The Dunfee Family :: Eliza and Aquilla Hoff

Eliza is presumed to be the daughter of James and Sophia (Hazlett) Dunfee. The primary link is the fact that Eliza was living with Jonathan Haslett in Mifflin Twp, Ashland County, Ohio in 1850. We're making the assumption that Jonathan is probably the father of Sophia. Bottom line is that I really don't have any “proof” that Eliza is the daughter of James and Sophia.



Census records put the year of birth for Eliza Dunfee at 1811, 1813, or 1815 and place of birth in Maryland or Pennsylvania. In 1850, she is 39 years old and born in Maryland. In 1860 she is 47 and born in Pennsylvania. And in 1870 she is 55 and born in Pennsylvania. Chances are, her age in 1850 is probably closer to the truth ;-) since she seems to lose a few years with each census.



Eliza married Aquilla Hoff on September 4, 1851 in Ashland County, Ohio as recorded in volume 2, page 70 (license 1134) of Ashland County Marriage Records.





The image above is from the FamilySearch online database of Ohio County Marriages. There seems to be some “confusion” on the part of the clerk that recorded the marriage or the “authority” who performed the ceremony. Under “Names of Parties” it shows that the record is for Aquilla Hoff and Eliza Dunfee. In the far right column, it states that R. D. Emerson is certifying that “on the 4th day of September Eighteen hundred and fifty one I joined in Marriage Mr. George W. Brown and Miss Eliza Dunfee.”



In actuality, it was Eliza Dunfee who married Aquilla Hoff. When the property of Jonathan Hazlett was sold on October 25, 1853, the majority of the items were sold to Aquila Hoff.





Sale Bill from the estate file (#190) of Jonathan Hazlett. Ashland County, Ohio.





The last entry in the above image (a portion of page 299 of the Ashland County Tract Book) shows that Luke Selby, administrator of the estate of Jonathan Hazlett sold in March 1854 the land that had been owned by Jonathan to Aquilla Hoff. The transaction is also recorded in Ashland County Deed Book 10 page 206.



Aquilla Hoff and his wife Eliza, sold that land to Christian Vesper on March 27, 1857 (Ashland County Deed Book 15 pages 162-163).



That was, essentially, all the information I had on Aquilla and Eliza. Until in November .., when I received an email in response to an 11 year old query I had posted on the Hoff Family Genealogy Forum. My correspondent passed along the information that Aquilla and Eliza had moved to LaGrange County, Indiana where she had found them in the 1860 census.



I'm guessing that they probably moved to LaGrange County in the spring of 1857 after they sold the land that had belonged to Jonathan Hazlett. They are listed in the 1860 and 1870 census in Bloomfield Township, LaGrange County, Indiana.



Aquilla Hoff is 45 years old in 1860. He is a farmer with real estate valued at $3000 and a personal estate of $342. He was born in Maryland. Listed in his household was Eliza, age 47 and born in Pennsylvania; Jonathan, age 6 and born in Ohio. Also included was Lucetta Dumbar, 12 years old and born in Indiana.



In 1870, Aqula Hoff is 54 years old. He is still a farmer but has real estate valued at $5000 and a personal estate of $1000. He was born in Maryland. Included in his household were Eliza, now 55 but still stating she was born in Pennsylvania; and Jonathon, who is 16 years old and born in Ohio.



Eliza (Dunfee) Hoff died on August 6, 1876 and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Lagrange County, Indiana. There is a memorial for her on Find A Grave. Looking closely at the photo of her gravestone it appears that the word “AGED” is written below the date of death. If so, it might pinpoint her year of birth a little better than the census records.



In the 1880 census, Aquilla Hoff was found in Drum Creek Township, Montgomery County, Kansas. He was 65 years old, retired and born in Maryland. Listed with Aquilla was his son, Jonathan H. Hoff, who was 26 years old, a farmer, and born in Ohio. He gave his father's place of birth as Maryland and that of his mother as Pennsylvania.



According to my correspondent, Aquilla Hoff was born February 15, 1815 in Washington County, Maryland and died June 27, 1883 in LaGrange County, Indiana. However, I suspected that he died in Kansas since that was where he was living in 1880. Turns out, Aquilla really did die in LaGrange County. There is an entry for him in the book “Indiana Deaths, 1882-1920” that was compiled by the W.P.A. (Works Progress Administration). It shows that he died in Newbury Township and was 68 years old.



What happened to their son Jonathan H. Hoff? Jonathan does not appear to be in the census records after 1880 (ancestry online index).



I did find a John H. Hoff in Kansas census records, 1900 through 1930, that I think is a likely candidate to be Jonathan H. Hoff, son of Aquilla and Eliza. However, there is a six year discrepancy in their ages.



But, this John H. Hoff has a daughter, his first born child, named Eliza... and his middle name is Hazelet!



See The Dunfee Family :: Are Jonathan H. Hoff and John H. Hoff the same man?



See the Index for previous posts on the Dunfee family.

Back in the cold

I am now back in the Netherlands and at the airport I was met with the crispness of the cold temperature seeping through the runway tube. Before touchdown the pilot announced it is 10C in Schiphol, a far cry from 30C-35C in Athens by day, and 22C in Budapest.

A candid-stolen shot; withdrawing money from an ATM in Athens (the ATM brand is a previous employer). Thanks S!

Navigating my way through the crowd in Schiphol, I quickly searched for the nearest toilet. I need to re-touch my makeup as I am heading straight to work in Amsterdam. Although I barely slept comfortably in the plane, luckily I did not have eye bags or dark rings under my eyes.

The taxi ride to work was quite interesting. The young driver, who I reckon must be Turkish or Moroccan looked like Jan Smit who did not shave for 2 days. Jan Smit is a (folk-country) singer in the Netherlands who hails from Volendam and is very popular with the younger group.

So right I am back and all I hear is the mortgage crisis in the USA. Lehman went bankrupt and who would have thought the mighty AIG would be in deep shite? Fortis too lost its share value while still having a huge debt over the ABN-Amro takeover. Then I had a good laugh at Wilder’s debating skills in the Tweede Kamer which should be the talk of the week in town! Oh dear, Dutch politics is indeed hilarious.

At work this week I have been totally sacharijnig, impatient, and aggressive and rightly so I think. I always try my best to be politically correct though, if I can help it, but the feisty confrontational side of me prevails especially when something needs to get done ASAP or when there is injustice. You know, I have hands to type and I have a mouth to speak.

At home, haven’t really slept well and been catching up lately. After dinner I just fall lifeless on the couch and Dutchman had to wake me up and drag me to the bedroom at midnight.

The last few days this week have just been so incredibly tiring, and stressful. I looked like a walking zombie, gaunt, sucked out of energy and blood but ready to take out a fight, lol.

Anyway, glad that the week closed beautifully.

I will post fotos and stories of Budapest and Athens in the coming days, and also my last entry of Texel!

Sunshine Yellow?

On an overcast day, the Vienna Citibikes really stand out! But are they too bright to ride? I admit that I have avoided renting these, because I don't fancy riding around looking like an enormous advert for a bank.

Here are the tamer blue versions on the left, but they too are covered with enormous adverts. What do you think? More bout Vienna Citibikes here.

Dark Secret

Last night I posted a picture of a gimlet-sippingbikeyface at dinner, and a reader emailed to ask what bikes we ride when we go out. It would be great, she suggested, to write a post about being out on the town on bikes.



Hmm that does sound nice. But it would be pretty tough. Because the truth is, we didn't ride bikes. Last night our destination was only 15 minutes away and walking just seemed easier. The other week we did the same when going to see a movie. Come to think of it, most of the time we see each other there are no bikes involved. We live in the same neighbourhood and are usually so tired that we stick to local places and walk to them. Does that make us bad bicycle bloggers? Maybe I should have kept this a secret!





When I first began cycling for transportation 3 years ago, I was so excited about it that I would ride everywhere no matter the distance just for the heck of it. I would ride down the block, or to the store around the corner and back. Now that cycling has lost its novelty, it seems too much of a hassle to get my bike out just to ride a short distance. I would rather walk.



In a sense there is some sadness in having lost that beginner's excitement. But I think it also means that I've transitioned to a stage where transportation cycling has become truly normalised. With cycling established as an inherent part of life, I don't feel the need to ride down the block when I can walk. If you've been riding for a while, have you had the same experience?

I Got the Elbow Blues

(Photo: Elbows.)



Just a week ago last Thursday, I was feeling like I'd settled into a reasonably good place from which to start the season.



There were a bunch of new problems on the "Highball Wall" at Brooklyn Boulders. I love seeing the new problems. I know we are just talking about the gym, and that it isn't a big deal. But I always get a little bit excited when I see a wall full of new routes. Judging from the ridiculous crowds that always surround the new problems, I'm not the only one who feels this way. True to past trends, the newly set wall was utterly mobbed last Thursday.



I jumped in, despite the crowds.



After speeding through many of the easier climbs I was feeling pretty good. I made quick work of a couple of the V5's and then with a little bit of concentrated effort I sent a V6. This was by no means a great accomplishment. Anyone can do it. But for me it was not a trivial thing. All winter long I've been trying to get myself into a new mindset in which I think of every V5 as a climb I will send (as opposed to a project for some other day) and every V6 as a climb I can do with some work (as opposed to a climb reserved for someone better than me).



As I finished the V6 and dropped to the floor I heard an onlooker say "that was awesome." It took a second for it to sink in that this person was talking about me! I wasn't accustomed to hearing such exclamations about me. And it's true, it was a little bit awesome. I'd never scoped out a V6 and put it all together so quickly before. A year or two ago I might have been that same onlooker, thinking the same thing, in effect saying "that looks so hard, it is surely out of my league."



But now with the new mindset I was approaching just about any climb as if I might be able to do it.



And maybe this approach was working.



Or maybe this was just an easy V6.



Afterwards I sat down and watched a very strong climber tackle a V9+. This problem involved a series of long reaches between awful slopers. He'd been working the route for a while and shortly after my victory on the V6 he finally sent the V9+. He was ecstatic about it, and with good reason. The climb looked terribly terribly hard, much too difficult for even my new hard-charging persona to consider attempting.



I listened as he talked to another super-strong climber.



"I must have been here for six hours yesterday," he said. "My tendons feel like they could explode at any moment."



The other climber gave him a concerned look. "Do you use ice?" he asked. "I ice my arms after every hard session."



I wondered if this made sense. I'd read conflicting advice about using ice. In any event I empathized with these super-climbers with the sore tendons, because I was growing more than a little bit worried about my own.



Over the last few months I'd gradually noticed that my elbows seemed to be sore a lot. There would be some pain on the inside (medial) edge of both elbows when I warmed up, and then the soreness would go away while I climbed, only to return later at random times. Sometimes the elbows would throb while I lay in bed at night, or while I sat at my desk at work. It was more of an occasional annoyance than an impediment to climbing. I was concerned, but not enough to do much of anything about it.



Until recently, that is. As the outdoor climbing season approached and the problem seemed to be getting worse, I looked to the Internet for answers. I soon found a nice piece by Dr. Julian Saunders, the sports doctor who writes for Rock & Ice Magazine. In the article he describes my recent symptoms pretty much exactly and says they suggest a condition called tendonosis, a degeneration of the tendon cell at the elbow.



Dr. Saunders prescribes some exercises with a barbell to strengthen the tendons. It seemed like a reasonable approach to me so I ordered a set of barbells. I hoped that if I followed Dr. Saunders' program the problem would gradually disappear over time. The best part of the doctor's advice, from my perspective, was that he said nothing at all about taking a break from climbing. The last thing I wanted to do was to stop climbing. The season was just about to begin. I was already planning to go to the Gunks with Gail on March 10, when it was supposed to be 50 degrees in New Paltz.



While I was at it I decided to order a massage tool called The Stick. I came across a testimonial to its effectiveness for sore elbows and decided it might also help.



But I didn't get a chance to start either of these new therapies. Before my packages arrived I realized I had a new, more severe elbow problem.



I went back to Brooklyn Boulders on Sunday, just a few days after my little V6 triumph. As I warmed up I gradually realized my right elbow was sore in a new way. I really felt it when I pulled on holds and the pain wasn't going away as I warmed up. There was something wrong. Eventually I abandoned the session and went home.



Where did this new injury come from? I have no idea.



Once I was aware of the pain, I noticed I was feeling it all the time. It hurt to yank open the refrigerator, or to squeeze a water bottle. I detected noticeable swelling on my arm near the elbow right where the pain was. This was bad, worse than just tendonosis. I feared I must have torn something, somehow.



So I went to the doctor. I got a referral from my GP and luckily could get an appointment to see a specialist within the week. I met with him yesterday. He seems like a good guy, young and smart; understanding of the climbing mindset. I told him the whole story and he agreed with Dr. Saunders' diagnosis. He took an x-ray (which looked fine) and did his own examination. He made me an appointment to have an MRI done so we could get a better sense of the damage. He strongly suggested I stop climbing, at least for a few weeks while we sort out how bad the immediate trauma to my elbow is and start some physical therapy.



I am really bummed out.



And the MRI this morning didn't help matters. Have you ever had an MRI? This was my first. I imagine the procedure would be bad enough if you could lie on your back. Even in that relatively comfortable position, the experience of sliding into that narrow tube and remaining perfectly still as the machine screams like an invading alien army for half an hour would be enough to induce existential terror. Add to this nightmarish scenario a position on your stomach with the bad arm outstretched, the other one pinned to your side, both arms falling asleep... and you get the picture. Not fun.



I still hope to have a climbing season. Maybe in a few weeks I can get back to it, taking it easy. I haven't been climbing outside since November and I am as desperate as a man can be to get out there. But I want to be smart and give myself the best chance to heal. I have a climbing trip planned to Squamish in June and I really want to be able to go. I must take care of myself until then.



I will keep you posted.



Getting old is a drag.

Wordless Wednesday :: Stone's Trace

The Tavern at Stone's Trace. Built in 1839. South of Ligonier, Indiana.

Bartering at the encampment.

Photographs taken on September 6, ...
Copyright © .. by Rebeckah R. Wiseman.

Moose Meadows, Pigeon River

(Click the photo to view a larger version)

This photograph was made from the Pigeon River Helipad and Overlook on Otter Lake Forest Road in Northeast Minnesota. Ever since the forest service created this helipad and overlook, I've been stopping there whenever I'm in the area in the hopes of seeing a Moose down along the river. Being quite familiar with the river from the seat of a kayak, I knew that this bend in the river was quite popular with the Moose. However, I had never seen one from the overlook until today! I watched through my telephoto lens as the Moose moved throughout the shallows for several minutes. Eventually he turned and gave me a nice profile of his body. It was cool to finally see a Moose from this vantage point! This marks my 18th Moose sighting of this year!