The Hocker Farm
In 1831 William L. Breton painted a water color, entitled “The Hocker Farm.”1 Breton was an Englishman, a self-made artist of the nineteenth century who painted Philadelphian scenes.2
The question, I have, is whose farm was this?
Johann George Hocker, the immigrant, moved his family to Whitemarsh Township about 1763. He died in 1821 and his property was sold by his administrator, son Martin Hocker, to Casper Schlater. So George’s farm wouldn’t have been the “Hocker farm” by 1831.
By that time, to the best of my knowledge, his only surviving son lived in Virginia. Perhaps it was the farm of one of his grandsons—Martin or John, sons of Martin—who were, as far as I know, the only grandsons still living in Whitemarsh Township. Regardless of whose farm it actually was, the painting provides a glimpse into a nineteenth century farm yard. One which was owned by a member of our Hocker family.
The painting itself apparently descended through Clara Hocker Illman, wife of Henry A. Illman. Although the typed inscription that accompanies the painting states that she was “a daughter of a Civil War General Hocker,” Clara was the daughter of Edward Wellington and Mary Ann (Hocker) Williams of Germantown.3
Her grandparents were Christopher Mason and Mary Ann (Phillips) Hocker. Their son Christopher Mason Hocker Jr., I believe, did serve in the Civil War. However, to the best of my knowledge, not as a General. Christopher Sr. was a stonecutter and the family resided in Germantown. He died 25 June 1847.4 His wife survived him and ran a boarding house until her death 28 July 18935 with the assistance of her daughter Martha.
Footnotes
- Bryn Mawr, “William L. Breton Views”, Bryn Mawr College, modified 14 Dec 2005 (http://www.brynmawr.edu/iconog/bre/brtn.html : accessed 17 Sep 2016). ↩
- Martin P. Snyder, “William L. Breton, Nineteenth-Century Philadelphia Artist,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, (Philadelphia : Pennsylvania Historical Society, 1961), Vol. 85, No. 2 (Apr., 1961), pp. 178. ↩
- Pennsylvania, Certificate of Death no. 47016 (1931), Clara A. Williams; online, Ancestry.com, “Pennsylvania Death Certificates, 1906-1963” (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 Jun 2016); citing Pennsylvania Museum and Historical Commission, Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg; Perhaps this is a confusion with her great granduncle General Henry Scheetz who fought in the Revolutionary War? ↩
- “Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Church and Town Records, 1708-1985,” database and image, Ancestry.com, (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 17 Sep 2016), entry for Christopher M. Hocker, died 25 Jun 1847; citing Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, “Inscriptions in the Burial Ground of St. Michael’s Lutheran Church, Germantown, Pennsylvania.” ↩
- Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, Probate Records Estate no. 1140, M.A. Hocker; online, Ancestry, “Pennsylvania, Wills and Probate Records, 1683-1993” (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 2 Sep 2015); citing Register of Wills, Philadelphia. ↩
Cite This Page:
Kris Hocker, "The Hocker Farm," A Pennsylvania Dutch Genealogy, the genealogy & family research site of Kris Hocker, modified 17 Sep 2016 (https://www.krishocker.com/the-hocker-farm/ : accessed 19 Apr 2024).
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