THE SEVERNS VALLEY in Kentucky, home of the pioneer families of Hobbs, Vertrees, Haycraft and Van Meter, took its
name from John Severns, an early adventurer, who, attracted by the beauty of the location, entered land and gave
his name to creek and valley. Severns Valley Creek, a branch of Nolin, empties into Green River, on whose banks
numerous of Pike county's earliest settlers had their origin.
In the days of early settlement, the valley was clothed for the most part with a dense forest. In the dark woods
and undergrowth, hostile Indians often skulked, watching a chance to swoop upon some unsuspecting settler or his
home. Homes were of the nature of block-houses, with stockades and port-holes for resisting enemy attacks. Samuel
Haycraft, brother of Nancy Haycraft who married John Vertrees and became the great grandmother of the present Pittsfield
Vertreeses, thus describes (in his History of Elizabethtown, Kentucky) the defenses of those old forting days in
the Severns Valley:
"About the fall of 1779 and winter of 1780, the early settlers were Captain Thomas Helm, Colonel Andrew Hynes
and Samuel Haycraft (father of Nancy Haycraft Vertrees); each of these persons built forts with block houses. The
forts were stockades, constructed of split timber — then deemed sufficient for defense against the Indian rifles.
The sites were well selected, each on elevated ground, commanding springs of never failing and excellent water."
Haycraft's fort, in which Nancy (Haycraft) Vertrees was born in 1782, was on the hill above Cave Spring (near present
Elizabethtown, Kentucky), "in which," says the historian, Samuel Haycraft, Jr., "the flesh of many
a deer, buffalo and bear was preserved for use, as salt in those days was not to be had. There were no other settlements
at that time between the falls of the Ohio (present Louisville) and Green river. These forts were subject to frequent
attacks by the Indians. The report of a gun at either of these forts was the signal by which the other forts were
warned of the danger and summoned to the aid of the besieged fortress, which was promptly responded to. Many were
the inroads made by savages upon the infant settlements at that early period."
Deeds of daring valor were performed by our pioneers of the Severns Valley, whose descendants are today so numerous
in Pike county. Many of these descendants are wholly unacquainted with the exciting history of their forebears
in those old forting days when Kentucky was being settled. Blood of their kinsmen was shed on many a savage field
of encounter. Dan Vertrees, a son of Nancy Haycraft Vertrees and brother of Jacob Sneed Vertrees of early Perry,
was killed by the Indians in Severns Valley; he a stalwart young man of daring, boldest of the bold.
The families of Hobbs, Van Meter and Vertrees occupied fortress homes similar to that of Haycraft on the Kentucky
frontier. Together, these families withstood the shock of Indian warfare, a savage contest for dominion. The families
were already inter-related. The elder Samuel Haycraft had married Margaret Van Meter, daughter of old Jacob and
sister of Mary Van Meter, who married Major William Chenoweth, they being ancestors of the Pike county Chenoweths.
The Haycraft and Vertrees families intermarried, as did the families of Haycraft and Chenoweth and those of Vertrees
and Hobbs.
Hinson S. Hobbs, son of the elder Solomon Hobbs and Mary L. Young, and grandson of pioneer Hinson Hobbs of the
early Severns Valley settlement, came to Pike county with his parents in 1834 and settled in the neighborhood of
Perry, being then 20 years of age. Born in Kentucky in 1814, he was the eldest of the elder Solomon Hobbs' nine
children.
On March 31, 1842, Hinson S. Hobbs married Mary M. Taylor, one of the thirteen children of the Pike county pioneers,
Simon H. and Nancy Taylor, Kentuckians, he of Welsh descent, she of German. They were married by Caleb Browning,
then a Pike county justice of the peace. Among the bride's brothers and sisters were Josiah, John L., Nicholas,
Gaylen and Sutphin Taylor, and Mrs. Catherine Brim, Mrs. Vibrilla Wade, Mrs. Marilda Holmes and Mrs. Mary J. Smith.
Hinson Hobbs began farming on his own account immediately following his marriage, being very successful in that
undertaking. He accumulated 600 acres of land, nearly 400 lying in Perry township. He became the father of seven
children, four boys and three girls.
Following the death of Hinson S. Hobbs, his widow, Mary M. Hobbs, continued to reside at Perry; she died December
22, 1915, leaving surviving her as heirs three sons, David H., William M., and Taylor S. Hobbs, and one daughter,
Ida, who had married Joshua W. Long; also her grandchildren, the children of a deceased son, James, and a deceased
daughter, Loretta Hobbs, Rollo Six was executor of her will, dated April 6, 1912, and witnessed by Harvey Six and
Mina Belford, and, in part, by J. L. Baldwin.
David H. Hobbs, a veteran of the Civil War, married Phoebe Spires, in Pike county, March 23, 1879. David lived
at Perry and was also a resident at one time of Fayette county, later becoming a resident of the Soldiers' Home
at Quincy, Illinois, where he died March 25, 1916, leaving as his only children and heirs Abraham H. Hobbs and
Mrs. Edith Hobbs Moore. He owned property in Chenoweth's Addition in Perry. George I. Kendrick, public administrator,
administered his estate.
William M. Hobbs and Taylor S. Hobbs, brothers of David H., located in Fayette county, Illinois, the former at
Avena, the latter at Vandalia.
James Hobbs at the age of 21 married Eunice Walker, a native of Missouri and a daughter of John W. Walker and Elizabeth
S. Dewitt. They were married at Griggsville April 16, 1880, by Justice H. Lynde. James died in Shelby county, Illinois,
leaving two daughters, Mary A. Specht and Lola C. Griffin of Shelbyville.
Ida Hobbs married Joshua W. Long in Pike county May 13, 1876, with Justice J. H. Dennis officiating. She later
resided at Cameron, Missouri.
Loretta Hobbs married Thomas Stone. She died July 27, 1904, aged 40, leaving two daughters, Mary Stone Washburn
and Lena Stone Larkin of Holden, Missouri.
Esther B. Hobbs, daughter of Hinson S. Hobbs and Mary M. Taylor, was the first of the seven children to die, her
death occurring at Perry September 8, 1885, at the age of 18 years, two months and six days. She is buried in Old
Baptist cemetery at Perry.
Eli Hobbs, another son of pioneer Solomon and a grandson of Kentucky Hinson, married Mrs. Lucinda Elledge in Pike
county January 2, 1849, she a daughter of the elder Josias Wade, early settler in Flint township and old Indian
fighter who was under General Howard with William Henry Harrison's force at Tippecanoe. Josias Wade, who died in
Pike county in 1844, occupies one of the earliest graves in Bethel churchyard in Newburg township.
Lucinda Wade was the fourteenth child of Josias wade, who was the father of seventeen children; he and his second
wife, Frances Dorson, were married in Kentucky in 1809. He was father of five children by his first wife, who died
in 1805 in Kentucky.
Lucinda's first husband was Joel Elledge, a son of Boone Elledge and Rebecca Beall, and a grandson of Francis Elledge
and Charity Boone, she a daughter of Daniel Boone's brother, Edward (Neddie) Boone and his wife, Martha Bryan,
whose lost grave in Kentucky has been discovered during the publication of this history.
Lucinda Wade and Joel Elledge were married in Pike county December 21, 1843. She was of Kentucky birth, born there
August 14, 1825. They had one daughter, Rebecca Frances Elledge, born February 3, 1845. The father, Joel, died
soon after this daughter's birth.
Rebecca Frances Elledge married Adam Hofsess, a son of John and Rosina Hofsess, December 27, 1866, Justice Elijah
Cole performing the ceremony.
Adam Hofsess and Rebecca Frances Elledge had four children, namely, Frederick J., Lucinda R., Jonah Harvy and Mary
Essie Hofsess. Three are living.
Frederick J. Hofsess, born March 22, 1868, married Martha Elizabeth White February 4, 1891, and they reside in
Oregon. They had seven children, namely:
Rebecca Frances Hofsess, born December 16, 1891, married Lester C. Autery November 16, 1921, and they have one
child, Rosalle Ellen Autery, born January 15, 1928;
Lyda V. Hofsess, born August 30, 1893, married John D. Hawkins in September, 1915, and they have eight children,
namely, Jacob James born August 20, 1916; Hazel May, February 21, 1918; Frederick Archie, August 10, 1919; Georgana
Sue, March 30, 1921; Philip John, January 4, 1923; Francis Lester, January 8, 1925; Joe Adam, September 6, 1926;
and Melvin Lee, October 28, 1928.
Lenora May Hofsess, born August 1, 1894, married Alfred J. Sweet January 2, 1924, and they have one child, James
Frederick, born January 3, 1925.
Essie Hofsess, born July 1, 1896, married James Crew November 19, 1915, and they had four children, namely: Elizabeth
Lee, born April 6, 1917; James John, born April 1, 1920 (deceased); Charlie H., born March 9, 1922, and Martha
Louise Crew, born December 5, 1929.
Joseph Adam Hofsess, born March 29, 1899, married Hazel Ida Wheeler October 20, 1918 and they had six children,
namely: Beth E., born December 10, 1919; Kenneth Lester, born November 21, 1921; Richard Oren, February 21, 1923;
Joseph Leroy, February 21, 1929; Edward Allen, December 12, 1930 (deceased); and Donna May, May 1, 1933.
Lula L. Hofsess, born October 24, 1901, married Philip G. Cope October 30, 1920 and they have two children, Ralph
E., born October 21, 1925, and Phyllis Ida, born June 3, 1927.
Susie Elizabeth Hofsess, born May 17, 1902, married George W. Hawkins June 16, 1926 and they had four children:
Joyce Ann, born June 2, 1927; George Warren, August 28, 1928; Doris May, April 29, 1930; and Bonnie Sue, November
28, 1931, the latter deceased.
Elizabeth Lee Crew, daughter of Essie Hofsess, married Graden R. Thom February 12, 1934 and they have two children,
Graden R., Jr., born September 22, 1935, and Ronald E., born September 22, 1937.
Beth Hofsess, daughter of Joseph Adam, married Fred Brakeman October 13, 1935 and they have one child, Barbara
L., born October 13, 1936.
Hazel May Hawkins, daughter of Lyda V. Hofsess, married Randolph Lipscomb in June, 1936 and they have one child,
Richard Lee, born April 6, 1937.
Lucinda R. Hofsess, eldest daughter of Adam Hofsess and Rebecca Frances Elledge, born January 10, 1870, married
Robert A. Thompson March 13, 1889 and they have two children, Claude B. and Russell Adam. Claude B. Thompson, born
September 14, 1891, married Olga Maude Faber September 14, 1914, and they have two children, Maude Florine, born
November 15, 1916, and Claudia Aileen, born November 8, 1918. Russell Adam Thompson, born January 19, 1898, died
April 11, 1917. The Robert Thompsons reside at Hume, Missouri.
Jonah Harvy Hofsess, son of Adam and Rebecca Elledge Hofsess, born February 5, 1872, on July 20, 1902 married Lydia
Catharine White, who was born January 22, 1873. They had three children: Opal Irene, born May 6, 1906, married
Otho Lafayette Cox November 28, 1923, in the Presbyterian church at Langlois, Oregon, where Jonah's widow and family
reside; Oren Walter, born April 18, 1908, and Frederick Adam, born December 24, 1911, died April 2, 1924. Jonah
Hofsess died at Langlois, Oregon, December 29, 1919.
Mary Essie Hofsess, youngest of the children of Adam and Rebecca, born May 9, 1874, married W. H. Vail January
11, 1893 and they have one child, Ruby Edith Vail, born October 7, 1896, who married L. Thomas Scott, March 31,
1915, to which union were born Wanda Mae, December 10, 1918, and Russell E., July, 1923. The family resides in
the west.
All of the foregoing descendants of Rebecca Frances (Elledge) Hofsess come down in direct lineal line from the
noted Boone family, through Charity Boone, who rests in a grave on the farm occupied by Glen Riley northeast of
Griggsville. The sons and daughters of Adam Hofsess and Rebecca Frances Elledge are also nephews and nieces of
Gustave Thiele of Griggsville, whose wife was Mary Hofsess, a sister of Adam. Other sons and daughters of John
and Rosina Hofsess (brothers and sisters of Adam) were John, Jr., Frederick, Jonah, and Caroline, who married George
W. Morrell.
Adam Hofsess died May 6, 1920; his wife, Rebecca Frances, great great granddaughter of Neddie Boone, died September
14, 1875.
Lucinda (Wade) Elledge, widow of Joel Elledge and mother of Rebecca Hofsess, on January 2, 1849 married Eli Hobbs,
second of the sons of the elder Solomon and a grandson of Kentucky Hinman. The story of Eli and Lucinda and their
numerous family of children will be related in the ensuing chapter.