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Andrew Hoover Jr.

Andrew2 Hoover (Andrew1) was born prior to 1755 near Leitersburg or Hagerstown, Maryland. Andrew may have died sometime between 1792 and 1800 as he does not appear in the 1800 census for Fayette County.

He was one of the three brothers who went to the Fayette County area in 1769. He may have first settled in an area that Virginia first called Yohogania County, which consisted of parts of present day Fayette, Washington, Beaver, Allegheny, and all of Westmoreland counties.[1]

Andrew Hoover Jr.'s Union Township property

Andrew Hoover Jr.'s Union Township property

Andrew Jr. purchased from John Waller 28 acres of land on the Redstone Creek adjacent to his father’s property. He was a millwright of Youghiogeni County, Virginia at the time of the purchase. He may not have have the deed recorded until he sold it as it was dated 7 Mar 1780 and he turned the title to it over to Jacob Pindle on 7 Aug 1780.[2]

Andrew and his brother-in-law John Hunsicker purchased together 185 acres of land in Tyrone Township, Westmoreland County from John Waller on 24 Nov 1775 for 168 pounds.[3] At the time, they resided in Menallen Township, Fayette County. This land was signed over to Andrew’s brother Henry on 8 Sep 1780. The two men also received lots in Uniontown in 1776, the same month Hunsicker was fined in Elizabethtown (now Hagerstown) for neither serving in or paying the military to support the war.[4]

Andrew purchased from his brother John the land in Union Township that John inherited from their father’s estate. He then turned this land to his brother Henry and Henry Beeson for and “in consideration of debts owning from the estate of Andrew Hoover deceased” and five shillings on 16 Aug 1785.[5]

On 10 Nov 1788, Andrew Hoover appointed Yost Herbaugh of Manchester Township, York County, possibly an uncle of Andrew’s brother-in-law John Herbaugh/Harbaugh (married to his sister Maria Catharine), as his attorney to receive from Catherine Liebrich, relict of Nicholas Liebrich, late of Raffow Township (Rapho Township), Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, “three bonds due from John John [Hans] of Menallen Township, Lancaster County… unto me two of which are for the sum of Twenty-five pounds.” [6] The question, of course, is who is Catherine Leberich? Is it possible that she is Andrew’s mother, remarried after the death of her husband in 1784? No death information was found for her in Fayette County. An alternative possibility is that she is Andrew’s mother-in-law, either remarried, or, if not, perhaps her daughter Mary (Andrew’s widow) remarried prior to the settling of Nicholas Leberich’s estate in 1821.[7] (see update below)

Andrew Hoover Jr.'s Dunbar/Wharton twp property

Andrew Hoover Jr.'s Dunbar/Wharton Township property

Andrew Hoover also received 200 acres of land from the state of Pennsylvania “on Dunbar’s Run near the top of Laurel Hill in Wharton [township] near the line of Union township in Fayette County” as shown in a warrant dated 24 Sep 1792. This property was surveyed 11 and 12 Apr 1833.[8]

Andrew Hoover kept some 75.5 acres of land in Union Township which he willed to his son George.[9] It was patented to his granddaughter Elizabeth on 25 Dec 1848 after the death of her father George.[10] These acres were originally part the 300 acres of surveyed to John Waller on 14 Jun 1769. I am still unclear as to whether this land was purchased by Andrew Hoover Jr. or from the estate of Andrew Hoover Sr. Many of the deeds are practically illegible and perhaps not all of the transactions were recorded.

No marriage information was found for Andrew. His wife is not listed on any of the deeds I’ve seen. However, there was a baptism for a child Anna Catharine at Jacobs Lutheran Church in German Township, Fayette County on 12 Apr 1785 with parents named Andrew and Maria Hoover.[11] This is too late to be Andrew Hoover Sr. and too early to be a son of Henry or George Hoover.

So, for now, I am presuming that this baptism is for a child of Andrew Hoover Jr. and his wife. Andrew Hoover Jr. married Maria (___) about 1775, most likely in Fayette County, Pennsylvania.

Only two children are known for this couple:

  1. George3 Hoover was born circa 1775-1778, most likely in Westmoreland (now Fayette) County, Pennsylvania, but possibly in Yohogania County, Virginia (now West Virginia), married to a Rosannah (___) by 1804 when the couple sold land in Dunbar Township to William Sullivan.[12,13]
  2. Anna Catharine Hoover was born 3 Feb 1785 in Fayette County, Pennsylvania and baptized in Jacobs Lutheran Church on 12 Apr 1785, sponsored by Elias Metz and Anna Maria. She is possibly the Catharine Hoover who married Adam Shoemaker, son of Johannes and Catharine (Hoover) Shoemaker on 28 May 1801 in Pennsylvania. If so, she died sometime after the 1840 census enumeration in Perry County, Indiana.

If all the members of Andrew’s household in the 1790 census are his family, then Andrew and Maria may have had additional children, as follows:[14]

  1. Son Hoover, born bet 1774-1790
  2. Son Hoover, born bet 1774-1790
  3. Daughter Hoover, born bef 1790
  4. Daughter Hoover, born bef 1790

Andrew Hoover Jr. is not found in Fayette County at the time of the 1800 United States census. So, he either died prior to 1800 or left Pennsylvania. A Widow Hoover is found in the 1800 census for Tyrone Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Knowing that Andrew had at one point owned land in Tyrone I check the township tax records for 1790 through 1810. The only Hoovers listed during this period were Sarah Hoover and Henry Hoover, single man.[15] So, unless Andrew’s wife’s name was not Mary, but Sarah (or he remarried), this is not Andrew’s widow.

Another possible son for Andrew and Maria Hoover is Joseph Hoover, husband of Hannah Hoover, and son-in-law of Andrew’s brother Jacob. At this time, however, I have no proof of Joseph’s parentage. It is also plausible that Joseph was the son of Andrew’s eldest brother John.

Update

Further research into the Liebrich family of Manheim Township, Lancaster County reveals that Catherine Liebrich’s maiden name was Catherine Franks and that Nicholas Liebrich and Catherine Franks were married in 1767. Their family resided in Manheim, but on 17 Apr 1784, Liebrich with Andrew Hoover and Philip Brown purchased from John Hans 180 acres of land in Warwick Township, adjoining land of Christian Frederick, Ulrich Gingrich, Matthias Hoffart, Jacob Hoober, John Painter, and Andrew Hype.16 Nicholas was of an age with Andrew and none of his daughters would have been old enough to be Andrew’s wife. Furthermore, the spouses of all of Nicholas’ sisters have also been accounted for, so Andrew was neither Liebrich’s brother-in-law nor his son-in-law.

So, the new question is how did Andrew of Wharton Township, Fayette County get together to purchase land in 1784 with Nicholas Liebrich of Manheim Township, Lancaster County? And what, if any, was the relationship with either Philip Brown or John Hans (Lancaster County)?

Footnotes:

  1. Fayette County Deeds, Book E: 131
  2. Fayette County Deeds, Book E: 131
  3. Fayette County Deeds, Book A: 192
  4. Hoover, Luella Schaumburg, “Some Descendants of Andrew Hoover” (typescript; State Library, Pennsylvania), page 40
  5. Fayette County Deeds, Book A: 36
  6. Lancaster County Deeds, Book GG: 594
  7. Lancaster County Deeds, Book 5I:167; This record shows a daughter of Nicholas Leberich named Mary, who married Jacob Urbahn before 1833 (Andrew’s widow?). Leberich heirs are named: Daniel Leberich, George Leberich, Jacob Swentzel and his wife Elizabeth Leberich, Jacob Urbahn and his wife Mary Leberich, John Eberle and his wife Salome Leberich. Eldest son John Leberich and daughter Catherine Leberich both died intestate without issue. Second son Philip Leberich was executor of the estate his father Nicholas and brother John
  8. Fayette County Copied Survey Book C99: 88; The survey states that the land had been settled 30 to 40 years and a family was living on the property. Also, it states that a part of this tract was in Union Township
  9. Fayette County Deeds, Book 7:108; A search of Will Book indices on microfilm at the Pennsylvania Archives revealed no Will for Andrew Hoover Jr. in Fayette, Greene, Washington, or Westmoreland counties
  10. Fayette County Copied Survey Book C112: 22; This tract was surveyed for Elizabeth Hoover, but shows itself to be Geoge Hoover’s property
  11. Ruff, Paul Miller, Jacobs Lutheran and Reformed Church, German Township, Fayette County (Greensburg, PA: Baltzer Meyer Historical Society, 1998)
  12. Fayette County Deeds, Book H: 254
  13. Could this Rosannah (___) Hoover actually be George’s cousin Rosannah, daughter of Jacob Hoover?
  14. Andrew Hoover household, 1790 United States Census, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, Wharton Township, page 2; National Archives micropublication M637, roll 8
  15. Tyrone Township, Fayette County tax returns, Pennsylvania State Archives, micropublication LR170 and LR193, roll 5905
  16. Lancaster County Deeds, Book W: 223-225

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