Friday Find: Is This Our Christopher Hocker?

I recently came across a reference to a Christopher Hocker who was living in Ohio in the early 1800s. As you recall, Johann George Hacker’s son Christopher was allegedly “of a rather headstrong disposition; he left his wife here in Montgomery county and went to Ohio, lived and married there a second time.”¹

In Pennsylvania

Christopher was born about 1772 in Whitemarsh Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, son of Johann George and Anna Margaretha (Weidman) Hacker.² He married Catharine Daub, daughter of Henry and Christianna (Wohlfarth) Daub,  10 April 1792 at Saint Michael’s Lutheran Church in Germantown.³

The couple lived in Whitemarsh Township until about 1800. In 1805, he purchased a tavern and acreage from his father-in-law in Sandy Run.⁴ According to deed records, Christopher (Innkeeper) purchased a lot in Whitemarsh Township from the daughters of Jacob Edge on 1 April 1807.⁵

About 1808, Christopher apparently ran into financial troubles. On 5 April 1808, Christopher (Farmer) and Catharine Hocker sold this land to Daniel Hitner.⁶ He also gave up the tavern to assignees John Wentz, George Price, and Samuel Maulsby.⁷ According to family legend, Christopher found himself in debt and fled to Ohio.

I haven’t been able to track Christopher down in Ohio. His son George, who later returned to Whitemarsh Township, was said to have been born there in 1814. And we know Christopher was still alive as of 1821 as he was named as one of the surviving children in his father’s estate files.⁸

So, just where did Christopher go?

In Ohio

Maybe he was living on Licking Creek in Falls Township, Muskingum County, Ohio. I found reference to a Christopher Hocker living there in a Cumberland County Historical Society journal article about Jacob Fought, a Carlisle tavern keeper. About Christopher, it says:

“In April 1814, Christopher Hocker, who lived on Licking Creek in Falls Township, Muskingum Counry, Ohio…hired a young man, Asher Nichols, to help take the horses to Philadelphia… Their eastward trip passed through Carlisle, Pennsylvania where they arrived on the sixth or seventh of February 1815. In Carlisle, they stayed at Jacob Fought’s inn, Sign of the Plough and Harrow, located only two blocks from the town center where the courthouse, market, and two established churches were.

On 9 February 1815, Nichols left the inn and stable along with Hocker’s two horses, and without Hocker’s permission. He arrived at Hummelstown, probably the town by that name near Harrisburg. Nichols was found and brought back to Carlisle to stand trial for horse stealing. A great effort was made to seek evidence for this serious accusation. This included sending prosecution and defense interrogatories to the Muskingum County court, which deposed four key Ohio witnesses.

Asher Nichols was indicted on a charge of larceny, for horse stealing, on oath of Christopher Hocker, in the summer of 1815… Asher Nichols was found guilty and sentenced to hard labor. The bills or taxes for witnesses and the docket session findings do not state the term of the sentence.”⁹

This is the first reference I’ve found to a Christopher Hocker in a specific location in Ohio at a time when Johann George’s son was alleged to have been there. 1814, the year Christopher’s son George was said to have been born in Ohio. This passage also provides several sources to follow-up with—Cumberland County court records and Muskingum County court records—regarding the theft of Christopher’s horses in Carlisle.

Time to get crackin’.

• Category: Research
• Tag: Brickwalls, Friday Finds