Andreas Franz Hofer
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Franz Xaver Hofer (1821 - 1904)

Franz Xaver (Andreas Franz) Hofer
Born in Önsbach, Badenmap
Ancestors ancestors
Husband of — married 18 Jun 1853 in New York Citymap
Descendants descendants
Died at age 82 in Chicago, Cook Co, ILmap
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Profile last modified | Created 10 Dec 2013
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Contents

Biography

Andreas Franz Hofer was born Franz Xaver Hofer

Because he participated in the 1848 Republican Revolution as a member of the Badische Volksvereine, he was declared a traitor after the uprising was put down. He was then forced to flee to Switzerland and later to France. Eventually he traveled to Amsterdam and was helped by a brother-in-law to sail to America. An 1849 excerpt from the Karlsruher Zeitung describes an investigation into Franz Hofer for treason: “30 bis 36 Jahre alt, gegen ihn gibt es eine Untersuchung "wegen Hochverraths" [Fahndung des Bezirksamts Achern, mit Personenbeschreibung].”

The following is an excerpt from a defamatory article about him by a political enemy: “A. F. Hofer worked briefly at a local sash and door factory, but soon became the last member admitted to the ailing German socialist commune known as Communia, which the Ruefs had already joined. Located about fifty miles northwest of Dubuque, Communia in fact had been the Hofers' original destination, but they had run out of money in Dubuque. While at Communia, Hofer plied his carpentry skills, arranged and composed music, played both violin and clarinet in the communal orchestra, and may have become a radical free thinker However brief, the Hofers' association with Communia was a formative influence in the lives of A. F. and Ernst Hofer, for both father and son later held strong views against socialism and communism.”

Sergeant-at-arms of the Iowa State Assembly

Publisher of the McGregor News.

A competing newspaper, The Elkader Register, published an article about him on June 17, 1885 titled “ARE THEY HYPOCRITS [sic] ?” referring to the McGregor News as a “’pinkeyed prohibition sheet’”. They allege that A.F. Hofer “ran a little moonshiner distillery at Littleport some years ago, and afterwards plied his vocation at Clermont with the addition of a third class saloon, and that now he proclaims the unadulterated doctrines of Parson Lozier and other eminent prohibitionists; but this does not smack of hypocrisy—he has merely ‘reformed.’” The piece attacks him for being a ‘greenbacker’ and mocks his accent saying that he played a ‘leedle drick’ on the democrats, and kept “the greenbackers from voting the democratic ticket.” They go on to say that they “are told that Hofer was reared in the Catholic faith, and the old members of the Communia colony have told us that he departed from the faith and was the most radical ‘free thinker’ in Communia or its vicinity thirty years ago, and how he is a member of the Baptist church; but hypocrisy doesn’t shine forth in any of these little variations of faith. Hofer only accommodates himself to his environments.”

The Elkader Register published defamatory articles throughout the late 1870s and 1880s, impugning his military service in the U.S. Civil War in 1861, his politics, and more.

There is a book published about him authored by his daughter Amalie Hofer Jerome called My Century: The Story of Andreas Franz Hofer.

Data Changed

Data Changed:
Date: 20 JUL 2013

Prior to import, this record was last changed 20 JUL 2013.

Note

Note: A Book about Andreas Franz Hofer was written by his daughter, Amalie,.
MY CENTURY, THE STORY OF ANDREAS FRANZ HOFER, by Amalie Hofer Jerome, published in 1937 by Bruce Humphries, Inc, of Boston. [ISBN: B00088EU1E].
On Nov 30 of 1849, the ship Tuskina arrived in NYC from Rotterdam. Among the passengers was one Franz Xaver Hofer, age 27, a glazier from Baden. It is noted that he traveled in the cabin (as opposed to steerage).
In the ensuing American records, he is named Andreas F Hofer, Andrew Frank Hofer, A F Hofer or some variant thereof.
The date of his marriage to Mari Ruef was noted in the book by Amalie Hofer Jerome (ob. cit.)and through a source at FamilySearch.com
In 1861, Andrew Frank Hofer is a lieutenant in the 9th Iowa regiment. He later received a pension.
In the 1870 census, A F Hofer is living in Clermont Township, Fayette Co, Iowa, with his wife and children. The family name has been misentered as "Hoover." His occupation is listed as dry goods merchant, retail.
Wife: May, age 33; Ernest, age 15; Frank, age 13; Mary, age 12; Andrew, age 10; Bertha, age 8; Emily, age 6; Anne, age 4; Lizzie, age 1.
In 1878, he wrote a 32-page booklet titled "Grape Growing: A Simple Treatise on the Single Pole System, or How Grapes Are Cultivated in the Upper Rhine Valley."
In the 1880 census, the family is living in McGregor, Clayton Co, Iowa. A F Hofer is listed as an editor and publisher.
In the 1900 census, Andrew F Hofer, wife and daughter Mary are living in Chicago.
DOD for "Andreas Franz Hofer" per "Cook County, Illinois, Deaths Index, 1878-1922" at ancestry.com, and per "Illinois, Cook County Deaths, 1878-1922" at FamilySearch.org.

Burial

Burial:
Date: 28 NOV 1904
Place: Mt Hope Cemetery, Cook Co, IL

May have been reburied with Mari at Woodlawn Cemetery in Santa Monica, CA. https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=161700791

Sources





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DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships with Andreas Franz by comparing test results with other carriers of his Y-chromosome or his mother's mitochondrial DNA. However, there are no known yDNA or mtDNA test-takers in his direct paternal or maternal line. It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with Andreas Franz:

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