My grandfather, Forrest DeHoff (1900 - 1987), wrote down some family
history about 1973-74. I thought that some on the list would appreciate
reading his comments and memories of Noble Co. This is not complete as
I am just beginning to retype it. Most of this is about Swan township.
Annette DeHoff
netandmike(a)nni.com
The Anthony DeHoff family came from Columbiana County, Ohio where Burnie
DeHoff was born - coming to Jay County, Indiana in the year 1858.
Anthony DeHoff moved his family to Swan Township, Noble County, Indiana
- the four children we know about were Burnie, Alice, Emma and Rittie.
Two children died before our time.
Burnie, our father, married Ocie Whan.
Alice married Soloman Baum.
Rittie married James Stewart.
Emma married Adam Hess.
Anthony DeHoff died in 1876 at the age of fifty-two. Grandfather DeHoff
was a charter member of the Bethlehem Lutheran Church.
It is the Burnie DeHoff family you will read about from now on. Our
history would be quite incomplete without the Strouse and Whan family.
We have practically no information about these families. They were
probably German, the name might imply. Our next chapter will deal with
the Strouse family - our great-grandparents.
Chapter Two
The Strouse family - our ancestors from mother's side of the family.
Mother was Ocie Whan, youngest daughter of William Whan who married Mary
Strouse. Other children of William Whan were Sarah Ellen Amos, Jonas,
Joseph, William J., John, Edward, Rebecca Erickson and Martha Redman
(all deceased).
Jonas Strouse whose ancestors had migrated from Germany then to the East
Central portion of Pennsylvania settling north and west of Easton close
by the Pocono Mountains. Later the Strouse family moved to the western
part of Pennsylvania. We know only of two brothers, John and Jonas.
Jonas was our great-grandfather. He was born in 1800 and died in 1900.
In 1834, John moved to Ohio. Brothers John and Jonas did not communicate
with each other for two years.
In 1836, Jonas Strouse with his wife Anna and three children left
Pennsylvania in an ox-drawn schooner headed for Indiana as there was a
great movement to settle the wilderness country. After many tiresome
days they reached a trading center in Northeast Indiana - Fort Wayne -
to buy supplies. Noble County, which had become a county that year, was
their destination. They must have been much surprised - and pleased - as
they set about to supply their needs they met brother John Strouse who
had come to Fort Wayne by the modern method of travel - the Erie Canal.
On finishing their purchases, they headed north together on the
Mongoquin Indian trail. Earlier settlers from Lagrange County, Indiana
who had settled on the Pigeon River, had used this trail coming into
Fort Wayne for supplies. This trail has been a North-South passage since
- later becoming the Old Plank Road getting its name because oak planks
were sawed and laid side by side from Lima to Fort Wayne. Quite a
venture. Later it was called the Lima Road with stone markers erected at
different points giving the distance to Fort Wayne. In the early 1900s
it became State Road 3. Even though it is a modern highway, perhaps the
ghosts of history still travel the Mongoquin Trail.
So heading north, Jonas and John Strouse and families stopped and camped
for two weeks at a small creek. This location now called Swan Township.
Several families were in this area beginning in 1834 with Ephraim
Cramer, George Fulk 1836, Ira King 1836, Oliver Perry 1836, Andrew
Richards 1836, Jonathon Simon 1837 and probably others unknown to us.
Many of these pioneer families still have descendants in or near this
community.
We left Jonas and John at Swan camping by the creek with a camp of
Indians only a quarter mile over the hill south of them. John Strouse
remained there, buying land ½ mile north of Swan. Jonas went north
several miles and played a large part in establishing what has been
known for over 100 years as the Hopewell Community. Jonas Strouse gave
the land for the Hopewell Church, School and Cemetery. He paid $300 of
the $900 of the cost of the first church and boarded the carpenters. To
my knowledge there has been no time since that some of the Strouse
descendants have not been active in this church. This was a Presbyterian
Church as many of the early settlers in the community were of the
Presbyterian faith, also a Calvinistic fellowship. (Histories of the
church indicate that Grandfather Jonas Strouse did not "unite" with the
church until he was 90 years old.) The church has played a big part in
the DeHoff family and the DeHoff family has played a big part in this
church. We will write more about this in a later chapter.
Jonas Strouse was the first Justice of the Peace in Swan Township -
performed the first marriage in Swan and held the first election. At the
time of the first election, a canal (never completed) was being built
from Chicago to Fort Wayne. A large group of Irish immigrants had come
into Green Township to dig through the hills. These Irish immigrants
became over-patriotic and to help the cause of our pioneer community
voted in Green Township and then came to Swan Township to vote. With a
little whiskey and good intentions they came to the polls. Grandfather
Strouse, though, had other ideas - so by his physical brawn and
determination he threw them out. And did not allow them to overdo their
patriotism.
May I enter some of the stories I remember Aunt Martha Crothers (an aunt
of mother's) used to tell? One I recall was of her and my grandmother
Whan as small girls playing by a large pile of pumpkins. Hearing
something they looked up and there stood, as she recalled, two Indians
with only a small apron to hide their nakedness. The girls ran screaming
to the house and the Indians clapped their hands and ha-ha'd at their
fright.
She also told about her father hiding colored escaped slaves through the
day and taking them on to another station at night. This was called the
Underground Railroad.
Another story about their going to flour mills with wheat or corn
horseback across an unmarked wilderness to Port Mitchell (?) which was
only 14 miles. These were pioneers - opening up a country and community
to a better life, of which they enjoyed little of the comforts.
I am proud to claim these people as my ancestors. They were of
unselfish, brave and wise stock.