Eight New Lines

EIGHT NEW LINES



The penultimate paragraph of Swiss Roots begins by stating: "Two brothers, Georg and Michael Happes, arrived in Colonial America in the early 1750's. Half a century later both were dead, but eight of their sons had established their own families in the New Land". The concluding paragraph bids the reader farewell with the German parting: "Auf Wiedersehen!", which literally means, "Until we see each other again!" With this essay on Georg's three sons (George, John, and Daniel) and Michael's five sons (Michael, Adam, Jacob, Henry, and John), I believe that this time has finally arrived.

Most family research (and the much more challenging genealogical research where the female lines are documented, as well) begins with the more recent generations and works its way back in time as far as one is able to go. My research, conducted with the able assistance of my German-speaking wife, Friederike (Riki), on the other hand, literally began in the middle when we lived in Germany from 1969 - 1973; we worked our way backward into Switzerland and forward into the United States. Fortunately, both Georg and Michael Happes left wills that listed their children, so we were able to make a solid connection to them once we found those two wills. The entire text of both wills is published in "Swiss Roots", and Ed Hoppes reproduced Georg's will in his book "Hoppes and Related Families", so I won't include those two documents in this essay. What I will attempt to provide, however, is an introduction to each of these eight new Hoppes lines. This not only will acquaint readers with the basic characters involved, who in many ways affected the fortune of hundreds of Hoppeses to come, but also will point out areas where additional information is required to complete the early history of these new Hoppes lines.

But first, allow me to digress briefly. It is important to recognize that Georg Hoppes really had two families: the one he acquired when he married Catherine Lang nee Kern, widow of Schoenau's master locksmith Heinrich Lang, and the second that he and Catherine had together. Georg's stepchildren were Joh. Georg Lang born August 1, 1738, Anna Barbara Lang born March 13, 1740, and Joh. Friederich Lang born June 25, 1741. (These births were recorded in the Reformed Churchbook, Schoenau.) All three of Georg's stepchildren and the three he and Catherine had together lived relatively close to each other in the Deep Creek area of Surry County, North Carolina. The common tie between the two families, of course, was Georg's wife Catherine, referred to as "old Mother Happes" in the records of the Moravian church. In Germany, she had been raised in the Reformed Church and Georg in the Lutheran Church. In Colonial America, there was a serious shortage of Reformed and Lutheran ministers. As a result, many infant births and baptisms never were recorded in any church book. Fortunately, both of the Lang boys became friendly with the Moravian preachers operating in and around Salem (now Winston-Salem), NC. This not only resulted in the recording of the births and baptisms of Happes children on Deep Creek in Moravian records (see Swiss Roots) but also biographies or autobiographies for George Long, his wife Catherine Long nee Miller, and his brother Frederick Long, which were read at their funeral services. These biographies contain a wealth of information about the family's history and prevailing conditions of those times. Although all three biographies are reproduced in Jasper Long's book: "Long Family Records and Descendants of Henry Long", this book may not be available to many of you. Therefore, I've reproduced each of the three funeral biographies below.

CATHARINA LANG NEE MILLER (1749 - 1784)

Excerpt from the Wachovia Diary translated from German to English on February 5, 1964 by Bishop Kenneth G. Hamilton of the Moravian Church at the Department of Archives and History, Salem College, Winston-Salem, NC and reproduced in "Long Family Records and Descendants of Henry Long" by Jasper S. Long, the Clay Printing Company, Winston-Salem, NC, 1965.

Feb. 11,1784. I returned to Salem; Brother Lorenz Bagge returned from Deep Creek where on the 10th he held the funeral of Catharina Long, wife of George Long, who passed away peacefully of the 8th of this month having given birth to twins. In the connection with the funeral procession, he held an impressive address on John 6:40. (Her memoirs follow below). The twins were baptized into the death of Jesus by the names of Jacob and Sarah.

Feb. 29, 1784. The following is to be mentioned concerning the circumstances of Cath. Long, George Long's wife, who passed away peacefully Feb. 8 at Deep Creek. She was born on the 13th of July in Bucks County in Pa. and came with her parents who are still living Christian and Veronica Miller to N. C. in the year 1752. They settled on Deep Creek. In April, 1765 she married George Long, now a widower with whom she lived in a happy marriage which God blessed with 10 children, two of whom have preceded her. Together with her husband she learned to know the Brethren whose teachings concerning the grace and redemption by blood of Jesus convicted her. In her last illness in connection with the delivery of twins, she came even more fully to the recognition of her own misery and in her need she turned for the dear Savior and confessed her unfaithfulness and her sins, and the Savior gave her forgiveness and grace in his blood. Now reconciliation through Jesus became everything for her and she received glad readiness at the same time to depart to the Lord and wanted to hear of nothing else. Her mouth was full of it and her admonition to those present that should hear it this time, should endeavor to become certain of this salvation, were touching. She took a tender farewell from her children, put her home in order, and remained conscious until the blessed end which followed on Feb. 8 at the age of 35 years less five months.



GEORG LANG (1739 - 1805)

Translated from German to English on February 5, 1964 by Bishop Kenneth G. Hamilton of the Moravian Church at the Department of Archives and History, Salem College, Winston-Salem, NC and reproduced in Long Family Records and Descendants of Henry Long by Jasper S. Long, the Clay Printing Company, Winston-Salem, NC, 1965.

The married Brother George Long who peacefully fell asleep on Jan. 8, 1805 at Deep Creek was born in the year 1739 in Schoenau near Heidelberg in the Palatinate. His father Heinrich Lang who was a citizen and master locksmith there and his mother Catharina, maiden name Kern, belonged to the Reformed Church and also guided their children to it. His parents decided later to move to America and arrived with their children in Philadelphia Oct., 1751. Here when he had to work off his freight he came to decent people with whom he was able to hold out for his whole time and whom he left with a testimonial of being a quiet industrious person for Brandywine, Pa. and thereafter for the region of Lebanon. During this time he experienced repeated urgings of the spirit of God in his heart. But since he lacked clear knowledge of the gospel and since he also was often drawn back again into the usual way of the world nothing further came of this except that outwardly he wished to remain with his Church in which he also was confirmed in order to partake of the communion.

In the year 1763 he moved to North Carolina, came to this area and at first worked for a considerable time as a nonmember (Moravian Church) in Bethabara. He felt a special love for the Brethren but since he had no desire in his heart for salvation and since he had also almost completely forgotten the German language, having lived among English people since his childhood, he made no further acquaintance with them except that he had the impression that they were good and honest people.

Later he moved to the region of Deep Creek and bought land there and entered matrimony with his first wife, whose maiden name was Miller. At this time he began to be more concerned about his soul salvation. The Holy Ghost performed such a work of grace in him, revealing to him his lost, sinful condition, that he often wept bitterest tears. How he should find peace for his soul however remained hidden from him. He endeavored in outward matters to do everything to avoid having to reproach himself and from time to time attended the preaching services of the Baptist and those with other views and also felt frequently the grace of God laying hold upon him. However nothing permanent came of this. When the late Brother Soelle once came in the course of his journeying into that area and undertook to preach at his settlement our late brother and others also went to hear him. He had a very poor opinion as he often said of Brother Soelle and thought, as he began to speak, it was hardly worth listening to him but then suddenly he heard him describe the whole lost state of his heart and how one could come to the savior for grace and for receiving the forgiveness of sin even while being a sinner under the curse, so that he had to let his tears have free course and he developed such love for this Brother that right after the sermon he took him to his home and asked him next time to preach in his house. Here he told the said Brother his course up to the present and was given loving and truly evangelical guidance in the right way.

This then was the beginning of the services held by the Brethren in that settlement, held at first by the Brethren Soelle and Utley and thereafter by other Brethren for more than 30 years, first in German and then in English. In his house and in his brother's house and held with blessing.

Since his wife reached the certainty of her own salvation at the same time they now both arranged to honor the teaching of Jesus by their work and walk, and also to bring up their children in this way. He also was ready to testify gladly for everyone concerning the foundation of his hope and when ever the Brethren visited with them and held service he blessed them in his heart accompanying what they did with his prayer and desired with all his heart to receive more fruit from it.

In the year 1784 his dear wife passed on peacefully into eternity. Later he married a second time to a woman whose maiden name was Masters. In his first marriage he had ten children and in the last three. Three of the first and three of the last preceded him into eternity. By the oldest of them he lived to see 19 grandchildren. We can give our late Brother, despite all his shortcomings and weaknesses, the testimonial that he also lived in fellowship with the Savior and in faith in him. What we admired most in him was the faithfulness with which he sought to preserve his children from the world and to lead them to the Savior. Whenever a Brother visited his house it was always his wish to have him speak about such things thoroughly with his children, and he himself did this very often especially on Sundays and in the evening before going to rest, when he commended them in the prayer to the Savior and told them about his own conversion. He was happy and grateful that various of his children later united with the congregation and shared in the grace which belonged to it.

As for himself he was sorry that because of the distance and other reasons it did not seem possible for him to do more. In the meantime upon his repeated request and after consideration his wish was finally granted and he became a member of the Hope congregation on Aug. 26, 1802 which congregation he always attended when he visited here, On the 13th of Aug. 1803, he partook of the holy communion for the first time in a Moravian congregation, and this at Salem. A few weeks ago he journeyed with his wagon to Fayetteville and as he passed through Salem on his way back he seemed especially brisk, so that none could have anticipated that his end was near. He also had a very deeply spiritual conversation with one of the Brethren. Soon after his return home he suddenly became ill with severe nerve fever so that he was scarcely conscious and stayed in continuous slumber. On the 8th of Jan. he passed away peacefully in the 66th year of his age.



FRIEDRICH LANG (1741 - 1826)

Translated from German to English on February 5, 1964 by Bishop Kenneth G. Hamilton of the Moravian Church at the Department of Archives and History, Salem College, Winston-Salem, NC and reproduced in Long Family Records and Descendants of Henry Long by Jasper S. Long, the Clay Printing Company, Winston-Salem, NC, 1965.

 

I was born on the 25th of June, 1741, at Schonau (Schoe) near Heidelberg in the Palatinate. My father died when I was so young that I cannot remember him. And my mother was married again to George Happus. In the year, 1751, they immigrated with us children to Pennsylvania where we arrived in Phil. in the autumn after a hard and sickly sea journey. Since we could not pay for our freight we children had to serve with strangers until it was paid. I was bound to a Quaker, Richard Duton, in Chester County, whom I served 10 � years. I was of a frivolous nature and if my master had not strictly insisted upon my obeying him, I would have liked to have joined wild and dissipated company; but in this way for the time being sin was suppressed in me.

When I still had 15 months to serve I bought myself free from my master. I had to pay him 16 pounds and also lost in this way all that I would have otherwise received in spite of the fact that he had had to pay only 10 pounds 10 shillings for me. With God's help in my work I succeeded so well that after only 11 months I was free of debt. Now that I was free my corrupted nature got the upper hand; and although I did not curse or play cards yet the lust of the flesh and the love of the world drew me into its assemblies and its accesses.

Since I had been baptized in the Reformed Church and my mother also belonged to it she urged me to take the communion in it; I however could not decide to do this because I was afraid to partake of it unworthily in view of what I had heard and read about this. But since my mother represented to me that it was customary in her church for everyone to become a communicant at a certain age, I allowed myself to be persuaded and partook of it several times. Since I had almost forgotten my German tongue, I had little benefit from the instruction which was given us only on this occasion. In the time that followed I often felt uneasiness in my conscious since I might have partaken of it unworthily; never the least the grace of the Lord comforted me about this.

In the 1765, in Lancaster County I married my wife, Sarah Gross, and in the following year we moved to N. C. where I settled in Yadkin County on Deep Creek. Our marriage was blessed with 11 children.

In the year 1772 it pleased God to convict me of my unhappy situation and to awaken me through His Gospel. The occasion for this was a log rolling. One of our company announced that on the next Sunday he would preach in my brother's house. I resolved at once also to attend it, mostly however out of curiosity to hear what a log roller would be able to do by way of a sermon. But during his address I was so convinced of my lost condition that I had to leave to cry to the Lord for mercy and was unable to admire his patience sufficiently with which he had borne so long with me in my unworthiness.

Now I wanted to improve my life and to make good with God for the lost time; but when I tried to do this with my own strength I soon found that I was insufficient for this. I did not have rest day or night and spent my nights sleeplessly, constantly requesting God to accept me in His mercy. I went so far in my own effort as to spend three days and three nights fasting in the woods, thinking that thus I would be able to turn the wrath of God away from me. I spent some time in this way but was neither quieted nor comforted. In addition, various unhappy circumstances occurred in my family so that I became sick of grief and had to keep my bed and would have wished to have died if I had known my heart could be right with God, but the way to attain this was still hidden from me. But once as I lay sleepless and with great restless thought about my soul salvation, it seemed to me as though someone stood near my bed and said to me ''be quiet''. When I arose and saw no one, I accepted this as a word from the Lord because in that moment I was able to believe that the righteousness of Christ had been imputed to me; and I also felt its peace.

When the late Brother Soelle undertook to preach at his settlement, (George Lang) and others also went to hear him. He had a very poor opinion, as he often said, of Brother Soelle and thought as he began to speak that it was hardly worth listening to him, but then suddenly he heard him describe the whole lost state of his heart and how one could come to the Savior for grace and for receiving the forgiveness of sin even while being a sinner under the curse, so that he had to let his tears have free course, and he developed such love for this Brother that right after the sermon he took him to his home and asked him next time to preach in his house. Here he told the said Brother his course up to the present and was given loving and truly evangelical guidance in the right way. This then was the beginning of the services held by the Brethren in that settlement, held at first by the Brother Soelle and Brother Utley and thereafter by other Brethren for more than thirty years, first in German and then in English; in his house and in his brother's house, and held with blessing.

In addition to the above autobiographical statement, the following biographical passages were read at his funeral ceremony.

Soon after this, he became acquainted with the Brother; the late Brother Soelle was the first who preached in this area and in his own house. Through conversations with him, since he also accompanied him often on his journeys and through his preaching, he became more and more convinced that only as a sinner saved by grace could he share in the complete redemptive sacrifice of Jesus and thus have permanent fruit in his heart.

Now he desired that everyone might also enjoy this in this way. Preaching services were held by the Brethren several times a year in his and his Brother George's house, and when he built a new house for himself the upper story was arranged entirely as a meeting hall. In it the Brethren preached the gospel with blessing for some 30 years, not only the current minister at Hope but also those from Salem and Bethabara. At times it seemed that a Moravian congregation might be gathered there; however constant difficulties stood in the way of this; because nothing developed regarding this and because preaching was also now conducted in this area by persons of other views and the Brethren were often prevented from going there, the conference in Salem proposed to him and to his brother, since nothing had come of the idea of creating a Moravian congregation there, for them to join one of the country congregations in Wachovia, since thus they could also share in the enjoyment of the holy communion, for which they had often had a desire. They accepted this proposal even though for some years afterward occasional sermons were held by the Brethren there.

It was proposed that they join the congregation in Hope, not only because it lay closest to them but also because of the English language which had become most customary to them. Our late Brother was received in Hope with his wife as members of the congregation of Aug. 26, 1802 and on the 14th of May in the following year partook of the holy communion. As often as he was able to do so he attended services there as did a number of his children who were married within the congregation at Friedberg. While visiting there in the year 1810 on Dec. 12, his wife passed on peacefully into eternity.

After his wife's homegoing increasing weakness of age and other circumstances prevented him from regularly benefitting from the services at Hope. Furthermore, because of the distance at which he lived and other difficulties he could be visited only occasionally.

For a long time he stayed with his daughter Sarah, the widowed Sister Spach and her family as though he were on a visit, this for the sake of the care and attention she could give. There he ended his long pilgrimage on Sept. 12, 1826, aged 85 years 2 months and 19 days.

On various visits made by ministers from here and in suitable conversations which he had requested, he received truth and joy and blessings, especially when he spoke frankly about his whole life and his early youth and the circumstances that had happened to him then, this with rare cheerfulness and extraordinary exactness. His only comfort was the Savior of sinners whose redemptive death and all-sufficient sacrifice he had accepted in faith, which now has been transformed into sight in eternal glory. We are glad that this tired wanderer has found this eternal rest. He had 11 children and lived to see 80 grandchildren and 45 great grandchildren.

******************************************************************************

Georg Happes' oldest son Georg Heinrich (1747 - 1812) was born just south of Schoenau on his grandfather Heinrich Kern's farm, known as "the Linnebach", October 23, 1747 and was baptized two days later (Source: Reformed Churchbook Schoenau). At the age of three in the company of his parents, the Lang children, his uncle Michael's family, and other relatives, he left the Linnebach for the New Land. It was a miserable journey that wasn't made any better upon their arrival in Philadelphia where his family was split up because they had no money to pay for their passage. By the time his parents had completed their servitude in Pennsylvania, he already was a teenager. At the encouragement of his two stepbrothers, young George's entire family moved to western North Carolina in the mid-1760s. It was an exciting journey, one that opened young George's eyes to sights he had heard about but had never seen in his teenage years of domestic life and apprenticeship as a blacksmith. George's father decided to make their home in "Miller's Settlement" on Deep Creek, Surry County. At first, young George wasn't sure that this was such a good idea because Christian Miller was a rough, tough, German-speaking fellow who initially scared him. All that changed rapidly, however, when George became attracted to young Elizabeth Miller, and George's kid sister Barbara fell in love with Jacob Miller. Because George was five years older than his next brother John, he spent considerable time helping his father and mother set up their new home. Still, he found plenty of time for his blacksmith activities. He and Elizabeth Miller were married as the turmoil concerning the American Revolution continued to mount. Their first child, Anne, was born in March 1779 but not baptized for over a year because of the shortage of ordained ministers in the area. Their next child John was born in July 1782 after a semblance of order had returned to frontier North Carolina. Because many of the German families along Deep Creek had sided with the Tories during the War, the area was generally depressed with considerable hatred everywhere. As George's family continued to grow, his father acquired land on the North Fork of Deep Creek close to the Quaker Meetinghouse there. Eventually, however, his parents decided to return to the area of Miller's Settlement on the South Fork of Deep Creek, and they obtained a land grant for 640 acres in 1787 to establish a new farm for themselves and Daniel Hoppes, while George, John, and Barbara (now married to Jacob Miller) continued to reside on the Hoppes land on the North Fork. Georg Happes' will of 1790 left the property on the North Fork to George and his brother John, and the 640 acres to Daniel Hoppes. Ten years later, old Georg Happes died and his estate was divided according to his will. By this time, George was in his early fifties and strongly attracted by the lure of frontier Ohio. Toward the end of 1802, he 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, he and Elizabeth with their 11 children arrived in Ohio to begin a pioneer life of adventure, financed by his recent land sales. The rest is history, beautifully documented by Ed Hoppes of Springfield, Ohio in his 1982 book "Hoppes and Related Families".

In marked contrast to George Hoppes, his younger brother John (C1754 - C1826) was a model of stability and conservatism. Less adventurous and outgoing than George, John was the most dependable of the three Hoppes boys, his younger brother Daniel being something of a wheeler-dealer. John was content to remain at home while his brother Dan roamed the hills of western North Carolina and his older brother George dreamed about a new life in frontier Ohio. John married Betsy Clanton, daughter of Benjamin Clanton, about the time of Lord Cornwallis' surrender. Their first child Catharine was born in January 1784, followed by Sarah a year and a half later. Eventually, John and Betsy had seven children, the only one of the three Hoppes families to have all of their offspring baptized by Moravian ministers. Two of their three boys, George born in February 1791 and Edward born in October 1795, reached manhood, but unfortunately Benjamin born in March 1794 did not.

As John grew older, he demonstrated his civic responsibility on a variety of occasions, serving on Surry County juries in 1792, 1797, 1799, and 1816, assuming the guardianship of a minor, giving bond in 1810 for the administration of Benjamin Clanton's estate and serving as an administrator until the estate was finally settled in 1813, and assisting John Long in legal matters concerning his father Friedrich Long, who as early as 1811 had unfortunately been found by the Surry County court to be "an aged & infirm man in a state of lunacy & insanity not capable of transacting his business". John Hoppes, himself, died in 1826 with the Surry County Court ordering on February 13, 1827 that Betsy Hoppes, his widow, be given a year's subsistence while his estate was being handled by court-appointed administrators. She was allowed "one cow and calf worth ten dollars and four dollars worth of bacon" and an additional $28 out of the estate "for want of other provision". Earlier in 1810, when her father's estate was being administered, her mother Elizabeth Clanton had been allotted "300 weight of pork, 40 bushels of corn, 5 bushels of wheat, 25 pounds of sugar, 10 pounds of coffee, and one red cow with calf". After their father's death, George and Edward Hoppes decided to leave Deep Creek. The money they received from their father's estate barely covered their debts at the time. In 1829, Edward sold real estate to satisfy a claim by Morgan Hudspeth and had a few dollars left over from the transaction. He and apparently his brother George, as well, moved south along the Blue Ridge to Habersham County, Georgia, where they were living when the Federal Census of 1830 was taken. Unfortunately, George and his wife Mary Dillard, whom he had married in 1814, were none too happy with prospects there and moved westward across the Blue Ridge to Madison County, Tennessee, where Mary's father John Dillard already was residing. (When Mary's father John made out his will in May 1829 in Madison County, Tennessee, his granddaughter Nancy Hoppers was helping to care for him.) There George and Mary Hoppes raised a dozen children including seven boys. Some of their sons moved south or southwestward with John A. Hoppers residing across the Tennessee border in Marshall County, Mississippi for a time and his younger brother Samuel C. traveling to Texas, where he found a bride who unfortunately soon became a widow when he died from disease contracted during the Civil War. George's brother Edward remained in Georgia, laboring as a miner in that part of Habersham County that became Lumpkin County in 1832. In September 1850, he was entered on the Census rolls in Lumpkin County as being 55 years of age and his wife Sally as 50 years of age. They still had six of their children living with them, two boys in their early twenties and four girls age 10 to 18. Apparently their oldest son born about 1820 had married and died about ten years earlier because the 1850 Census also included a Habersham County widow Matilda Hoppers, age 30, with a 12-year old son.

Of all the sons of Georg and Michael Happes who arrived in America in 1751, by far the biggest landholder was Georg's youngest son Daniel (1757 - 1816). Although Georg willed him his 640 acres on the South Fork of Deep Creek, Daniel had far more ambitious ideas. Even before his father's death in 1800, he moved his young family into the mountains of North Carolina's Blue Ridge where a vast wilderness lay available for the taking. And take it, Daniel did indeed, virtually up until the time he died. Moving as far west as Peach Bottom mountain near the present town of Whitehead, NC, Daniel acquired over two thousand acres through land grants alone. He knew the entire countryside that later became Alleghany County as if he had lived there all his life and, on occasion, served as a guide for Moravian ministers on their rugged climb beginning at Elk Spur, 18 miles from his home, into the mountains beyond. A list of Daniel Hoppes' transactions with the State land grant office is summarized below:

DANIEL HOPPES' LAND GRANT TRANSACTIONS

BOOK/ GRANT

 

FILE # GRANT PAGE DATE ACRES COUNTY

F1306 1466 27DEC1797 150 WILKES

F1308 1468 27DEC1797 200 WILKES

F1351 1513 27DEC1797 560 WILKES

F1971 2166 2JAN1801 100 WILKES

F1973 2168 2JAN1801 100 WILKES

F1974 2169 2JAN1801 100 WILKES

F389 382 118 / 4 29NOV1803 110 ASHE

F390 383 118 / 4 29NOV1803 100 ASHE

F391 384 118 / 5 29NOV1803 24 ASHE

F481 475 118 / 408 17NOV1804 80 ASHE

F482 476 118 / 408 17NOV1804 70 ASHE

F586 578 121 / 13 30NOV1805 100 ASHE

F728 631 123 / 373 15DEC1808 150 ASHE

F733 636 123 / 375 15DEC1808 300 ASHE

F794 670 125/ 46 6DEC1809 120 ASHE

F909 800 127/ 521 24NOV1813 25 ASHE

F910 801 127/ 521 24NOV1813 50 ASHE

F971 860 128/ 494 7DEC1814 200 ASHE

F1003 892 129/ 445 30NOV1815 100 ASHE

2639

Eventually part of Peach Bottom Mountain became known as "Daniel Hoppers' Knob", and later simply as "Daniel Hoppers' Mountain". Years after he died in 1816 and was buried in one of his fields nearby, he would be remembered as the owner of much of that Mountain. His will, probated that same year, mentions his most prized possessions: his blacksmith tools, mill, orchard, and still. Unfortunately, his descendants became attached to the life style and land he left them, with little incentive to abandon their place of comfort and desolate beauty. Some moved up in stature, becoming local Baptist ministers. Others sank in the opposite direction, having numerous illegitimate children and being banned from Baptist fellowship for living in adultery. By far the greatest influence on their lives, however, was the Civil War. Few Hoppers families escaped unscathed, with several becoming so fragmented that they virtually disappeared. In spite of Daniel's entrepreneurship, many of his descendants simply were trapped in an environment that offered them few opportunities for future growth.

Most of the individuals in the United States today who bear the surname Hoppes or one of its variations are descended from either of two first cousins: Georg's oldest son George (1747 - 1812) or Michael's oldest son Michael (1753 - 1833). In fact, these two first-born sons account for well over half of the total Hoppeses today. Both boys were adventurous, yet modest; both sacrificed personal gain for the future benefit of their children and grandchildren. Young Michael grew up on the northeastern frontier of Pennsylvania during an exciting time when each new day brought some new adventure. The French and Indian War (1755 - 1763) set the stage for his period of apprenticeship in Berks County (1764 - 1767), family support during their venture into the wilderness behind the Blue Mountain (1768 - 1773), rising tensions with their neighbors many of whom were well known Tories (1774 - 1777), and military service as a private in the Northampton County militia (1777 - 1785). Young Michael's adventures as a soldier of the Revolution actually began when he was drafted in late December 1776 as one of 32 militia men from Penn Township and was marched toward Philadelphia on January 4, 1776. Their initial enthusiasm suddenly vanished after receiving marching orders to leave Philadelphia and join Washington's main army, which was heavily engaged in New Jersey at the time. On January 10, 1777, many of the men deserted and returned home to Penn Township. Within a week order was restored, and Michael's unit was marched through the County seat at East Town (Easton) to Washington's main camp at Trenton, New Jersey, where Michael and his comrades served as guards for prisoners of war including the Hessians captured on Christmas Day, 1776. His unit was discharged at Trenton in March 1777, and the men promptly departed for home. By this time Michael, unlike many of his neighbors along the Lizard Creek in Penn Township, was committed to the revolutionary cause. His father journeyed to Easton on August 7, 1777, to take the "Oath or Affirmation of Allegiance & Fidelity to the State of Pennsylvania"while young Michael took care of the family, and then on August 28 Michael visited Easton to take the oath, too. His capture by some of Tarleton's dreaded 17th Dragoons at the North Wales Meetinghouse outside Philadelphia on April 26, 1778; imprisonment in the New Jail across the street from the State House (now Independence Hall) in Philadelphia; sickening journey to New York City aboard a prison ship; imprisonment there in the Liberty Street sugar warehouse; and subsequent release in fall 1778 during a prisoner-of-war exchange were stories told over and over in his family circle and around neighborhood blockhouses where he served guarding the frontier from Indian attack. Somehow and somewhere during all this chaos, Michael met, fell in love with, and married Catherine Haar, whose surname (also spelled Heer) incredibly means "Army" in German. Eventually, Michael would be remembered for his faithful service and adventures during the Revolutionary War. His memoirs were clearly engraved onto his remarkable tombstone:

Gedenken In memory

an einen of a

guten Kampfer good soldier

in der in the

Revolution von Revolution of

America 1776 America 1776

Hier Ruhet Here rests

Johann Michael John Michael

Habbes Hoppes

Er war geboren den 12 Tag He was born the 12th day

Januar Anno Domene of January AD

1753 1753

Starb den 30 Tag July Died the 30th day of July

1833 1833

Alt wurden 80 Yahr 6 monat Age: 80 years, 6 months

18 Tag 18 days

Text: II Tim. 4 : 7 Text: 2 Timothy, Ch. 4, v. 7

Even before his death in 1833, several of Michael's ten children had begun to move westward into Ohio. The ultimate residences of his grown sons and grandsons are indicated below:

1. Jacob Hoppes (1779 - 1844): Stayed in West Penn Twp., Schuylkill Co., PA

2. Michael Hoppes (1781 - 1857): Stayed in West Penn Twp., Schuylkill Co., PA

3. Daniel Hoppes (1784 - 1822): Moved to Fairfield, Co., OH with sister about 1815.

4. Christian Hoppes (1787 - 1856): Stayed in West Penn Twp., Schuylkill Co., PA

5. David Hoppes (1796 - 1881): Stayed in West Penn Twp., Schuylkill Co., PA

6. John Hoppes (1799 - >1860): Moved to Clayton Co., IA by 1850; there in 1860

Throughout all his years in Pennsylvania, Adam Hoppes (1760 - C1846) lived in the shadow of his older brother Michael. Initially, he was too young to serve in the Northampton County militia at the start of the Revolutionary War and by the time he reached his 18th birthday and was old enough to enlist, he was needed at home to stand in for his seven-year older brother who frequently was on duty elsewhere. He had been born on October 1, 1760 and baptized in Oley Hill Church, Berks County, Pennsylvania on October 19, 1760. During his teens and early twenties, he heard plenty of tales about wild events taking place around him and even had the chance to be close to the action on several of them such as the infamous December 1776 Tory uprising conducted from William Thomas' plantation only a few farms away on the Lizard Creek and the September 1781 retreat of an Indian raiding party that passed within a stone's throw of his home. Neighborhood rumors were rampant, and a few such as the September 1778 massacre of the settlers at Wyoming exposing everyone north of the Blue Mountain to attack, the April 1780 Indian raid into the neighboring Mahoning Valley in which the entire Gilbert family was carried away into captivity in Canada, and the September 1780 rout of the local militia by a band of Indians at the Black Creek some 25 miles north of his home on the Lizard Creek proved all too true. Moreover, his brother Michael's adventures were repeated time and time again to Adam during family discussions. It was not until 1785, however, that Adam had the opportunity to serve in an actual military unit on frontier patrol duty, and by that time the threat was virtually over. Moreover, by then Adam had his own small acreage to farm, paying County taxes starting in 1784. 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 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, Adam's younger brother Jacob returned to Pennsylvania leaving Adam without family ties deep inside North Carolina. In addition to his dealings with the State land office, Adam engaged in several private real estate transactions. In June 1794, he purchased 600 acres on Rudisill's Creek near his Dellinger Creek property from Elizabeth Rhyne, recent widow of Jacob Rhyne, for 20 pounds. Five years later he got his 20 pounds back when he sold half of this acreage to Thomas Rhyne, one of Jacob and Elizabeth Rhyne's sons. About 1790 or slightly before, Adam apparently married a local girl whose name is lost to us. When the Census of 1800 was taken, he was residing in Lincoln County with a wife whose age was listed in the 26 - 45 category ( i.e., born 1755 - 1776), three boys under 10 years of age, one girl 10 - 16 years old, and one girl under 10. In the 1810 Census, Adam's wife was listed as being over 45 years old, which would indicate that she had been born prior to1765. The decade from 1810 to 1820 proved traumatic for Adam because his wife apparently died. He then remarried and moved to Burke County, North Carolina in 1816 or 1817. In the 1820 Census, he is listed there with a large family and a wife age 26 - 45 years old (i.e., born 1775 - 1794). From the Censuses of 1850 and 1860, we know that her name was Hannah and that on both occasions she indicated she had been born in 1780. In Burke County, the Hoppes family lived near Dysartsville on a branch of Muddy Creek known as Hopper's Creek. In spite of the occasional gold fever that was rampant in their vicinity, Hannah and Adam experienced difficult times. Several of their children died prematurely, and they had to struggle to make ends meet. When the Federal Congress passed legislation providing for pension benefits for Revolutionary War veterans in June 1832, Adam jumped at the opportunity to obtain a pension, even if it meant stretching the truth. After all, he certainly could recall all the war stories from his youth and had even claimed to have been a soldier of the Revolution to his Burke County neighbors. His written statement on January 28, 1833, so pathetic in hindsight, begins:

 

he was born in the State of Pennsylvania on the 3rd day of October 1753 & that he was 79 years old last October - he now has the record of his age set down in his Father's handwriting & that it is as above stated - . . . that he entered the service of the United States under the following named officers and served as herein stated. He was drafted for 3 months in Penn Township North Hampton Co. Pennsylvania . . . This was as he now believes in the year 1777 - at all events it was a few weeks before Trenton was taken when there was so many Hessians taken prisoners. We were marched on & crossed the Delaware not far from a place he thinks called East Town & were marched on to Trenton on the same day that place was taken but got there after the battle. We did not join Washington's Main Army. . . We remained not far from Trenton til there was an exchange of prisoners after which we returned home

Fortunately for Adam, the actual muster rolls that would have disproved his claims of service were in the hands of the State of Pennsylvania and, therefore, unavailable for Federal review. Adam's pension was granted on July 31, 1833 at Morganton, North Carolina at a rate of $30 per year paid retroactive to March 4, 1831. In the Census of 1840, Adam Hoppes was listed as an 86-year old veteran of the Revolutionary War. He died intestate about 1846. Land records from the sale of his real estate along Muddy Branch reveal that it was divided among ten heirs. Based on these and supplementary data, they appear to be:

 

Adam Hoppes (1790/1 - >1882): Mitchell Co., NC; served in War of 1812,

 

Samuel Hoppes (1796/7 - 1867/8): Buncombe Co., NC; wagonmaker,

 

Jacob Hoppes (1800- >1850): Crittenden, Co., AK; left NC in 1832,

 

John Hoppes (1802/3 - >1880): Mitchell Co., NC; millwright,

 

George Hoppes (1804/5 - >1850): Washington Co., TN; then Polk Co., TN,

 

Michael Hoppes ( 1805/6 - ?): last seen in Mc Dowell Co., NC re his father's estate,

 

Elvira Hoppes (1801 - ?): Buncombe Co., NC living with her husband and mother Hannah,

 

Magdalena Hoppes (unknown): married to John Parker, mentioned re her father's estate,

 

Mary Hoppes (unknown): married to Thomas Long, mentioned re her father's estate, and

 

Holley Hoppes (unknown): married George Whisenhunt who was mentioned re his wife's inheritance.

Jacob Hoppes (1764 - C1850) left his brother Adam in North Carolina after his relatively short stay there and returned to the hills of Pennsylvania and the culture he knew so well. Why he came back unlike his other brothers and sisters isn't clear, although his oldest brother Michael owed him his inheritance of 23 pounds, 4 shillings, and 3 pence as of November 27, 1790 and his mother's health had been declining for several years. Probably it was because he actually was married before he left Penn Township with Adam and already had a small son, Jacob Jr., and a wife pregnant with their second son Michael. Unlike his brother Adam, he retained his modest acreage there after his departure to North Carolina. In 1787, he was listed on the Penn Township tax rolls as owning 80 acres and two horses and in 1793 as owning 22 acres and one cow. By the Census of 1800, his Penn Township family was enumerated as having a boy age 16 or older, a boy 10 - 16 years of age, a boy under 10, and four girls under 10. On July 22, 1806, his oldest son Jacob, Jr. married Maria Reuter in a Reformed ceremony held in the Schwartzwald Church in Berks, County. Three months later, young Maria became the mother of Solomon Hoppes, Jacob Hoppes Jr.'s first son. Although the infant also was Jacob Hoppes Sr.'s first grandson, he wasn't exactly pleased that his oldest son had married hastily and outside the Lutheran faith. He also wasn't pleased that Jacob Jr. had re-crossed the Blue Mountain to live in the Oley area of Berks County. Somehow this seemed like a step backward to Jacob, Sr., because that was where the Hoppes family had come from three decades ago. By 1810, Jacob Sr. had given up all his dreams about settling on land-grant real estate in North Carolina. It was too far away and too Anglicized for his liking. The War of 1812 merely compounded his uncertainty. Although he and Jacob, Jr. had their share of differences, he couldn't help being concerned when his son entered military service. Soon after the War ended, Jacob, Sr. made a momentous decision. He would join a group of his German-speaking friends including the Bair family who planned to leave their present farms and settle north of the Susquehanna River in Luzerne County. In 1816, he began yet another new life when their mass resettlement was accomplished. Unfortunately, the severe agricultural depression of 1819, during which the price of some farm products in the United States dropped in half, clouded the future for him and many of his German-speaking friends. Impetuous to a fault, Jacob decided to take strong measures to settle any budding hard feelings among his children by distributing his estate among them while he still was firmly in control. On June 25, 1820 he and his wife entered into the following legal agreement, which transferred ownership of his real estate to his third-born son John, married to Elizabeth Bair:

 

Jacob Hoppis of Union Township Luzern County and State of Pensylvania Doth hereby grant, bargain and sell to his son John Hoppis all the farm or lot of ground whareon he the sd Jacob Hoppis now lives with the apertenances thareunto belonging free and clear for the sum of one Thousand dollars to be paid in manner as follows -- That he the sd Jno is to support the above named Jacob Hoppis and his wife Mary Hoppes in the hous they now in on sd Farm in a comfortable and decent manner during there natural lives and to have them decently inter'd at their deceas and to pay one year after their deceas to Jacob Hoppis Jr or his Heirs Eighty Seven dollars and fifty cents & two years after to pay to Michael Hoppis or his Heirs Eighty Seven dollars and fifty cents -- and Three years after their deceas to pay to Elizabeth Hagarman or her heirs the sum of Eighty Seven dollars and fifty cents -- and Four years after to pay to Catharine Shelheart or her heirs the sum of Eighty Seven dollars and fifty cents -- and Five years after their deceas to pay to Susannah Hoppis or Heirs Eighty Seven dollars and fifty cents and Six years after their deceas to pay to Mary Moore or her heirs the sum of Eighty Seven dollars and fifty cents and Seven years after their deceas to pay to Julia Hoppis Eighty Seven dollars and fifty cents -- and Eight years after their deceas to pay to George Hoppis or his heirs the sum of Eighty Seven dollars and fifty cents -- (and it is further agreed this phrase crossed out) rec'd at or before the time of signing. And the aforementioned Jacob Hoppis Junr and all concerned in the foregoing instrument are to sign a (?) to this before agreement at the time they receive their Respective sums mentioned in the foregoing article -- and in testimony of the written articles we the parties bind ourselves for the true performance each to the other in the penel sum of two Thousand Dollars good and lawful money of the State of Pennsylvania given under our hands and seals the date first above written.

Jacob Hoppes Sr.'s property division of 1820 sealed his split with his oldest son and namesake. Generations later the Hoppes families originating from Jacob Hoppes Jr. had lost their heritage and embraced the tradition that they were descended from a Hessian soldier who had stayed behind in the Colonial United States after the Revolutionary War. Moreover, the 1820 property division also drove a wedge between Jacob Sr. and his second son Michael, born about 1789. Having some of the wanderlust of his father, shortly after his family's arrival in Luzerne County Michael decided to explore the awesome Susquehanna River, floating down the east branch to Northumberland and then ascending the west branch to Muncy and perhaps even Montours. After his father's agreement of 1820, he and his bride Mary Ann Klees moved to Muncy Township, Lycoming County where they resided at the time of the 1830 Census and eventually founded the village of Hoppestown on a branch of Plunkett's Creek above Montoursville. Meanwhile, John and his younger brother George (married to Catherine Benscotter) continued to farm their lands in Union Township, Lucerne County, PA, along with their elderly father who lived to see 1850. Eventually many of John's descendants would spell their name "Hobbes" and pronounce it "Habbes", a practice that continues to the present day.

Henry Hoppess (1766 - 1838) has the dubious distinction of being the most successful of the eight sons of the original Hoppes immigrants during his lifetime and having the least successful line at the conclusion of the next generation. His story, one of "from riches to rags", is well documented in the church and court records of Wythe County, VA. Henry was intelligent, ambitious, pious, and proud, a combination of traits that is compatible with both success and ruin. He was apprenticed when only seven years of age in 1773 and still held 50 acres of land in Penn Township in 1787. 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. Shortly thereafter, Henry and Barbara joined the Evangelical Lutheran congregation on the waters of Rith (Reed) Creek, whose book of baptisms was begun in 1793. On May 15, 1796, their daughter Mary Hoppes was baptized, followed by the baptism of their son Henry Hoppes, Jr. on October 14, 1798. On May 30, 1798, Henry Hoppes Sr. was listed as being a deacon of the church. After Kimberling Church was built on land donated by Martin Kimberling in 1797, Henry and Barbara Hoppes became members there, their daughter Margaret being baptized on May 18, 1807. Henry Hoppes still attended services there as late as 1834. Henry and Barbara were unfortunate that their son Jacob apparently died at an early age as did a second son born about 1803. However, they were very proud of the accomplishments of Henry Hoppess Jr., who showed an aptitude for leadership at an early age. In 1822 at the age of 24, Henry Hoppes, Jr. became a constable in the Wythe County militia. After that his career blossomed; in rapid succession he became Deputy Sheriff of Wythe County (1823), a bailsman for court defendants (1824), a regular plaintiff in court cases(1824), a speculator in large land purchases (1825), a cornet in the Wythe County militia (1825), a bondsman in civil court actions (1825), and a payee of the Wythe County court (1826). On November 30, 1826, Henry Hoppess, Jr. married young Polly Ward, an attractive lass of non-German ancestry. As Henry Hoppess, Jr. prospered, so did his more conservative father. Gradually, the elder Hoppess improved his modest plantation tucked into the side of a hill on Rue Creek south of Wytheville until it was a well-known operation. Whenever Henry Sr. acquired more capital than he required to manage his farm, he lent it to credit-worthy individuals in need of cash or bought a slave to provide the manpower his family lacked. Word of his success spread northward to Hoppeses in Penn Township, who would remember that one of their original American ancestor's sons had "acquired a plantation and owned slaves" in Virginia. By the time Henry Hoppess, Sr. died in June 1838, however, his son Henry Jr. was in deeply in debt and involved in a dozen or more lawsuits, often on the losing side. On July 9, 1838, only two weeks after his father died, Henry Hoppes, Jr. presented a document to the Wythe County court signed by his mother Barbara Hoppess stating that she relinquished her right to the administration of her husband's estate to her son Henry, Jr. This immediately precipitated a family feud because some of Henry's sisters feared that the fox was about to enter the henhouse. On August 13, 1838, Henry's oldest sister Catharine and her husband Casper Ritter brought a suit against Henry Hoppes, Jr. to overturn his sole administration of the estate. The decision that was rendered stated in part:

 

. . . it appearing to the court that Henry Hoppess, Sr. died possessed of a large real and personal estate and that the plaintiffs and defendants constitute his widow and heirs at law, and it also appearing that a division of the slaves and also a division of the real estate is desired by all the parties interested in the said estate. It is therefore ordered, adjudged, and decreed that Daniel Brown, John Stranger, and Eli Davis be appointed commissioners to lay off & align dower to Barbara Hoppess the widow of Henry Hoppess, deceased in both the real estate and the slaves in the said estate. And it is further ordered and decreed that the said Daniel Brown, John Stranger, and Eli Davis be appointed commissioners for the purpose of making partition of the slaves and real estate of the said Henry Hoppess dec'd amongst the several heirs after having laid off the dower as aforesaid they lay off and allot to each of the heirs one equal seventh part of both the land and negroes . . .

In addition to Henry Hoppess, Jr., the remaining six heirs were his sisters Catharine married to Casper (or Gasper) Ritter, Elizabeth married to John Hedrick, Barbara married to David Cline, Mary married to David Wynn, Julia Ann married to John Bonham, and Margaret married to William Dills and later to John Johnston. Unfortunately, the money Henry Hoppess, Jr. received from his father's estate did not solve his financial difficulties, which were exacerbated by the Depression of 1837 - 1843. By the mid-1840s he was hopelessly in debt, although outwardly maintaining an air of importance and continuing to hold responsible civil positions to which he was appointed by his cronies. Meanwhile, his four sons, John P. Hoppess, James H. Hoppess, Benjamin Franklin Hoppess, and Thomas Jefferson Hoppess, were finding exciting ways to get into and out of trouble. When John P. Hoppess and his cousin Michael Cline were arrested in August 1848 for voluntary fighting, for example, John's father Henry Hoppess used his influence in court to get the case thrown out. When the Census of 1850 was taken two years later, Henry Hoppes had the opportunity to inscribe his handwriting into the public records forever as a census taker through his statement: "Free inhabitants in the 11th District in the County of Carroll, State of Virginia enumerated by me on the 9th day of July 1850 Henry Hoppess Ass't Marshall". Within several years, Henry Hoppess' financial problems ended abruptly and permanently, possibly with one quick report of his service revolver. Court records indicate that Polly Hoppess became a widow in the early 1850s and that by August 1855 the "sheriff has been unable to collect any assets, the estate being entirely insolvent". By 1860, Henry Hoppes' four sons had moved westward into Missouri, where all gave their service, blood, and some their lives to the Confederate cause. Within the short span of one generation, an entire Hoppes line had practically been destroyed. So complete was its disappearance, that family historians lacking adequate information later would conclude the following about the son of the original Hoppes immigrant who had moved to Virginia: "he acquired a valuable plantation, and owned slaves, and as far as is known remained single".

John Hoppis (1768 - 1833) was the youngest of the eight sons of Georg and Michael Happes from Schoenau bei Heidelberg, but certainly not the least significant. His family's experiences were typical of those encountered by the early pioneers who settled the heartland of America. In his youth, he accompanied his older brother Henry and his sister Catharine south along the Blue Ridge into Rowan County, North Carolina. 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 three more boys and another girl (Mary). Of the three young sons, however, only Michael born in Scioto County on the 4th of July 1814 survived his childhood. John Hoppis, himself, died in the mid-1830s, his estate being settled in September 1837.

It was divided among his seven surviving children: Elizabeth married to David Wolf, Barbara married to John Snook, William Hoppis married to Margaret Albern, Christine married to Daniel Wolford, Hannah married to Andrew Heiss, Sarah married to Hiram Sikes, Michael A. Hoppis married to Rachel Reynolds and later to Ruth Hubbard, and Mary married to Aaron Hunnel. John's wife Catharine lived a much longer life, being listed as 84 years of age in the Census of 1860 where she was enumerated as head of a household that included her youngest daughter Mary, age 42, and seven of Mary's children. After the death of John Hoppis, his oldest son William moved southward to Washington County, Tennessee and then westward to Arkansas. William's younger brother Michael stayed in Scioto County, Ohio, where he had a large family consisting of eight boys and three girls: John, James, Andrew Jackson, and Josephine by his first wife Rachael Reynolds who died in the early 1850s and Parker, Fremont, Leola, Edmond, Millie, Scott, and Michael by his second wife Ruth Hubbard. Michael led a colorful life, working as a carpenter and a steamboat pilot before moving to a farm in Mill Creek Township of Newton County, Arkansas in the early 1870s to spend his later years.

From this short essay, it is apparent that the eight second-generation Hoppes lines differed greatly in growth and prosperity in the early United States. As Swiss Roots comments: "These eight boys grew up during an era in which a mighty nation was born. All came from similar backgrounds and faced comparable challenges and opportunities. Yet some of these new lines would prosper while others did not. More than any of these eight boys ever realized, the actions they took during their lifetimes would greatly affect the welfare of their descendants for generations to come". Overall roughly of the Hoppes families in the United States today are descended from George and Michael Hoppes; � from old Michael Happes' sons Adam, Jacob, and John; and one-twelfth from old Georg Happes' sons John and Daniel. Hoppes families descended from Henry Hoppess of Wythe County, VA are an endangered species, if not already extinct!

Harry Hoppes

March 6, 2000


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