George Washington Hoke, c. 1828–1873

George Washington Hoke was born between 1826–1830 in Pennsylvania to Thomas Hoke and Elizabeth Roadman. He moved west from Pennsylvania to Marion City, Marion County, Missouri, as a lad. Before September 1850 at the age of eighteen, he was living with his parents and three brothers, John, Samuel, and Benjamin, on the Hoke Farm in District 82 of St Louis County. His older brother William had already married Octavia Stytz and moved back to Marion County. His father passed away on 8 October 1854 and the Hoke farm was sold with family members migrating to California. In January 1855, according to Thomas Hoke’s probate records, George was living in California, as was older brother William’s family.

By 1857, George returned to St. Louis, Missouri, where on 25 August 1857, a Catholic Jesuit priest married George Hoke to Elizabeth Julia Martin, daughter of David Martin and Helen Withington. After they returned to California, their first child, Frances Idell Hoke, was born on 13 November 1859 in Sacramento County. By September 1860, they returned to Missouri to live and farm with Elizabeth’s brother, Thomas Martin, in St. Ferdinand, St. Louis County, Missouri. On 16 July 1862, their second daughter, Laura, was born to them.

Now living and farming on St. Charles Rock Road, he registered for the August 1863 Civil War draft at age thirty-seven, and later under oath swore that he had “always been a loyal man; furnished horses to the Government during the war; was enrolled in the militia; reported, but was exempted from duty on account of my eyes.” He was placed on the list of qualified voters.

George was an entrepreneur and businessman. On the Central Township and St. Louis County 1862–1865 tax assessments, he was taxed as a horse and retail liquor dealer with income in excess of $600 and for one carriage and one horse. He was also taxed in St. Ferdinand Township, Bridgeton, for a carriage, gold watches, and Income of excess of $600 in 1865.
On 15 April 1865, his son, George Thomas Hoke, was born in St Louis but two months before George’s fourth birthday, his mother, Elizabeth, died of consumption on 10 February 1869, with her funeral at their late residence, Eight-mile House, St Charles Rock Road. In 1869, George then married Louise James, daughter of Edward James and Nancy Withington of St. Louis and they had a daughter, Elizabeth Hoke born in 1869, and a son, William Edward Hoke born in 1870.

Before June 1870, George lived in Bedford, Lincoln County, Missouri, on a 320-acre farm (Twp 49 Range 1, part of sections 29–32). This farm sold at a sheriff’s sale on Thursday, 3 October 1872, at the Troy courthouse. A Lincoln County Trust Deed dated 15 July 1872 indicates George resided on the Robbins farm, situated about four miles west of Troy, Missouri. One year later George, age forty-two, contracted cerebro-spinal meningitis. He died on 1 June 1873 at the Sisters’ Hospital in St. Louis, leaving wife Louise and five children aged three to fourteen. He was buried at Cap Au Gris, Lincoln County, Missouri.

Written by Lena Seng
August 2022

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Last Modified: 12-Nov-2022 16:37