Georg Phillip Huffman, Pioneer

GEORGE HOFFMAN, pioneer and son of Hans Georg and Priscilla Hoffman, was born in the Palatinate province of Germany in 1713.
According to Pennsylvania Pioneer Records he married Catherina Rein, another Palatine.
In the spring of 1749 they gathered their brood of four children and began the hazardous journey
to America, the land of freedom.
They spent five weeks on a river boat going down the Rhine River to Rotterdam, Holland.
After waiting there for a period of twelve days, on August 12 they boarded the British Ship "Jacob", and sailed for the new World. (see also http://www.searchforancestors.com/passengerlists/jacob1749.html)
The ship dropped anchor at the English Port Cowes where it was detained for eight days, as all emigrants were there required to renounce their allegiance to their native country, swear allegiance to Great Britain, and make all other preparations for the final voyage across the Atlantic Ocean.
On October 1, the ship arrived at the Port of Philadelphia, and all emigrants were removed from the ship and taken to the Courthouse in Philadelphia. where they were required to swear allegiance to the Province of Pennsylvania.
GEORGE HOFFMAN and his family made their way to Berks County, Pennsylvania, some forty-five miles distant, where they joined their German cousins who had preceded them.
In the following spring, in 1750, they joined the German migration southward.
They stopped in Shenandoah County, Virginia, where they stayed with other German relatives until the spring of 1752.
While there, in the late fall of 1751, GEORGE'S two brothers, JOHN and CASPER HOFFMAN, arrived with their families from Germany.
In the spring of 1752 CASPER HOFFMAN and his family went back to Berks County, Pennsylvania, where they settled, while GEORGE and JOHN once more joined the German migration southward into North Carolina. They settled in the Great Alamance section which was then Orange County, but now Alamance.
In 1765 GEORGE HOFFMAN once more gathered his family and got on the move.
They followed the German, Dutch, and Scotch migration through the Yadkin River Yalley and on into the Catawba River Valley.
GEORGE and his family crossed the Catawba River and went some eight miles to the head-waters of Clark's
Creek where they settled permanently.
That location is about two miles west of the present town of Conover and was then in Mecklenburg County.
Later it was in Tryon County, but the latter being dissolved in 1779, it became Lincoln County.
In 1846 Lincoln County was divided, and that left the location of the farm in Catawba County.
There they built a house of logs felled from the forest which house served as a home for the family until 1805. Catherina Hoffman died there in 1787, and GEORGE HOFFMAN died in 1794.

I am indebted to Mr. Milton L. Herman, who lives on the old Hoffman land and remembers the story of the old Hoffman family as related to him many times, when a boy, by "Aunt Savina" Hollar, widow of Daniel Hollar of that community.
According to the story of Mr. Herman and other old residents of that community, here are some of "Aunt Savina" Hollar's recollections:

Long before the Revolutionary War an old German named George Hoffman came into the community and
settled on a tract of fine forest land. With him were his wife, Katy, three grown sons and two daughters.
The men cut trees and built a log house where the old folks lived and died.
The oldest son, Martin, was already married and soon moved a few miles farther over on Clark's Creek.
The next son, Balthazar (some called him "Azor"), married Conrad Wagoner's daughter, and they lived at the old Hoffman place, but Balthazar was killed in the prime of life while on some kind of a trip into Georgia.
The other son, Samuel, married a Moser from across the ridge in the Liles Creek section, and they moved up the river into Burke County and were never heard from again.
The two girls married and also moved to Burke.
Balthazar Hoffman left three children, the youngest one being George, who was named after his grandfather. He retained the old Hoffman place, as it was customary in those days for the youngest son to hold the parents' property when possible.
This George married Susan Houk and then began the erection of the first house built of sawed lumber in that country.
The men mounted the logs on scaffolds and sawed the lumber on the spot with an "up-and-down" saw.
The planks, about twenty inches wide, were fastened with hand-made nails of iron from an iron mine in Lincoln
County. It took five years to complete the house, and when done, it was a show-place.
"Aunt Savina" remembered playing upon the massive sills of the house while it was under construction, and the supplanting of the new house for the old log house which stood near by.
The old German, George Hoffman, had a brother who stayed down about Orange County, and another
who settled in Lincoln County.
George died the year "Aunt Savina" was born, and his wife died seven years before.

The marriage records of Lincoln County show that the young George Hoffman married Susan Houk in 1801. "Aunt Savina" Hollar was born in 1794 and died in 1888.
According to those who remember her, she was the historian of the community, and remembered all the early stories of the settlers, where they came from, when they came into the community, and when they died.
Her mental faculties were very keen, even to the last of her days, and she delighted in telling the young folk interesting stories of her early life.
She was a lovable and saintly character and her veracity cannot be questioned, according to all accounts of her.
These facts, although handed down through two generations, have been a great help to me in establishing the relationship of the three main "sets," or groups of the original Hoffman immigrants
to North Carolina. Also, they positively correspond with all immigration records; church, and courthouse records; and the story of Sophrona Hoffman Jones Page who yet lives at the age of ninetyseven and is printed under SAMUEL HOFFMAN.
The children of GEORGE HOFFMAN and Catherina Rein Hoffman:

1. MARTIN
2. BALTZAR (BALTHAZAR)
3. SAMUEL
4. CATHERINE
5. ELIZABETH

https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Hoffmans_of_North_Carolina... page 43

The Hoffmans of North Carolina, revised, 1749-1948
Frances Wellman Hoffman
Ref. 929.2 HOFFMAN
http://www.worldcat.org/title/hoffmans-of-north-carolina-revisited-...

Branching Out The Hoffman Family
Darlene Featherstone Lankford
(pb)

Our Kin, Being a History of Hoffman, Rhyne, etc.
Laban Miles Hoffman of Dallas, NC
929.92 HOFFMAN
http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=24111

The Hoffmans of North Carolina
Max Ellis Hoffman
Ref 929.7 HOF 114385
http://www.worldcat.org/title/hoffmans-of-north-carolina-a-genealog...

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/70708868/george-phillip-hoffman

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Oct 17 2022, 17:42:45 UTC

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https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/70708868/george-phillip-hoffman

George Phillip Hoffman
BIRTH
1713
Germany
DEATH
1794 (aged 80–81)
Catawba County, North Carolina, USA
BURIAL
Burial Details Unknown
MEMORIAL ID
70708868 · View Source
MEMORIAL
PHOTOS 0
FLOWERS 12
Original name was Georg Phillip. Georg was later anglicized to 'George'.

George Hoffman boarded the ship 'Jacob' on 12 August. (Capt. Adolph de Grove, Foreigners from Swabia, Wirtemberg, and Darmstadt. This ship arrived in Philadelphia on the 1st or 2nd October 1749.

Family Members
Parents
Hans George Hoffman
1689–1755

Priscilla Margaretha Fentenot Hoffman
1690–1775

Spouse
Catherina Rein Hoffman
1715–1787 (m. 1734)

Siblings
John Hoffman
1704–1780

Hans Jacob Hoffman
1716–1789

Casper Hoffman
1718–1752

Children

Martin T Huffman
1735–1822

Samuel H. Hoffman
1747–1809