Update: Andrew Hoover Jr. of Fayette County

One of the pieces of data I have for Andrew Hoover Jr. has intrigued and perplexed me. During her research in this Hoover family, Luella Schuamburg Hoover was sent a deed from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in which Andrew named Yost Herbaugh as his attorney to receive from Catherine Liebrich, relict of Nicholas Liebrich, late of Raffow Township (Rapho Township), Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, “three bonds due from John John [Hans] of Menallen Township… unto me two of which are for the sum of Twenty-five pounds.”¹  I’ve always wondered who was Catherine Liebrich and what was her relationship to Andrew?

Today, I decided to poke around and see if I could discover more about the Liebrich family. I got lucky and found a site put together by David Hartzell Leebrick. From it I learned that Nicholas Liebrich, Andrew Hoover, and Philip Brown purchased land from John Hans in 1784, adjoining property of Christian Frederick, Ulrich Gingrich, Matthias Hoffart, Jacob Hoober, John Painter, and Andrew Hype.² I also discovered that my speculation regarding Catharine Liebrich being the mother or mother-in-law of Andrew Hoover was NOT true. Both Nicholas and Catharina were contemporaries of Andrew and the marriages of all their daughters have been accounted for. So, if she wasn’t his mother remarried or his mother-in-law, who was she? Why did Andrew Hoover from Wharton Township, Fayette County purchase land with Nicholas Liebrich of Manheim Township, Lancaster County and Philip Brown? The mystery deepened.

Although the Liebrich site included source data for the birth dates of the Liebrich children—John, Philip, Daniel, George, Elizabeth, Catharine, Mary, and Salome (also called Sarah)—I decided to check John Humphrey’s “Pennsylvania Births: Lancaster County 1723-1777” and “Pennsylvania Births: Lancaster County 1778-1800” for their birth/baptism information. Instead I found Catharine’s maiden name. The listing for Nicholas and Catharine’s daughter Maria includes the names of her parents as “Nichol. Liebrich and Catharina Hansin,” the “in” being a suffix indicative of a female.³

Thinking that John Hans was perhaps, then, Catharina’s father, I searched for additional deeds for John Hans, hoping he died intestate and thus deeds might reflect the settling of his estate and name his heirs. Instead, I found a deed from John Hans in which he sold land that he had inherited from his father Henry Hans, that by its boundary definition, looked to be the exact piece of land that was sold to Nicholas Liebrich, Andrew Hoover and Philip Brown in 1784.⁴

So, I went looking for deeds granted by Henry Hans and got lucky. I found a deed from Henry Hans’ heirs to John Hans in which “Catharine Hans wife of Nicholas Liebrich of the Town of Manheim and the County of Lancaster, Maria Hans wife of Andrew Hoover in Fayat [sic] County, Mansion [sic] Township, Barbara Hans wife of Philip Brown in Paxton Township, Elizabeth daughters and Sons in Laws all of the deceased Henry Hans and Province of Pennsylvania” released their rights in the property to John Hans the “son of the deceased Henry Hans.”⁵ Additionally, there was another quitclaim for this property from Maria Huber to John Hans dated 1788, because although Andrew and Maria were included in the prior deed and Andrew signed it, “yet by Neglect or otherwise she [Maria] did not sign and execute the same.” ⁶ This quitclaim was witnessed by Alexander McClean and Silvester Gruber. McClean was a neighbor of the Hoovers in Fayette County.

Thus, after some sleuthing for the Liebrich and Hans families in Lancaster County, I now know that Andrew Hoover Jr. (Andrew¹) of Fayette County married Maria Hans, daughter of Henry Hans of Warwick Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Next Steps? Andrew Hoover Jr. was allegedly in Fayette County, Pennsylvania by 1770 when his brother Jacob Hoover settled on land in Monongalia County, Virginia (now part of Greene County, Pennsylvania). He purchased land in Westmoreland County in 1775 with his brother-in-law John Hunsaker from John Waller. However, an estimated birth date for Andrew’s son George of 1775-1778 means that Andrew married about 1774. So, when and where did Andrew meet Maria Hans of Warwick Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania?

As far as I know, Andreas Huber Sr. and family never lived in Lancaster County. Did he perhaps move his family there between his sale of his old Frederick County, Maryland property in 1763 and his purchase of other property in 1772? ⁷ If, as I postulate in “Andreas Huber Origins: Trippstadt, Ellerstadt, or Ittlingen?,” Andreas’ brother was Johannes Huber of Manheim Township, did Andreas’ family, perhaps, spend time with him in Lancaster County? What other connections exist between the Fayette County Hoovers and the Lancaster County Hoovers?

All good questions for which I need to find answers. What answers, I wonder, can be found in documents I have yet to find?

• Category: Brick Walls, Research
• Tag: Hoover Surname Study