Joseph Back (1745 - 1819)

Born 1745 in Culpeper County, Colony of Virginia

Ancestors

Husband of Elizabeth (Hoffman) Hoffman-Maggard Back — married about 1773 in Culpeper County, Virginia

Descendants

Died 11 May 1819 at about age 74 in Harlan, Kentucky, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Hugh Back [send private message]

Biography

There has been a tremendous amount of misinformation about this family. But that has all been cleared up now, thanks to the research done by several Board-Certified genealogists, and the genealogy experts at DAR. The Bach family (also spelled as Back) that settled into southeastern Kentucky, in 1791, does not descend from Harman Back, nor do they descend from Elizabeth Hoffman Back (born July 13, 1746), the daughter of John Hoffman and Maria Sabina Folg, and the wife of Henry Back (1740-1809). Furthermore, Henry Back (1740-1809) is most definitely not the son of Harman Back. Harman Back only had one son, which was Harman Back Jr. (1737-1798).

Elizabeth Hoffman Back (born July 13, 1746) never went to Kentucky. After her husband Henry died, in 1809, she moved to Rockingham County, Virginia, to live next to her widowed sister Margaret Hoffman Back, who had been married to John Back, who was Henry Back's brother. Both Elizabeth Hoffman Back, and her sister, Margaret Hoffman Back, died in Rockingham County, Virginia.

The Bach (Back) family that comes from southeastern Kentucky descends from Johann Heinrich Bach (1709-1789), who sailed to America, in 1740, and settled in the far southern part of Culpeper County, along Crooked Creek, near where it flows into the Robinson River. After he immigrated, he changed the spelling of his name to John Henry Back. He had four children: John Back (1738-1794, who married Margaret Hoffman); Henry Back (1740-1809, who married Elizabeth Hoffman); Joseph Back (1745-1819, who married Elizabeth Hoffman-Maggard); and Anna Back (1755-1804, who married Benjamin Strother).

Margaret Hoffman and Elizabeth Hoffman were sisters; they were the daughters of John Hoffman and his second wife, Maria Sabina Folg. John Hoffman and his family lived along the Robinson River, in the far southern part of Culpeper County that became Madison County, in 1792. The Hoffman family were next-door neighbors of John Henry Back. This was 25 miles south of Little Fork, which was in the far northern part of Culpeper County, Virginia, where Harman Back lived. It is highly doubtful that John Henry Back and John Hoffman even knew Harman Back.

Shortly after John Henry Back died, in 1789, his son Joseph Back, his wife Elizabeth Hoffman-Maggard, and their four children, left Virginia and migrated to southeastern Kentucky. Their son John's best friend, Samuel Maggard, went with them. They arrived there in 1791. They settled along Quicksand Creek, in what later became Breathitt County. They were the first settlers there. Joseph Back and his wife had four children:

1. Joseph Back Jr. (1773-1802, who was murdered in 1802; his wife is not known);
2. John Back (1774-1853, who married Catherine Robertson);
3. Mary Back (1777-1807, who had an affair with John Colyer, had a son named Alfred Back in Dec. of 1806, and then died a few weeks later); and
4. Henry Back (1785-1871, who married Susannah Maggard).

In 1797, Joseph and Elizabeth abandoned their cabin along Quicksand Creek, and they moved down to some land along the Poor Fork of the Cumberland River, because there was a small settlement of people living there, as well as a trading post. Where they had been living, along Quicksand Creek, was so remote that it was impossible for their two youngest children (Mary and Henry) to ever hope of meeting a potential spouse. (Their two older children, Joseph Jr. and John, had already gotten married, in 1795, over in southwestern Virginia.)

Joseph died in 1819, and he was buried beside his cabin. His wife Elizabeth told several people that she wanted to be buried by a specific large tree, next to the river. When she died, in 1826, she was buried there. Shortly after that, The Maggard Cemetery was built around her grave. It was called The Maggard Cemetery because of her close relationship with that family.

Sadly, in the fall of 1988, some members of "The Back-Bach Genealogical Society" pulled up her gravestone, and threw it over the hill. Then they erected a new gravestone that described her sister-in-law, Elizabeth Hoffman Back (born July 13, 1746), in a desperate attempt to make it appear as if she had moved to southeastern Kentucky and founded the family there. They did that, to sell a fraudulent genealogy book that they were getting ready to publish.

Sources

https://back-bachgenealogicalsociety.com

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/121232474/joseph-back

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/168582980/elizabeth-back

• "Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : modified 21 October 2021, 00:33), entry for Joseph Back (PID https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/4:1:G774-VFQ ); contributed by various users.
• Back-433 was created by Mike Crain through the import of TestTree(2).ged on Jan 10, 2015.