The William Hodge Family
(about 1777 - 1871)
The William
Hodge family emigrated from Pennsylvania to Ohio about 1840. They were farmers. We know practically nothing about William’s life in his early
years. We don’t know where his Hodge
line may have originated. It seems most
likely that they may have come from the British Isles since many Hodge lines
have been traced back to Scotland, England, and Wales.
The death record
for William Hodge, parent of Samuel Hodge, gives his death as February 20,
1871. It lists his place of birth as
being Maryland. However, Federal Census
records show him to have been born in Pennsylvania. The name of William's wife is unknown. She and William had 5 children, one of whom was Samuel Hodge (abt 1817 - February 11, 1896), the author’s
great, great, great grandfather. The
names of the other four children were Martha, Mary, William R., and Phebe
Hodge. The only available data on these
children are contained in the Hodge family tree on this site.
It appears that
the name of the parent of William Hodge, parent of Samuel Hodge, may also have been
named William Hodge. The evidence for
this comes from court records that are discussed below. To keep the story straight I will refer to
William Hodge, parent of William Hodge, as William Hodge, Sr. I will refer to William Hodge, parent of
Samuel Hodge, as William Hodge, Jr.
From the deed
records in the Monroe County courthouse, on October 8, 1844 William Hodge, Jr.,
parent of Samuel, bought from Joseph McCoy 80 acres situated in Range 6,
Township 4, Section 28. The description
of the parcel is given as, eastern 1/2 of Southeastern quarter. The deed is located in Deed Book, Volume 8,
page 6. This property is situated in
Bethel Township on Pleasant Ridge. It
is perhaps equidistant between Graysville and Sycamore Valley and almost
directly across the road from the Pleasant Ridge Church of Christ.
What little we
know about William Hodge, Jr., parent of Samuel Hodge, comes from land and tax
records and from legal documents relating to a lawsuit. It appears that William, parent of Samuel,
had a brother named James Hodge. The land records show that on February 10,
1838, James Hodge bought a 1+ acre lot near Malaga, Ohio from William G.
Shankland. Malaga is 8 miles north of
Woodsfield on State Route 800. From
William Hodges's farm, Woodsfield, Ohio was 16 miles north-northeast making a
trip between the James Hodge and William Hodge, Jr.'s properties a total of 24
miles.
The following is
from the records of the Monroe County, Civil Court. They are excerpts from a series of law suits held in the Civil Courts
of Monroe County, Ohio. They began with
Peter Waddle, plaintiff, suing William Hodge, defendant for the price of a
mare. I believe the defendent to be
William Hodge, Sr. because as will be seen later in the story, this William
Hodge appears to be the parent of James Hodge who lived in Malaga, and most
likely the parent of William Hodge, Jr., parent of Samuel Hodge. According to the records from the Civil
Court and other available records, the story goes like this.
In 1847 when
this saga began, William Hodge, Sr. was likely about 90 years old and it
appears that by then his son, William Hodge, Jr., was around 70 years old and
that Samuel, who was 27 years old, was the primary operator on his father's,
William Hodge, Jr.’s farm. According to
the records, on March 5, 1847 William Hodge, Sr. (whom we will call Bill Hodge
for convenience) borrowed a mare from Peter Waddle. The purpose for borrowing the mare was to make a trip from near
Graysville to Malaga, most likely to visit his son, Jim. Presumably, he made the trip without
incident but shortly after the returned trip, the mare became sick. In less than a month, on April 1, 1847, the
mare died. Peter held Bill Hodge responsible
for the mare but Bill felt the fate of the mare was not his fault. No doubt there were some words between the
two men but no agreement as to who or what was responsible. But, Peter was out a mare and he felt he
should be compensated for her.
With no
resolution in sight, on April 14, 1847 Peter Waddle brought a legal complaint
against Bill Hodge, Sr. On April 24, 1847 at 12:00 o'clock the parties to the
dispute appeared in the office of the Thomas Miller, Justice of Peace for
Bethel Township. Peter filed a bill of
particulars that included compensation for the horse plus damages; a bill that
came to a total of $90. But, there was
to be no resolution with each man feeling that he was in the right. The outcome of this hearing was that Bill
Hodge, Sr. demanded and was granted a trial by jury.
The trial date
was set for May 1, 1847. The jury
included Henry Winland, Robert Martin, Jacob Miller, Sen. William Holden,
Frances Miller and Jack Miller, Jr. The
defendant, William Hodge, Sr., called 15 witnesses. These included Robert Gatchel, Jonathan Conner, John L. Henthorn,
John Enlow, Matthew Scott, Thomas Fisher, William Hodge (I assume this to be
William Hodge, Jr.), James Hodge (I assume this to be William Hodge, Sr.’s
son), Martha Hodge, Elisabeth Enlow, Samuel Fisher, James Enlow, James Thomson,
John Moray, and Samuel Hodge (I assume this to be the son of William Hodge,
Jr.). Considering the number of
witnesses it must have been a lengthy trial over a mare. In the end, Bill Hodge, Sr. lost. Bill was judged to owe Peter Waddle $60 for
the mare plus costs of $34.70 ½ cents.
It would be
interesting to be able to know more of the details of the position of Bill
Hodge, Sr., but, alas, such details have been lost in time. For, even though he had been found to be the
loser by a jury, Bill obviously still felt that he was in the right. He decided to appeal the decision to the
Court of Common Pleas. This retrial or
review of the case appears to have been scheduled for the June term of 1848.
Having been
found liable by the first trial, the court apparently found cause to question whether
Bill Hodge would pay if he were found guilty the second time (or perhaps more
correctly stated: if the court of appeals upheld the Civil Court’s
decision). So, as a condition of the
appeal, Bill Hodge, Sr. had to appear before the Justice of Peace, Thomas
Miller, and post a bond of $250 bond.
Of course, with each maneuver the legal costs in the case continued to
rise. Bill Hodge purchased a $250 bond
from a bondsman, Jonathan Conner.
Co-signing with him for security was James Hodge, his son.
The next action
was precipitated by Peter Waddle in the October 1852 term of Common Pleas
Court. On November 1, 1852 Peter Waddle
caused the bondsman, Jonathan Conner to pay the sum of $111.97 plus cost, for a
total of $122.60. In this action
William Hodge, Sr. is reported to have died and that his estate was
insolvent. James Hodge who had
co-signed the bond with William Hodge, Sr., paid nothing of the $122.60
bill.
Bondsmen do not
like to pay bonds and Jonathan Conner was no exception. In May 1860, Jonathan Conner filed suit to
compel the heirs of James Hodge, deceased, to make a deed to Peter Mann for a
lot near the town of Malaga and compel said Peter Mann to pay over the purchase
money for said lot to the plaintiff, Jonathan Conner.
You guessed it. According to the court records related to the
May 1860 lawsuit by Jonathan Conner to recover his $122.60 or some part
thereof, James Hodge son of William Hodge, Sr., had died. I subsequently found James Hodge’s tomb
stone in Malaga which indicates that he died October 29, 1851.* What apparently happened was that Jonathan
Conner never stopped trying to collect his $122.60 from the estate of James
Hodge, the cosigner of William Hodge, Sr.'s bond.
But, you will
recall (from above) that James Hodge had bought an acre or so of land in 1838
near Malaga from one William G Shankland.
Being a good bondsman, Jonathan Conner found out about the lot. The records show that one of James Hodge’s
heirs sold this acre of land to a Peter Mann for $120. Peter Mann made improvements on this land
and began paying taxes on it but he withheld paying the $120 purchase price
until he could be provided a clear deed.
This never happened. After James
Hodge died his heirs could never get together to provide the clear deed. James Hodge's heirs included William Hodge
(still another William Hodge), Kenworthy Hodge, John Hodge, Robert Hodge,
Joseph Hodge, Margaret (Hodge) and her husband Moses Starr, and Martha
Hodge. But the family had dispersed. William had moved to Maryland; John and
Robert still lived in Monroe County, Ohio; Joseph lived in Noble County, Ohio;
Margaret and Moses Starr as well as Margaret's sister, Martha Hodge, lived in
Guernsey County, Ohio; and Kenworthy lived in California.
Jonathan Conner
saw the agreed-upon price of $120 for the 1 acre lot of James Hodge as his
ticket to getting at least part of his $122.60 back. So, to accomplish his ends, Mr. Conner sued the heirs of James
Hodge and Peter Mann as mentioned above.
The sheriff was commanded by the court to notify the heirs of James
Hodge that they were being sued by Jonathan Conner in the Court of Common Pleas
of Monroe County and that unless they answered by the 23 of June 1860, the
petition in said case as against them will be taken as true and judgment
rendered accordingly.
Peter Mann's
answer to the court was that he was ready to pay the $120 as soon as he could
get a clear deed for the land. He
claimed that he had bought the lot from Robert Hodge on March 14, 1856 as an
agent of the heirs. The case was
resolved by all the heirs, except Robert, missing the response deadline of 23
June 1860. James was free to prepare a
deed for Peter Mann. Peter Mann in turn
paid the Court the $120 for the lot.
The Court took its cut from the $120 and paid the rest to Jonathan
Conner.
And so it
appears that after a period of 13 years the case of the dead mare finally came
to a close.
* A search of the two old cemeteries in
Malaga, Ohio turned up a gravestone for James Hodge and his wife Agnes. James Hodge died on October 29, 1851 at the
age of 73
Two
assumptions had to be made to allow the several pieces of the above saga to fit
together. They need to be mentioned
here as qualifiers so that future researchers will not assume their accuracy
without understanding that they are assumptions. The first is the assumption that William Hodge (abt 1777 – 1871)
and James Hodge (abt 1778 – 1851) are brothers. This assumption is based on the circumstance that William and
James appear to have come to Monroe County from Pennsylvania about the same
time (around 1838 to 1840), their calculated dates of birth show them being
born within a year or two of each other, and the senior William Hodge, known to
be the father of James, appeared to be traveling between Pleasant Ridge and Malaga,
the places of residence of William, Jr. and James, respectively. The second assumption is that William Hodge,
Sr. was about 20 years old when James Hodge was born. This is only a guess to estimate the age of William, Sr. It is known that William, Sr. was father of
James Hodge. We know the date of death
of James Hodge, October 29, 1851, and his age at death, 73, and can calculate
his approximate date of birth. By assuming
that his father, William Hodge, Sr. may have been about 20 years old when James
was born, we can estimate that he could have been born around 1857. With this estimate and his approximate date
of death, i.e., prior to November 1852, we can estimate that he was about 95
years old when he died. This would have
made him close to 90 years old when he borrowed the horse from Peter
Waddle. With these two unproven, but
supported by circumstances, assumptions, the elements of the saga appear to fit
nicely.
This report provided by Richard Harrington -- e-mail: Richard Harrington
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