HOFIUS, JOSEPH B.

HOFIUS, BEARS, THOMPSON, MEANS

Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 3/22/2004 at 14:20:54

Biography reproduced from page 724 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:

One of the highly capable agriculturists of Union township is Joseph B. Hofius, who owns a fine farm of two hundred and forty acres, in the cultivation of which he has been engaged for over thirty years. He was born in Mercer county, Pennsylvania, on the 28th of February, 1854, and is a son of John and Maria (Bears) Hofius, the father a native of Pennsylvania and the mother of the state of New York. The paternal grandfather was a native of Germany, whence he emigrated to America, locating in Pennsylvania in the latter part of the eighteenth century. There he met and married the grandmother of our subject, who was a native of Ireland, and they passed the remainder of their lives on a farm in the Keystone state. He passed away in 1857, and she is 1864, at the venerable age of ninety-three years. John Hofius was reared and educated in his native state and there he subsequently engaged in farming, continuing to follow that vocation during the remainder of his life. Both parents are now deceased, the father having died in July, 1873, at the age of seventy-two, his natal year being 1801, while the mother’s death occurred on the 4th of April, 1882.

Joseph B. Hofius spent his boyhood and youth on the home farm in Pennsylvania, and while engaged in the mastery of the common branches assisted his father with the work of the fields and care of the stock. He left the parental roof shortly before he attained his majority and went to Colorado. For several months he resided in Denver, but in 1876 he came to Iowa, settling in Kossuth county where he spent the summer. In the fall he returned to his native state and remained until the following summer when he came back to Kossuth county to be married. He took his bride back to Pennsylvania, and there they passed the first four years of their married life, but at the expiration of that time they removed to Kossuth county. Mr. Hofius purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land in Union township and resumed agricultural pursuits. He is a diligent man of enterprising methods and so intelligently and capably directed his undertakings that he was subsequently able to extend the boundaries of his farm by the purchase of another eighty acres. During the long period of his ownership Mr. Hofius has made many and extensive improvements on his farm, and now owns one of the valuable properties of the county.

In the county on the 29th of August, 1877, Mr. Hofius was married to Miss Mamie Thompson, a daughter of Joseph and Nancy Jane (Means) Thompson, who are mentioned at greater length elsewhere in this work. Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Hofius, as follows: Henry, who died on the 14th of December, 1881; Joseph, whose death occurred on October 5, 1896; John F., who is farming in this county; Lulu May, who is teaching near home in Union township; and Eugene E., who is attending school at Algona.

Mr. Hofius is a member of the Baptist church and his wife and daughter belong to that of the Congregational denomination. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Modern Woodmen of America, while in politics he is a democrat. He has several times been called to public office and served for two terms as county auditor, while he has discharged the duties of both clerk and trustee in his township. He is one of the stockholders of the Algona Cooperative Creamery Company and is now secretary and manager of this enterprise. Mr. Hofius is highly esteemed not only in his immediate neighborhood but throughout the county, as he is a man who evidences due regard for the rights of others and in both his public and private life has followed closely those principles that win the respect and confidence of all with whom he has dealings.

(Photos of Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Hofius are printed in the book).