Henry
Herman Hoff
News Examiner, Thursday, 22 December
1938, page 1
A man who has lived through all but eleven presidential administrations of the United States, saw Brigham Young, became acquainted with all the successors of that colonizing leader of the Mormon Church, knew every governor of Idaho since statehood except Barzilla Clark, drove an ox team from Pleasant Grove, Utah, to Bear Lake county the year it was created, and has watched and participated in the growth and development of his church, state, county, and home city of Montpelier, is Henry H Hoff, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 16, 1849.
Mr. Hoff, the oldest man in Bear Lake county, as he nears his 90th birthday, is well preserved physically, has a keen, active mind and an astounding memory for names, dates and incidents that have patterned the design of his life.
"In connection with the rebellion, the war of 1861 to 1865" Mr. Hoff wrote in a firm, legible hand, that supplemented notes given the writer at an interview, "I remember well the great excitement it caused in Philadelphia only 136 miles from Washington DC, and 100 miles from Baltimore where the fighting was heavy." Mr. Hoff, 11 years old when the Civil War began, recalls how excited the small children were and the games of soldier and drummer boys they played. An older brother was a volunteer in the war under General Patterson and his experiences as well as hardships suffered by the civilians, leave in the mind of Mr. Hoff vivid recollections of the happenings that occurred during that time.
The first news of President Lincoln's assassination, April 14, 1865, was made known to Mr. Hoff at 5 am the following morning; and at that early hour excitement in the homes and along the streets was intense. In 1868 Mr. Hoff went from Philadelphia to Chicago, where he was employed as a butchering journeyman. While there he witnessed the great fire, October 9 to 11, 1871, that destroyed property valued at $196,000,000. He also recalls a parade while living in Chicago that required two and a half hours to pass a given point, staged to celebrate the conclusion of the German Franco war; and that among the paraders were 700 butchers.
Three years after the tie-up of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific, which occurred t Ogden in 1869, Mr. Hoff rode over the first transcontinental railroad from Chicago to San Francisco, there he remained four months. En route back to Chicago, presumably for a short visit with two older brothers, John and Charles, who were living in Pleasant Grove, but he became a convert of the Mormon church and decided to live in the west.
On March 8, 1875, before the Salt Lake LDS Temple was completed, he was married to Hattie Bacon in the Old Endowment House. That same year, via Preston and Gentile valley, he and Mrs. Hoff riding behind oxen and horses, moved from Pleasant Grove to Georgetown, a trip that took two months. Of the seven children born to the couple, a daughter, Geneva, died in infancy, and a son, Ernest P, died at the age of 42, the remaining children are Mrs. George F Lloyd, Salt Lake City, H Herman Off, Montpelier, Edmund C Hoff, Salt Lake City, Mrs. M D Low, Soda Springs; and Frank E Hoff, Duncan Arizona. There are 13 grandchildren in the family and four great-grandchildren, the latter, grandchildren of Mr. and Mrs. George F Floyd.
At Montpelier in 1885, two years after the coming on the OSL railroad, Mr. Hoff started the first exclusive meat market, which was located near the tracks. Among Montpelier firms then or beginning in business were Mose Lewis, John R Brennan, Robert Gee, Sam Lewis, John L Underwood, Elisha Strong, Jacob and Tom Jones, Consolidated Wagon & Machine company, Ed Burgoyne, John Mackay, John O'Connor, Hanak Brothers and Mrs. Rogers, who ran the first boarding house in the lower town.
Before the railroad was built, Montpelier stores got most of their supplies from Evanston, but when the tracks were laid through here that changed and Montpelier boomed. Mr. Hoff said. The layout of the town underwent a considerable shift, Mr. Hoff said, in recalling that at one time there was a gate where the tabernacle now stands and between that point and Ovid there wasn't a single house. Even when the lower town was being formed it was necessary to pass through the upper town in order to get to the place of business from Georgetown as there was no road over the present US 30 route near Montpelier, nothing but swamps.
For a number of years after starting his business in Montpelier, Mr. Hoff, still living in Georgetown, would drive back and forth every few days in a buckboard or buggy and a sleigh in the winter and would average about 12 miles an hour. Although there were no telephone, telegraph or fence posts to guide him in the heavy winter snows that sometimes reached a depth of four feet, he kept from being lost by following a line of willow branches stuck in the snow along the way. Between Montpelier and Ovid in the spring or early summer it was often necessary to swim a horse a third of the way when going on horseback. In speaking of the changes in transportation, which has included the riding behind an ox team to flying in an aeroplane from Salt Lake City to Pocatello.
Any amount of fish and deer were obtainable in the early days, he said, and at one time he saw 1000 Indians on a hunting trip with their horses and travois encamped at Georgetown. They were dependable and un-molesting except those who would beg out of house and home. Mr. Hoff sold his butcher shop to his son, Herman in 1910,
Here are city, county, state and church offices held by Mr. Hoff, who was recently released as first counselor in the Montpelier LDS stake, a position he held for nearly 21 years; regent at the University of Idaho for two years under Governor McConnell, director of Albion Normal School under Governor Steunenberg, director of Pocatello Tech; trustee of State Historical Society under Governor Mose Alexander and Governor Davis; representative in Idaho State Legislature for one term; county commissioner for three terms, as such decided tie vote for paving Washington street; first chairman of Georgetown village board, held that position for two terms; president Georgetown Irrigation company for 14 years; chairman of Liberty Loan drive three times in Bear Lake county; held offices in the Mormon church for 34 years, bishop's counselor to Alma Hayes in 1906 at Georgetown; bishop of the newly organized Second ward in Montpelier, 1909; is now patriarch of the Montpelier stake.
The Theatre has long been Mr. Hoff's favorite entertainment, among actors he was particularly fond of; Maggie Mitchell, Helen and Lucille Western, Joe Jefferson in "Rip Van Winkle"; Edwin Booth in "Hamlet" Edwin Forrest in "Richard III", Mr. Murphy in "Fritz, Our Cousin German" the Drews of Philadelphia and Edwin Barrett in "Enoch Arden." Edwin Guest and Rudyard Kipling are poets like by Mr. Hoff.
Mr. Hoff attributes his longevity to regularity and the fact he is naturally healthy. His is keenly interested in historical personages and places, having visited Gettysburg; was introduced to President Wilson at the White House; visited the spots where Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley were shot; saw President Hayes and Theodore Roosevelt; recalls having heard Horace Greeley talk; and often having seen Tom Thumb, who at one time lived only two blocks from his home in Philadelphia, and remembers the sensation caused when Tom Thumb was married in the early sixties.
When U S Grant was running for re-election, Mr. Hoff, lacking three months of being old enough to vote, refused the solicitations of a person who promised to swear Mr. Hoff was 21 if he would cast a ballot for Grant. This Mr. Hoff refused to do for three reasons; first, it was perjury; second President Grand was running on the wrong ticket.