July 2010 – A Pennsylvania Dutch Genealogy

How Many Henry Hoobers in Martic Township?

Kris Hocker on 29 Jul 2010

So, just how many Henry Hoobers were there in the Conestoga (now Pequea)/Martic (now Providence)/Lampter/Strasburg township area of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania? If you’d asked me that question yesterday, I’d have said one. Now today, I’m not so sure…

Diagram I: Hoover land patents in Conestoga/Martic Township area

According to the township warrantee maps, there were 5 tracts either warranted to or patented to Henry Hoober in the area where Martic (now Providence), Lampeter and Leacock (now Strasburg) townships meet. [see B1-5 on diagram] They were:

B1: 86 1/2 acres warranted to Henry Hoover 24 Jan 1733, patented to Joseph Bosler 28 Mar 1810, Patent Book H2:272
B2: 144 acres warranted to Michael Shank, 27 Sep 1717, surveyed 4 Jun 1718, and patented to Henry Hoober 15 Apr 1740, Patent Book A9:180 (Copied Survey Book D82:15)
B3: 106 acres warranted to Michael Shank, 27 Sep 1717, surveyed 4 Jun 1718, and patented to Henry Hoober 15 Apr 1740, Patent Book A10:97 (Copied Survey Book D82:48)
B4: 68 acres warranted to Henry Hoober 14 Apr 1740, surveyed 10 Nov 1731, patented 15 Apr 1740, Patent Book A9:178 (Copied Survey Book C76:15)
B5: 171 acres warranted to Henry Hoover 13 Nov 1744, surveyed 20 10ber (Dec?) 1744, Patent Book AA1:227 (Copied Survey Book A46:77)

In 1733, Michael Shank sold his rights to 250 acres at the junction of Pequea Creek and Big Beaver Creek to Henry Hoober and Jacob Good [tracts B2 & B3 in the diagram]. Henry Hoober took the northern portion and Jacob Good took the southern portion. Jacob Good’s last will & testament, dated 12 Sep 1739, named Henry Hoover as his son-in-law; his daughter was not named.¹ There is also a last will & testament for Henry Huber of Martic Township, dated 7 Aug 1757.² Jacob Huber, son of Hans Huber and owner of tracts A1-A3, named his “loving friend Henry Hoover” as one of the executors of his estate in his last will & testament, dated 9 Jul 1759.³

In 1758, John and Elizabeth (Hoover) Boyers sold their share of the property they had inherited via Henry Hoober’s last will & testament to John Hoover, the other heir to the property. This tract of land was patented in Patent Book A9:180—tract B2 in the diagrams.⁴

Diagram II: Martic Township Hoover property

In 1767, Henry and Catharine Hoober sold to their son John Hoober two tracts of land in Martic Township.⁵ The first tract was 88 acres from the tract patented in A10:97 or B3 in the diagram. [see left] The second tract was 171 acres from the tract patented in AA1:227 or B5 in the diagram.

Also in 1767, Henry and Catharine Hoober sold to Jacob Hoober 3 tracts of land in Martic Township totaling 137 acres.⁶ Mapping it out, Jacob Huber’s property matches the residue of tract B3, B4 and part of B5 from Diagram I or B4 on Diagram II. These deeds, to the best of my knowledge, were not recorded until his executors—possibly his sons—sold the land in 1790.

Based on this information, it becomes apparent that there were two men named Henry Hoober—quite likely father and son—living in the Martic Township area circa 1740 at the time the tracts were patented. The elder Henry (?—1757) had children John, Elizabeth, and quite likely Henry Jr. He may have had more. Henry Jr. [the younger], who married a daughter of Jacob Good—quite possibly Catherine as seen in the deeds, had a son John and and possibly another named Jacob to whom he deeded land in 1767.

Henry Jr. may have also had a son-in-law named George Feite. His name appears in the metes and bounds for one of the tracts sold to John Hoober on the boundary for tract B5 (B8 on the diagram). Additionally, the name Ulrich Hoober appears as a neighbor (to the south) in the metes and bounds for tracts B4 and B5 sold to Jacob and John Hoober, respectively. He may have been another relative of Henry Jr.

Tract B6 and B7 also belonged to Hoovers. Tract B6 was warranted to Martin Huber 6 Apr 1803 and patented to him on 13 Nov 1811. Tract B7 was warranted to Jacob Huber 14 Mar 1796 and patented to him on 12 Apr 1803. These two men could have been grandsons of Henry Hoober Jr. or Jacob Huber. If at least part of B7 belonged to Ulrich Hoober at one point, he must not have patented it.

As always if you have additional information or questions on any of the people in this post, please contact me or leave a comment.

Making a Deed Map from Old Metes and Bounds

Kris Hocker on 28 Jul 2010

As you may know I’ve been working with land records a lot recently. I started with the surveys available for Lancaster County land warrants and patents, grouping them by township and name. I’ve also been going through Hoover family deeds for Lancaster County and assigning them to the appropriate Hoover family. My goal is to tie the deeds not only to a particular Hoover family, but also to a particular tract of land back to the original patentee. Sometimes, the information is readily available in the deed itself; sometimes it requires some backtracking through deeds.

As part of the process, I’ve been trying to create deed maps for deeds where I have questions—especially where the land is being divided amongst the heirs. I like to think that I’m a smart person, but I had some problems figuring it all out. Since I didn’t really find an answer online, I thought I’d share what I learned.

Data Entry form for Metes and Bounds

I downloaded a Mac application called Metes and Bounds by Sandy Knoll Software. It’s a neat program with some cool features. Using the application to map a deed is fairly simple. You enter direction (north/south), degrees, bearing (east/west), and distance. Doesn’t seem complicated, does it?

Except I kept coming across metes and bounds descriptions like this:

“…Beginning at a chestnut tree, thence by the other Land of said Henry Hoober West by South fifty six perches to a post, then South South East fourteen perches to a post, thence by land of Ulrich Hoober East South East fourteen perches to a post and thence South East eight perches to a white oak, thence by Land of George Feite North twelve degrees East one hundred six perches to a Hickory and South eighty four degrees seventy two perches to a post, thence North twenty six perches and an half to a Chestnut Tree and North North West thirty perches to a Black Oak by Beaver Creek and thence by other Land of said Henry Hoober South South West forty perches to the Place of Beginning…”

What do I do with that? Some if it looks usable. But how was I supposed to enter “South South East?” None of the available options came close.

So, I scoured the web looking for help. I sort of found what I was looking for. The article I found involved converting those directions into degrees using this “Box the Compass” chart.

Okay. Seems simple. I took the degrees from the “middle”column and entered them in the degrees field of the data entry form, thinking I had my solution. Nope. My maps looked like scribbles.

Apparently, I missed a step in the conversion process. In order to get a bearing that would work in the application, I needed to take the degrees from the chart and convert it.

Convert Azimuth to Bearing

If you click on the down arrow beside the degrees field, one of the options is “Convert Azimuth to Bearing.” If you enter the degrees from the chart there, it will convert it to a bearing that the program can use to recreate the equivalent of “East by North” or “East South East.”

Once I started changing the degrees I’d entered using this method, my maps started looking more like maps and when the deed said “to the place of Beginning” my lines actually met up!

So, if you would like to make plat maps from old deeds for your family research and you use Metes and Bounds, this is how to convert the “old directions” to a useable bearing using degrees.

From Deed to Land Warrant and Back Again

Kris Hocker on 21 Jul 2010

For some reason I got stuck on John Hoover today when I was deciding where to start on my Huber/Hoover work. Which John Hoover, you ask? I was hoping to find information on John Hoover (Huber), son of Hans Ulrich (Woolerick) Huber of Conestoga Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

I don’t have much information on him. I believe he may have been born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania circa 1726. He purchased land from his father’s estate from his siblings—Jacob Hover and Barbara his wife, Henry Shank and Anna his wife, Jacob Boyer and Maria his wife, Elizabeth Hover, Ulrick Hover and Henry Hover all of Pennsylvania—in 1759.¹ I had seen the possibility that this John Hoover was also the John Hoover of Necessity, Maryland alluded to on a message board and wanted to see if I could find evidence in the data I’ve acquired.²

So, I was looking at deeds and land patents for John Hoover for leads. John Hoover of Necessity was in Maryland by 1769 when he received a deed for “Harry’s Grove” from the David Watson estate at the request of Michael Miller, to whom it had been sold but who had not received a deed. ³ If John Hoover of Necessity was the son of Ulrich Hoover of Conestoga Township, then he would have had to have sold his Lancaster property at or before 1769.

John Hoover 1744 Martic Township land patent

John Hoover 1744 Martic Twp land patent

I did not find any deeds for John Hoover selling land in Conestoga (now Pequea) Township. I found a deed for John Hoover purchasing land in Conestoga Township. On 28 May 1754, John Hoover purchased 110 acres on Pequea Creek from Jacob Eshleman and Pebela his wife.⁴ There were several land patents for John Hoover in the same general area—one for 105 acres adjoining Ulrich Hoover’s tract in Martic (now Providence) and Conestoga Townships and another for 25 acres in Conestoga Township.

Figuring the land adjoining Ulrich’s was the best bet, I followed up on that first. This tract—although patented to John Hoober—had first been the land of Jacob and Barbara (___) Hoober from Martin Kendig. ⁵^,⁶ It was sold by John’s heirs—Jacob Hoover and Margaret his wife, John Hoover, Henry Hoover and Mary his wife, Christian Hoover, Peter Hoover, Anna Brenneman, Frena Hoover, and Barbara Hoover all of Lancaster County—to their brother Abraham Hoover in 1785.⁷ So, this may not be the John Hoover I’m looking for.

John Hoover 1752 Conestoga Township land patent

John Hoover 1752 Conestoga twp land patent

Next I looked at the land patent for the 25 acres in Conestoga Township patented to John Hoover in 1752.⁸ Looking at the survey, I was confused. I saw no reference to it being for John Hoover. This tract was apparently patented to Michael Hess in 1744. Had I made a mistake? I double checked the index and looked the survey up again on the internet. No, that was the correct file.

I spent some time pouring over the Township Warrantee maps, but couldn’t find matching land for John Hoover, Jacob Good or Jacob Rubely. I found Michael Hess, but it wasn’t matching up.

So, I looked up the survey for the adjoining land of Jacob Good. ⁹ It made no reference to Jacob Good, but instead showed the land as patented to Thomas Lindley. Now I was still confused, however the name Lindley rang a bell.

Jacob Eshleman Conestoga Twp tract

The land John Hoover purchased from Jacob Eshleman bordered on land of Thomas Lindley. Figuring that John Hoover’s property bordered on this land, I compared the description of the tract borders from the deed to the survey to see where they met. To my surprise, they matched! And moreover, not only was this Lindley tract the same property patented Jacob Eshlemen in 1744 and sold to John Hoover in 1754, but it also abutted the property allegedly patented to John Hoover in 1752.

Now I knew that I had the correct pieces of property. So, I printed off the surveys for both tracts. Each survey comes with two pages, the survey drawing and information and the reverse page that usually gives the date, location and patentee name. Looking at the reverse pages of these two surveys, I saw that they clearly stated that the patent surveys were for “John Hoover in Right of Michael Hess” and “for the use of Jacob Ashleman.” The moral here: examine the whole document before freaking out!

So, I still don’t know if Ulrich’s son John Hoover is the John Hoover of Necessity—that will take much more work. I don’t even know if these documents belong to John² Hoover (Ulrich¹). However, I have, I believe, tied these three documents—the two patents and the deed—together. It is highly likely that John Hoover of Conestoga Township, having patented 25 acres in the township in 1752, purchased the adjoining land from Jacob Eshleman in 1754.

Now I need to find out what happened to this property. Did he sell it or was it passed down to one of his children?

If you have any information on these families, please I’d love to see it!

Month: July 2010