on a small acreage of land. The following year his name appears on the rolls of a militia unit assigned to frontier duty. In 1786, he was listed on the tax roles in Penn Township, Northampton County as a single freeman and was assessed 10 shillings, 6 pence. With his father’s death at this time and his older brother Michael inheriting the family farm, Adam decided to move south along the nearby Appalachian Trail, taking his younger brother Jacob along for companionship and mutual support. Eventually, they reached Lincoln County, North Carolina, where both brothers were pleased with the land they saw. Adam found State property along Dellinger’s Creek that he liked and had 100 acres surveyed. Jacob identified two parcels of available land on Leopard/Leeper’s Creek, one for 100 acres and the other for 80. They filed warrants for the land in November1788 and again in February and May 1789, completed the land surveys in 1789 and 1790, and received their land grants in 1791. About 1790, however, Adam’s younger brother Jacob returned to Pennsylvania.
As was the case with his younger brother Henry, a neighboring family served as the catalyst that prompted Adam’s move to North Carolina. The 1768 Northampton County, Towamensing Township tax list contains the name Michael Rutesel, which is missing from the previous and the subsequent list. Apparently, Michael Rudisill lived behind the Blue Mountain in 1768 as a neighbor of Michael Happes’ family. The Rudisill Family web site reports that:
Johann Michael Rudisill was born in Michelfeld, Germany 11 Sep 1723. Michael died about 1793 in Lincoln Co., NC. He married twice. He married an unknown woman before 1747. He then married Eva Catherine Dellinger after 1750. Catherine was born before 1735. Catherine was the daughter of Johann Philip Dellinger . . . .
Sometime around 1750, Michael Rudisill came to Lincoln County NC from Pennsylvania and settled on Leeper's Creek, about 4 miles from Iron Station. In this area he was granted land in 1754, but in 1753 he was already there and listed in Capt. Samual Corbin's Company for the Spanish Alarm . . . .On a return trip to Pennsylvania Michael brought back wheat seed for his farm. With careful propagation, this seed was still producing in Lincoln County more than a hundred years later.
Rudisills played a prominent role in the early history of Lincoln County, NC and Adam Happes’ family, as well. Adam’s oldest son, Adam, served in the War of 1812 under Captain Henry Rudisill and married Jacob Link’s daughter Catherine, Michael Rudisill’s granddaughter.
Adam Happes appears to have married shortly after arriving in Lincoln County, NC. Although his first wife’s surname currently is unknown, it probably was one of the following early German families: Aderholdt, Anthony, Arndt, Bangel, Benick, Beisaner, Beam, Bolinger, Boyles, Boltz, Coulter, Dellinger, Detter, DeVepaugh, Dietz, Eddlemon, Finger, Freytag, Gantzler, Gross, Haas, Hafner, Helderman, Hallman, Hartzoge, Houser, Heedick, Heil, Heltebrand, Henkel, Hoke, Huber, Hull, Jared, Jonas, Jundt, Keener, Kizer, Kistler, Klein, Kneip, Krauss, Kuhn, Lantz, Leeper, Lehnhardt, Leonard, Lingerfelt, Link, Lohr, Loretz, Lorentz, Lutz, Michal, Miller, Mosteller, Plonk, Propst, Quickel, Ramsauer, Rein, Reinhardt, Rieb, Rinck, Rudisill, Sain, Scheidel, Schenck, Schufordt, Scronce, Seigel, Schrum, Seitz, Shoup, Shull, Sigmon, Spiegel, Strutt, Summerrow, Troutman, Tutherow, Warlick, Weber, Weckesser, Wehunt, Weiand, Weiss, Wetzstein, Wisenhunt, Workman, Yoder, and Zimmerman.
#7. George Heinrich Happes from the Deep Creek in Surry County, NC to Ohio (1803)
George Heinrich Happes, born October 23, 1747 in
Schoenau/Odenwald, was the oldest of the eight sons of the brothers Georg and Michael
Happes and the last to make a major move during his lifetime. Toward the end of 1802, George Hoppes sold the
share of land that was his upon his father’s death two years earlier to his brother
John, as well as some additional real estate. In 1803, about the same time Ohio became a
state, he moved his family to the newly formed Gallia County. His journey was a hazardous one for his pregnant
wife and ten unmarried children. From Deep
Creek, they headed northward along the Blue Ridge Mountains, passed close to the
plantation of their cousin Henry Hoppess before crossing the gap at the present town of
Bluefield, worked their way through the mountains to the present site of Charleston, WV,
then along the Kanawha River to the Ohio River, and finally across the Ohio River by ferry
into Gallia County.
In his book “Hoppes and Related Families”, Ed Hoppes pondered about the reason that the 55-year-old George Hoppes would make such a strenuous and risky move:
Those familiar with the landscape and soil conditions would wonder why George Hoppes, Jr. would move from Surry Co., N. C. to Gallia Co., O. It seems that the land in N. C. is much better than that found in Gallia Co. and, of course, in these early times the cultivating of the soil was the prime concern of these settlers. Much of the land in Gallia Co. is either hilly or marshy and soggy, and in the hills there is much shale rock. This is especially true in the area where George, Jr. settled. My mother would probably have described this place as “Godforsaken”.
To me, the lure of the landscape had little to do with George Hoppes’ decision to move. Although George Hoppes could have spent the rest of his days living among his relatives and friends along Deep Creek, what about his eleven children? The oldest, Anne born March 22, 1779, already was married, and some of the others probably would marry soon, too. His oldest son John had fallen in love with young Nancy Ann Brown, a Quaker lass who attended the nearby meeting house. Unless he moved soon, his family would begin to splinter rapidly. Moreover, George and Elizabeth (Miller) Hoppes found themselves in a box. The land to the west, where George’s brother Daniel had resettled, was full of mountains and more dead ends. To the south lay a different climate, language, and culture. The land to the east and northeast was rapidly filling up with the children of long-time settlers and new arrivals. With the opening of Ohio for settlement, however, a move there seemed to afford George and Elizabeth Hoppes a way of keeping their family together and affording their children a chance for future expansion into farming areas in the heartlands of the Northwest. Although George Hoppes found the land in Gallia County adequate for his new home, his oldest son John roamed northwestward after helping his parents get settled. In 1806, John returned to Deep Creek, NC, married his sweetheart Nancy Brown, and began a new life in what would become Fayette County, OH in 1810. George Hoppes, himself, died in Gallia County in 1812, having opened up new vistas for his offspring.
#8. Jacob Happes from the Penn Township, Northampton Co. to Luzerne Co.,PA (1816)
After Jacob Hoppes returned to Pennsylvania from his trip to North Carolina with his brother Adam, he resided in Penn Township for the next 25 years. Shortly after Union Township of Luzerne County, PA was established in 1813, a number of German-speaking families from old Northampton County decided to move there. Among Jacob Hoppes’ friends and/or relatives who established a German settlement in the hills above the Susquehanna River were members of the following families: Hartman, Baer, Masters, Sorber, and Adelman. When Jacob Hoppes moved there in 1816, he was attracted by the abundance of relatively cheap, productive farmland and the prospect of retaining his German heritage. Moreover, his wife Mary, whose surname presently is unknown, may have been related to these new settlers of Union Township. A post Civil War atlas of Luzerne County shows two sons of 243 John Hoppes, namely 2432 Peter and 2433 Jacob Hobbes, residing in Union Township southwest of Muhlenburg Post Office.
#9. Daniel Happes from the Fayette County, OH to Madison County IN (1832)
112 Daniel Hoppes made one of the most celebrated moves in Hoppes family history when he moved his family from Fayette County, OH to Madison County, IN in 1832. His journey is vividly described in Lester Hoppes’ 1925 book in the following words:Daniel Hoppes, being possessed with the pioneering spirit, prevalent in the family, fell in with the tide of emigration in the year 1840, and with at least the major part of his family, migrated from the scenes of his 40 or more years activity in Ohio to the new state of Indiana. The family traveling accommodations consisted of an old time schooner-bodied, wide-tread, lynchpin wagon, containing the family and all their worldly possessions. As a pioneer Daniel practically blazed his own trail down the Ohio river to the Indiana line, thence taking a Northwestwardly direction he halted in central Indiana, which is now Madison County. The journey of about 350 miles through a wilderness with only sparse settlements here and there was no doubt fraught with many hardships and dangers as the trail led through the hilly country along the Ohio, through swamps and dense forests . . . . in Indiana, Daniel with his family settled on a piece of timber land, and at once began his “clearing” preparatory to building a house and planting his crops. He built a typical log house common to that day and was soon at home . . .
On October 18, 2002, I received a letter from David Hoppes, one of 112 Daniel Hoppes’ descendants, raising the issues of how and why Daniel had moved to Madison County, IN. David questioned the published route, pointing out that it appeared silly to head south to the Ohio River, then along it for a relatively short distance, then north again into Indiana when there were much more direct routes available from Fayette County, OH by heading west/northwest. I must admit that I never had questioned the Lester Hoppes account but, upon reflection, I tend to agree with David that it doesn’t make much sense to me, either. By 1829, three years before Daniel Hoppes began his journey, the National Road (now US Route #40) had been completed across Wayne County, IN. The town of Centerville, IN in Wayne County was the first stopping off point after leaving Ohio, as the following information indicates: The National Road was the western immigration trail. As many as 200 wagons a day passed through Centerville from the 1820's through the 45 years of the Gold Rush and Civil War eras.
David Hoppes had another stroke of genius. While researching the “Indian murders and the first and only execution of three white men for those murders in Madison County, IN in 1824 – 1825”, he discovered that one of the trial lawyers staying in or near Pendleton, Madison County wrote the following about his trip to the trials: “before dark I was in lively conversation with the other lawyers, before the large log fire at the hotel of Mr. Long”. David asked me to help him “find out if this Mr. Long is a descendant of George, Sr.’s stepsons”. At first, I was dubious that this member of the relatively numerous Long family could be related to Daniel Hoppes. After rereading Jasper Long’s book “Long Family Records” published in 1965 at Yadkinville, NC, however, it was apparent that two sons of Frederick Long (namely Frederick and Henry) moved to Indiana around 1806 – 1811. It still is not clear whether Frederick operated a hotel in Madison County, IN, but the other son Henry lived in Wayne County, IN for many years. Therefore, it is entirely possible that one of the factors that led Daniel Hoppes to move his family to central Indiana is that one or more of his cousins were well established there.
#10. Henry Happes from Madison County, IN to Nebraska (c1852)
In my opinion, the honor of being the greatest Hoppes pioneer in the United States belongs to 114 Henry Hoppes born December 15, 1799 along Deep Creek, Surry County, NC. As a four-year-old, he traveled with his parents to Gallia County, OH. His first six children were born in Meigs and Fayette Counties, OH before he joined his older brother Daniel in Madison County, IN in the late 1830’s. In the early 1850’s, he reconnoitered lands to the west. Lester Hoppes mentions his stay in Madison County, IN, (where Henry’s wife Elizabeth Aleshire had four more children), but goes on to state:
For a time Henry resided there, but the pioneering spirit he possessed caused him to migrate on westward some years before the Civil War and he resided for a time in Iowa, returning to Ind. soon after the close of the war and we presume he died there. The writer remembers hearing John Swearingen, previously referred to and who was a grand - nephew of Henry’s, tell something of the trip to Iowa which he, as a lad, made with his great uncle. They left their home in Madison Co. in a covered wagon for the Great West and traveled through the timber of Ind. and Ill., finally reaching the Mississippi River near Keokuk, Ia., where they crossed the river on a ferry. For several days before coming to the river, they had been hearing of the Great Prairies of Iowa and they were quite anxious to push on and feast their eyes on the prairie country as it had been described to them. They had always lived in a timbered country where, at most, a few acres of prairie was a novelty, and a much coveted piece of ground. After crossing the big river and driving a few miles they indeed came to the “Great Prairie” as in the colloquial dialect of Swearingen it was termed. He said they could look as far as the eye could see and there was not a tree to obstruct their view - just a broad level expanse of prairie land, which to these back - woodsmen was an awe inspiring sight.
Actually it was Nebraska, not Iowa, where Henry Hoppes and his sons made their new home. They are enumerated in the Nebraska Territory Censuses of 1855 and 1856 in Richardson County. The Richardson County, NE Territorial Census of 1856, for example, contains the following four Hoppis entries:
MALES: FEMALES:
HOPPIS BORN OCCUP. <16 16 up <21 21 up <16 16 up <21 21 upHenry NC farmer 2 ----- ----- 2 2 2 ----- -----
Elias OH farmer 2 ----- ----- 1 2 1 ----- -----
Jo--- OH farmer 3 ----- ----- 1 2 1 ----- -----
Josiah OH farmer ----- ----- ----- 1 2 1 ----- -----
After his son Joel was killed in the Civil War, Henry Hoppes returned to Madison Co., IN with Joel’s widow Sarah and started a new family there after his first wife Elizabeth’s death.
Out of State Moves by Grandsons and Great Grandsons
Interstate relocations by the grandsons and great grandsons of the brothers 1. Georg Happes and 2. Michael Happes are tabulated below:
INTERSTATE
MOVES BY HAPPES GRANDSONS & GREAT GRANDSONS HOPPES/HOPPERS
MOVE FROM
TO
COMMENTS
111.
John (1782 - 1857)
1803 Surry
County, NC
Fayette County, OH
With new wife 1112.
John (1815 – 1892
1842 Fayette
Co., OH
Jay County, IN
1116.
Henry (1831 – 1915)
1850 Fayette
Co., OH
Sacramento Co., CA
49er; returns home 112.
Daniel (1784 – 1855)
1803 Surry
County, NC
Gallia County, OH
Then Fayette & Madison 1121.
Samuel (1808 – c1868)
1832 Fayette
Co., OH
Madison Co., IN
With parents 1122.
Isaac (1810 – 1890)
1832 Fayette
Co., OH
Madison Co., IN
With parents 1123.
Alfred (1812 – 1892)
1832 Fayette
Co., OH
Madison Co., IN
With parents 1124.
Daniel (c1817 – 1870)
1832 Fayette
Co., OH
Madison Co., IN
With parents 1125.
Andrew J. (1827 – 1877)
1832 Fayette
Co., OH
Madison Co., IN
With parents 11D.
Hannah (1793 - >1850)
1803 Surry
County, NC
Gallia County, OH
Then Franklin Co., IN 11D1.
William (c1809 – c1848)
1831 OH
Franklin Co., IN
With wife’s parents 114.
Henry (1799 - > 1870)
1803 Surry
County, NC
Gallia County, OH
Then Fayette, Madison, etc. 1141. Elias (c1824 - >1870)
c1837 Fayette Co., OH Madison Co., IN
Richardson Co., NE by 1855 1142. Joel (c1826 – 1863)
c1837 Fayette
Co., OH Madison Co., IN
Richardson Co., NE by 1855 1143. Josiah (c1828 – 1899)
c1837 Fayette Co., OH Madison Co., IN
Richardson Co., NE by 1855 1144. Jackson (c1831 - >1870)
c1837 Fayette
Co., OH Madison Co., IN
Richardson Co., NE by 1855 1145.
Henry (1844 – 1904)
c1837 Fayette
Co., OH
Madison Co., IN
Richardson Co., NE by 1855 1146.
Ephraim H. (1845 – 1916)
c1837 Fayette
Co., OH
Madison Co., IN
Richardson Co., NE by 1855 115.
Jacob (1804 – 1877)
c1820 Gallia
Co., OH
Fayette Co., OH
Then Randolph Co., IN 1151.
Isaac (c1827 - ?)
c1843 Fayette
Co., OH
Randolph Co., IN
Close to Jay Co., IN 1152.
James (c1831 – 1864)
c1843 Fayette
Co., OH
Randolph Co., IN
Then Jay Co., IN 121.
George (1791 - >1842)
c1818 Surry Co.,
NC
Madison Co., TN
With wife’s family 1212.
John (c1819 - >1860)
c1843 Madison
Co., TN
Marshall Co., MS
South of Madison Co., TN 1216.
Samuel (c1834 – 1863)
c1855 Madison
Co., TN
Paris, Lamar Co., TX
Later to IL with Rex family 123.
Edward (1795 - >1850)
c1838 Surry Co.,
NC
Habersham Co., GA
Worked as miner in GA 1231.
______ (c1820 - <1850)
c1838 Surry
Co., NC
Habersham Co., GA
With wife Matilda 1232.
Charles (c1827 - >1850)
c1838 Surry
Co., NC
Habersham Co., GA
With parents 1233.
Pinkney (c1829 - >1850)
c1838 Surry
Co., NC
Habersham Co., GA
With parents 211.
Jacob (1779 – 1844) 2111.
Michael (c1800 – 1896)
c1831 Schuylkill
Co., PA
Seneca County, OH
With other German families 212.
Michael (1781 – 1857) 2123.
Nathan (c1821 – 1892)
1863-7 Schuylkill
Co., PA
Marshall Co., IN
To Zehner family 2124.
Joseph (c1821 – 1861)
c1860 Schuylkill
Co., PA
Marshall Co., IN
Had tuberculosis 213.
Daniel (1784 - 1822)
c1815 Schuylkill
Co., PA
Fairfield Co., OH
With brother in law 2133.
Christian (1811 - 1893)
1842-3 Fairfield
Co., OH
Kosciusko Co., IN
With brother 2135.
Solomon (1816 - 1900)
1842-3 Seneca Co.,
OH
Kosciusko Co., IN
With brother 216.
John (1799 - C1880)
c1838 Schuylkill
Co., PA
Boone Co., IL
In Clayton Co., IA by 1850 2161.
Jesse (1819 – 1913)
c1838 Schuylkill
Co., PA
Boone Co., IL
Clayton, IA �Otter
Tail, MN 2162.
John (1821 – 1912)
c1838 Schuylkill
Co., PA
Boone Co., IL
In Clayton Co., IA by 1850 2163.
Daniel (c1825 – 1912
c1838 Schuylkill
Co., PA
Boone Co., IL
Clayton, IA �
MN & Can. 2164.
Samuel (1833 – 1924)
c1838 Schuylkill
Co., PA
Boone Co., IL
In Clayton Co., IA by 1850 2165.
David (c1836 - ?)
c1838 Schuylkill
Co., PA
Boone Co., IL
In Clayton Co., IA by 1850 233.
Jacob (c1800 – >1850)
c1833 Lincoln
Co., NC
Crittenden, Co., AR
In debt in NC 2332.
John (1833 - >1900)
c1833 Lincoln
Co., NC
Crittenden, Co., AR
With parents 235.
George (c1804 - >1850)
c1835 Western NC
Washington Co., TN
Married there 2351.
Michael (1837 – 1919)
c1853 Washington
Co., TN Madison
Co., AR
Raised by Bain family 236.
Michael (c1805 - ?)
c1848 Western NC
Knox Co., TN?
Disappears into mid-TN 241.
Jacob (c1786 – 1850) 2412.
William (1808 – 1899)
c1841 Berks
Co., PA
Stark Co., OH
With related families 2413.
Daniel (1811 – 1897)
c1841 Berks Co.,
PA
Stark Co., OH
To Kosciusko, IN by 1852 2414.
Jacob (1819 – 1897)
c1841 Berks Co.,
PA
Stark Co., OH
With related families 243.
John (1790 – 1863) 2431.
Samuel (1827 – 1898)
c1853 Luzerne
Co., PA
Mason Co., IL 252.
Henry (1798 – c1851) 2521.
John (c1829 - >1850)
1850 Wythe
Co., VA
Cape Girardeau, MO To
avoid prosecution 2522.
James (c1831 - ?)
c1858 Wythe Co.,
VA
Cass County, MO
After father’s death 2523.
Ben F. (c1835 – 1861)
<1858 Wythe
Co., VA
McLennan Co., TX
After father’s death 2524.
Thomas J. (c1838 – 1867)
<1861 Wythe
Co., VA
Jackson Co., AR
After father’s death 261.
William (c1802 - >1880)
c1831 Scioto
Co., OH
Phillips Co., AR
Then Hickory Co., MO 2616.
Thomas (c1850 - ?)
c1870 Hickory
Co., MO
Sebastian Co., AR 262.
Michael (1814 – 1887)
c1875 Scioto
Co., OH
Newton Co., AR
Moved west w/ 2nd wife 2622.
James (1838 – 1914)
c1868 Scioto
Co., OH
Stewart Co., TN
Employed by iron works 2623.
Andrew (1840 – 1907)
c1868 Scioto
Co., OH
Stewart Co., TN
Went with older brother 2624.
Parker (1854 – 1886)
c1875 Scioto
Co., OH
Newton Co., AR
Moved with parents 2625.
Fremont (1855 – 1926)
c1875 Scioto
Co., OH
Newton Co., AR
Moved with parents 2626.
Edmond (1862 - >1900)
c1875 Scioto
Co., OH
Newton Co., AR
Moved with parents 2627.
Scott (1866 – 1931)
c1875 Scioto
Co., OH
Newton Co., AR
Moved with parents 2628.
Michael (1868 – 1951)
c1875 Scioto
Co., OH
Newton Co., AR
Moved with parents |
By: Harry Hoppes October 30, 2002