52 Ancestors: Isabella (Smith) Hocker (1893-1962)

William and Eliza Craig (Bonnington) Smith came to Pennsylvania from Edinburgh, Scotland about 1890, leaving their eldest two children with Eliza’s parents Peter and Elizabeth (Buchanan) Bonnington in Scotland until they were settled in Harrisburg.¹  William became a United States citizen on 12 January 1893.²

My great grandmother, Isabella “Isabel” (Aiken) Smith, was born Tuesday, 4 April 1893 in Harrisburg, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.³ She was the third daughter and fifth Smith child. He older brother William was the first child born in the United States. He was born 28 March 1892.⁴ Her youngest brother, Robert Thomas Alexander Smith was born 7 April 1899.⁵

The family lived on Zarker Street in Harrisburg. William owned and operated an ice house on Howard Street.⁶ Given the proximity between the two, it’s likely that the family home was behind their business.

When Isabella was eleven years old, her father died of pneumonia on Thursday, 23 February 1905.⁷ He was fifty-three years old. Eliza was suddenly responsible for a family of five children, aged from nineteen to four years of age. I’m sure it was a difficult time for them all.

Eliza remarried on 1 August 1908 in Harrisburg to Robert Owens Cochrane, an Irishman.⁸ He was a clerk for a steel company. In 1910, the family was living at 1934 Forster Street in Susquehanna Township, just outside the Harrisburg city limits.⁹ James and William were not with the family—James, I believe, died in 1905, but I don’t know where Willie was at this time. Isabella’s older sister, Bess, was working as a sales lady and Isabella was working as a telephone operator. By the time Isabella was nineteen, her hair had turned white from typhoid fever—which she had twice.¹⁰

On Tuesday, 13 October 1914, at age 21, Isabella married at Harrisburg, William “Will” Howard Hocker.¹¹  The youngest son of Albert Curtin and Lillian Ainsley (Leedy) Hocker, formerly of Harrisburg, Will was born Sunday, 17 August 1890 in Swatara Township.¹²

Will was a carpenter and general contractor for most of his life. At one point, however, he worked as a millwright at Aetna Explosives Company in Newton Hamilton on the Juniata River in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania.¹³ My grandfather told the story that one day his father had gone home for lunch, leaving his men at work at the mill. While he was at home, there was a terrible explosion. Grandpa said his father blamed himself for not being there to watch over his men.

Will and Isabella had five children:

1. Isabella Bonnington Hocker was born 20 May 1915 and died 13 July 2006. Bonnie married Harold McGowan Ruder on 25 April 1940 at Olivet Presbyterian Church in Harrisburg.
2. William Howard Hocker Jr. was born on 1 September 1918 and died 17 January 2008. He married my grandmother on 25 September 1941.
3. Anna Louise Hocker was born 10 September 1919 and died 23 September 1963. She married 14 August 1942 Willard Clair Hoover in Alexandria, Louisiana.
4. Betty Jean Hocker was born 3 November 1923 and died 6 March 2014. She married William Osbourne Wingeard Jr. 24 April 1953 at Epworth Methodist Church in Harrisburg.
5. Meriam “Mims” Elizabeth Hocker was born 20 September 1929 in Harrisburg and died 15 September 1999. She married January 1949 in Hagerstown, Maryland.

Isabella’s mother, Eliza Craig (Bonnington) Smith Cochrane, died Friday, 18 October 1946 in Philadelphia.¹⁴ Her second husband had passed away more the twenty years before. Eliza was buried in Paxtang Cemetery, Paxtang Borough, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.

Isabella died Saturday, 21 July 1962 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She was buried in the Paxtang Cemetery on Tuesday, 24 July 1962.¹⁵ She was survived by her husband, five children, and fourteen grandchildren.¹⁶At the time of her death, she was a member of Epworth Methodist Church and taught in the church’s beginning department.

Will passed away Wednesday, 22 March 1967 and was buried Saturday, 25 March 1967, also in Paxtang Cemetery.¹⁷ He was survived by his son, three daughters, and fourteen grandchildren.¹⁸ He, too, was a member of Epworth Methodist Church. He was also a member and trustee of the local carpenter’s union and the Harrisburg Hunters and Anglers Association.

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This post is part of an ongoing, blogging challenge entitled 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, created by Amy Crow of No Story Too Small. Participants must write about one ancestor every week. This is my twenty-first 52 Ancestors post and part of week thirty-four.

• Category: Research
• Tag: 52 Ancestors, Hacker-Hocker Genealogy, Paternal Line