My grandfather, Henry Florian Hoff, was born in Zwegen, Switzerland, November 16, 1845, and came to America in 1867 with his brother, John, and stayed in Wisconsin near Green Bay for about 12 years. Grandmother Hoff was born June 17, 1853, in Vienna, Austria. Her parents were John and Anna Stephan Froelich. She came to America with her parents and several of her brothers and sisters. They settled in Wisconsin near Manitowec and later they moved to Cooperstown, Wisconsin. I remember my Grandmother Catherine Froelich Hoff speak of Grandfather Henry F. Hoff working in the sawmill and also that she worked in the shingle mill making shingles.

John and Anna Froelich and family moved to Kansas in 1878 and settled on a farm which they homesteaded north of Walker, Kansas. The description of the farm was SE 1/3 of Sec. 4-12-16, Ellis County, Kansas. My grandmother, Catherine Froelich, and grandfather, Henry F. Hoff were married in Green Bay, Wisconsin in about 1875. In 1879 they came to Kansas in a covered wagon and lived in a dugout on my great grandparents (John and Anna Froelich) farm until they had built a house on a 160-acre homestead in the SW ¼ of Sec. 20-12-16. The U.S. of America Patent Office issued the title on this 160 acres on September 9, 1895, signed by Grover Cleveland, President of the United States. They were engaged in farming and ranching. Here in Kansas is where the last nine of their eleven children were born and grew up. The names of their children were: Henry, Joe, Mary, Charles, Peter, Frank, John, Margaret, Edward, Anna and William.

My grandfather, who had many other business adventures, knew that religion played a big part in raising a family. So he got together with other settlers and it was decided a church had to be built near to the homes. A committee of three were sent to Concordia, Kansas, to petition Bishop Cunningham to build a Catholic Church. Permission was granted on February 25, 1899, for work to build a church on a location two miles south of my grandfather's homestead. Grandfather, along with his sons and other members, quarried and hauled rock for the new church. Much of the limestone rock used in construction of the church was quarried from a rock quarry located in the northwest corner of the quarter section of land which we now own, the SE ¼ of Sec. 20-12-16. We purchased this piece of land in 1947 when it was sold after grandmother died the place where the church was built was later called Emmeram, Kansas, so named after the first pastor of the church Fr. Emmeram. Later some of the parishioners of the parish who lived on farms miles away from the church built houses in the village where they lived on weekends so as to be nearer to the church for weekend services such as confession on Saturday afternoon and evening. Catechism on Saturday afternoon, Sunday, and one low Mass and one High Mass in the forenoon. Marriages and baptisms were by appointment.

At one time there was a United States post office, a general store and a cabinet making shop operated by the Windholz Brothers in Emmeram.

As soon as my uncles became 21 years of age, they also homesteaded nearby where land was available. Some bought land from the Union Pacific Railroad who owned all the uneven numbered sections of land for 12 miles on each side of the railroad.

This land was given to the railroad company by the government in order to get the railroad to be built through Kansas. As a result of the homesteading and purchasing of land my father, Henry John and his brothers, Charles, Peter and Frank all had land of their own in the same neighborhood.

Submitted by Henry A. Hoff and Lorena (Hoff) Weigel

At Home in Ellis County, Kansas 1867-1992