We have no
record of Henry’s birth, being named after his father we assume that he was
the older of the two boys; trusting to tradition and what meager facts we have
we think he was born in Holland around 1770 and emigrated to Frankstown,
Pennsylvania, with his folks and brother Benjamin around 1775.
We have record of Benjamin’s birth in 1773, but not of the place;
around 1795 Henry accompanied the family, which included two sisters by this
time, from Frankstown to Stamford Township, Welland Co. Niagara District,
Ontario. Tradition is that the two
boys walked while the Mother and Father and
two sisters followed in the wagon.
Henry married Eliza Everingham about 1805, she was English and born on
the ocean en route from England; Her people first settled in New York State, and
as United Empire Loyalist, migrated on to Ontario.
Eliza’s son Isaac married her niece, Cloe Everingham, the daughter of
Eliza’s brother William. Henry
was about fifteen years older than Eliza and after arriving in Stamford, Henry
worked for some time in a gristmill. On
April 9, 1806 he purchased Lot #7, 100 acres from a William Mollyneaux or
Mullinex, who received this land from the Crown.
On the same day part of Lot 14 was purchased from Davis Clow, another
U.E.L. who obtained the land from the Crown.
This farm was located about 2 miles from St. Davids and near Thorold and
in Stamford Township, it is about six miles from the falls. Upon Henry’s death according to the old English custom, the
farm went to the oldest son, Henry by name.
He sold it Feb. 28, 1844 to G.A. Tyes, and it was later sold and known as
the Dav. Peterson Farm. In 1930 it
was owned by T.P. Smith. As a I.E.L.
it is hard to understand why Henry’s father Henry did not receive a grant of
land from the Crown; as a son of a U.E.L. Henry could have secured a grant of
land himself, but either none was left or else their Tory activities could not
be proven as was necessary.
Henry served with the Canadian Forces during the War
of 1812; he first enlisted in Capt. Kerby’s Comp. taking the oath of
allegiance to the King Sept. 4, 1812. The
following year he was on the muster foll as a detachment of the 2nd
regiment of Lincoln Militia, in the battle of Lundy’s Lane, now a part of the
city of Niagara Falls, Ontario. He
also took part in many minor skirmishes.
Henry was one of the early members of the Masonic
Lodge in Stamford, joining before 1812. The
Lodge met around until a hall was secured, although he drank some, as was the
custom of the day, Henry became displeased with the Lodge claiming it to only be
a place to meet and drink. He
influenced all his boys against joining; he was very stern and exacting, true to
his German nature. He died around
1830.
Eliza married Daniel Johnson, a widower with several
grown sons, and all further trace of her is lost. We think she died around 1845.
She and Henry and their son John are buried in the old Warner Cemetery
near their farm. Their graves are
unmarked. Twelve children were born
to Eliza and Henry and near as we can determine with only seven births on
record, their order is as follows: Henry;
Isaac; Benjamin; Elizabeth or Eliza; Agnes Nancy; William; George; Martha;
James; Mary and Joseph. John died
in infancy. Eleven were married,
ten raising families, some near record for descendants.
Henry married Catherine Ann Garricy; Anges Nancy married Thomas James
Nevills; Isaac married Cloe Everingham; Benjamin married as his third wife
Huldah E. Lemon; William married Eliza Venderburg; James married Margaret
McElphine; George married Mary Ann Garner; Elizabeth or Eliza married Hiram
Peterson; Joseph married Oliva Emerick; Mary married Frank Noble; and Marthe
married George Cooper.
An old grandmother of Henry’s and Jesse’s
lived in Holland to the age of 107 years of age; and tradition is that she cut
and bound a sheaf of wheat on her 100th birthday. This wheat was threshed and a can of it brought to America,
which came down through the family to Henry’s Granddaughter Agnes Navy, who
married Thomas James Nevills. This
wheat disappeared in their son Zebulon’s family.
Henry’s great grandson Hiram Peterson, born in 1848 and living in 1930
near St. Davids, Ontario, had the old glasses this old grandmother wore and a
towel she spun.
Hiram Peterson claims that a bible was brought from
Holland written in German script and in it was a complete record of the early
Hoshal’s. According to Hiram,
this bible went to old Henry’s daughter Elizabeth, who married George Dean, in
1810. Elizabeth died in 181,
leaving no children. George Dean
married again and had two boys and several girls.
The two boys George and Hoshal Dean married, but Hoshal Dean left no
children, and George had all girls. No
knowing who the girls married, there seems to be a slim chance of ever finding
this treasure. The Dean’s old
home is around Schoonburg, in Simcoe Co. North of Toronto.
Hoshal Dean is listed as owning a farm in 1836, on lot #2, concession 2.
It is hoped that some day this old treasure may come
to light.
Benjamin Hoshal, the brother of Henry Hoshal, and son
of Henry Hoshal migrated north of Toronto and married Sarah Lyon in 1818, she
was 18 years of age, he was 45 years old. He
operated a weaving and carding mill on his farm near Richmond Hill, and died in
1830. Sarah died in 1841.
Five children were born, Mary Ann; Martha; George Henry; Elizabeth; and
Sarah.
It is pretty well established that Henry Hoshal and Jesse
Hoshal, his brother came from Holland around 1775, and settled in
America. Henry settled near
Frankstown, Pennsylvania in Bedford County, which is now in Blair County, and Jesse
settled in Maryland, probably near Frederick.
It is interesting to speculate on what separated the
brothers upon arriving in this country; but Jesse probably a younger man and
feeling free to follow his fancy may have made an acquaintance on ship or soon
after arriving that influenced his choice, or possibly Jesse bound
himself out to serve for a period in order to pay for his passage across.
In those days a custom known as “redemptionism”
was legal and much practiced. A
person would “sell” “themselves” to work for a certain person, one, two,
three or more years to pay for their passage and expense in getting a start in
the new country.
This doesn’t seem likely in Jesse’s
case because he enlisted, we think, less than a year after arriving, in the
Revolutionary War for a period of three years.
It is very possible that the family originally
started in Germany and then migrated to Holland, where both boys were born,
Henry probably around 1740 and Jesse according to strong tradition
in the Maryland Branch was born in 1742. In
his pension request for service in the Revolutionary War, is stated that he was
born about 1742.
Just why the family left Germany, is not known, but
going back into history, beginning in 1710, and for the next 30 years of more,
the pestilence of war and the persecution by the Catholics in that part of
Germany along the Rhine River, called the palatinate, drove thousands of
Palatine Protestant Germans out of the country into Holland, England, and then
to America. The fact that the
Hoshal’s were quite strong religiously leads to the belief that they left
Germany in the exodus of 1711, and settled in Holland.
Belief that some also went to England in the exodus is arrived at by the
fact that just before World War I, Franklin E. Hayes, a member of the family
living in London, Ontario, met a young man with the same name and he said that
there were quite a number of relatives in England.
Henry is believed to have had a family when he came
to this country, but the only date of birth that we have is in an old bible
belonging to Pearl Hoshal of Richmond Hill, Ontario, giving her great
grandfather’s Benjamin Hoshal’s birth as November 25, 1773.
Also a belief in this branch of the family that when Henry’s family
moved to Ontario, he was accompanied by two sons, Benjamin and Henry, and two
daughters, Elizabeth and a girl who died after reaching Stamford, Ontario.
The boys walked and the parents and sisters rode.
In the Pennsylvania Archives, series three, Henry
Hoshal is listed as having a horse and cow in Bedford Co. in 1779.
Henry’s family was loyal to England during the
Revolutionary War and about 1800 migrated to Stamford Township, Ontario, near
Niagara Falls.
This material is furnished by Walter Hoshall, a
descendant from Henry.
Jesse Hoshal enlisted in July 1776, in
a German Regiment in the Patriot Army and this is strange, as his brother Henry
was a Tory. However, the brothers
were separated and it isn’t likely that they ever heard of each other again
after arriving in this country. Jesse
served with the Patriot Army for three years, possibly Henry lived in an
entirely different neighborhood than Jesse.
Possibly Jesse was drafted into the war and fell in, with a
family that influenced him. Against
all this tradition is the fact that no where among the records of the names of
those U.E.L. (United Empire Loyalists) who settled in the Niagara District in
Ontario does the name Hoshal appear.
Discouraged and homesick, Henry was known to remark
that he did not want his bones to rest on Canadian soil, and wanted to return to
Pennsylvania and die alone. We do
not believe there was any other member of his family that he went back to see,
unless possible he had in minding finding his brother Jesse.
It seems strange that he would want to leave his family and to return to
Pennsylvania, but the children were all grown and his wife gone and probably the
call back to Pennsylvania and friends alone was better and more welcome than
remaining in a land that he did not like.
The tradition in the family of Hoshal’s is to the
effect that Jesse Hoshal, brother of Henry settled in either
Pennsylvania or Maryland, soon after arriving.
However in 1776, Jesse enlisted for a period of three years
in the Revolutionary War, serving in a number of important battles, he was
discharged in 1779. Through family
ties, I have learned that there is a family bible which belonged to Thomas
Hoshall Sr. of White Hall, Maryland, with an inscription “Isaac Hoshal, whose
father was Henry, whose father came from Germany.”
This Isaac Hoshal was the oldest son of Jesse Hoshal who
came to American in 1775, or there abouts.
Jesse Hoshal married Mary Hurst,
daughter of Bennett Hurst, and ?????, December 22, 1779, in Harford Co.
Maryland, and to them eleven children were born.
Isaac; Elizabeth; Eleanor; Jesse; John; David; Sarah; Shadrach; Ephraim;
Bennett; and Mary.
Being just ordinary citizens and not seeking any
civil honors there seems to be no public records of the early Hoshal’s outside
of the war records of Jesse.
On applying for a pension in 1818, Jesse spelled his name
“Hoshal”; in the first census of Maryland in 1790, the name is spelled “Oshal”,
on page 31. The copy of the war
record of Jesse Hoshal and application for pension at the Bureau
of Pensions “Wid. File No. 4236.”
Bennett Talbott Hoshal is believed to have started
the “L” (extra Letter) spelling, as his first name and middle name already
had double letters, so to make it consistent he added another “L” to his
last name. He was the father of
Charles Ephraim Hoshall of Baltimore, Maryland and My Grandfather.
The Jesse Oshal spelling is found in the book in the
Enoch Pratt Library, Baltimore, Maryland, “Heads of Families in Baltimore and
Maryland.” The name has been rare
and has never been found except where a member of the family is found.
Because in both branches the name is spelled the
same, it seems without a doubt that “Hoshal” or “Oshal” is the correct
spelling. In both branches one will
find endings of el; ell; and all.
There is a very strong facial resemblance and other
characteristics between the two branches, in many cases this is most pronounced
and unmistakable. Both branches
have previously been strong Protestants.
The Hoshal’s are all strong Protestants as stated
and as far as can be learned are characterized by clean morals and good
citizenship. None of them prominent
in the affairs of state; not burdened with poverty or encumbered with great
wealth. Just ordinary citizens.
No insanity beyond a slight softening of the mind in advanced old age.
There are no suicides, but three left home and were
never heard from again. There have
been accidental deaths, but nothing above the average.
Submitted by Lola Hoshall Boring
A descendant of Jesse Hoshal lst
Hoshal; Hoskins; Hoskin; Hoskinson; Hosking; Hoskings;
Hohshield; Hochshield, etc.
Descendant of Little Os or Hos, pet forms of Osbert;
Osgood; Osmund; and similar names; sometimes a corruption of Hodgkins.
Webmasters
Footnote: The source of this essay was fuzzy at best but the following email
(used with permission) brings to light the actual source and corrects some
errors.
Many thanks to Roger Harris for his insightful input!
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