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CHARLES HOFFMAN, an active and successful farmer of Viola Township, was born in Holstein, Germany, December
3, 1844. He is the son of Charles and Celie Hoffman, who emigrated to the United States when our subject was four
years old. They landed at the city of New Orleans, and came up the river to Davenport, Iowa, where they settled.
The father was a fisherman by occupation. He died in the year 1880, and the mother died in the year 1878. In his
childhood Charles spent little time in school, as he was needed to assist his father. In later years he went to
work on a farm for a man named Bennett, on condition that he was to go to school a portion of the time. This contract
resulted in three years' work and one week's schooling, a deprivation to which there is none other equal. Charles
returned to Davenport and remained there a year, being unable to work. In August, 1862, at the age of eighteen
years, he enlisted in the Union army, in Company G, Twentieth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and was sent to St. Louis,
Missouri, thence to Arkansas, and then to Vicksburg, where he took part in the siege. In 1863 his regiment was
sent to Port Hudson, and there did duty as guards and in attending the sick for three months. He was then ordered
to New Orleans, thence to Mustang Island. After six months he was sent to Texas, being stationed at Brownsville.
His next order was to go to Mobile Bay, and after some skirmishing there he was mustered out, receiving his discharge
at Clinton, Iowa, in July, 1865. He then returned to Davenport and there worked two years in a lime-kiln. In the
spring of 1871 he came to Audubon County and settled on his present farm, which was then raw prairie. He first
bought eighty acres, and now owns 200 acres, well improved. He was married in 1866 to Miss Mary J. Baker, a daughter
of Robert and Eliza (Owen) Baker, of Davenport, Iowa. By this marriage seven children have been born--Charles O.,
William H., Christopher A., Robert L., James, Roy V., and Lillie May. By industry and good management Mr. Hoffman
has acquired a valuable property, and his honorable dealing has won the confidence and respect of all who know
him.
FROM:
Biographical History of Shelby and Audubon Counties Iowa
W. S. Dunbar & Co., Publishers.
Chiago, 1889.
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