JONAS H. HOFFMASTER was one of the old reside of Mahoning County who during many years was successful agriculturist of Poland Township, whet, his two daughters now reside, but he is now deceased. He assisted very materially in raising the standard of his chosen calling and the requirements of good citizenship in his neighborhood. He was born near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on September 12, 1821, and died on December 6, 1897. When he eighteen months old his parents brought him Columbiana County, Ohio, where his father, George Hoffmaster, was engaged in farming. Still later the family came to Springfield Township, Mahoning County, and there both parents died. Their old farm is now in the possession of the Charles Holzworth family. These parents lie buried in Zion Cemetery, one mile east of New Middletown, Ohio the father having died September 10, 1858, age eighty-two, and the mother, Christina E. Hoffmaster, died January 1, 1855, at the age of 65. They were both born in Wuertemberg, Germany.
Growing up in Mahoning County, Jonas H. H master adopted farming as his life work. He married Charlotte Stacy, a daughter of Thomas Stacy who was born and reared in Poland Township. An extended review of the Stacy family is found elsewhere in this work. Following his marriage Jonas Hoffmaster came to the farm now owned by I daughters in Poland Township, which he and his brother, David Hoffmaster, bought in co-partnership from Bilivus Kirtland, who, while he owned the property, did not live on it. This farm is almost contiguous to the Goucher farm, the two families being connected by marriage. It lies on the Pennsylvania state line, two and one-half miles south of Lowellville, and is regarded as a valuable property. They operated this property together, although not long after the purchase was made Jonas bought his brother's interest in it. This farm originally contained 200 acres, but Mr. Hoffmaster sold 10 acres of it to Judge Arrel's father. The present house was erected by Mr. Hoffmaster in 1856, and a barn was built in 1869, which was burned in two, and the one now standing was erected on the same site by the family. In early years Mr. Hoffmaster belonged to the Lutheran Church, but later on in life transferred his membership to the Methodist Episcopal Church at Hillsville, Pennsylvania. For a number of years Mr. Hoffmaster was a member of the school board.
Mrs. Hoffmaster died in 1887, having born her husband the following children: Hillary, who left the farm in 1896, and died September 18, 1917, having married Ollie Mayberry, and three of their children survive, Lawrence, Warren and Lyle; Mary L., who is Mrs. Lewis Goucher, has two living children, Lottie M., Mrs. 0. W. Sipe, who with her son. Virgil, is living on the Hoffmaster farm with her mother and aunt, and Homer, who is with his mother, the deceased child of Mrs. Goucher having been Morris L., who died on December 16, 1918, aged twenty-six years; and Amanda Hoffmaster, the youngest child of Jonas Hoffmaster, who is also a resident of her father's homestead. She was a nurse in the Youngstown Hospital for a time, but is now occupied with conducting the farm with the assistance of her sister. Both ladies are proud of the fact that they can trace back to two such honorable men as their father and grandfather, and that these two were among the early settlers of the county and did their full part in advancing its interests during their generations. The lives of such men point a moral and afford an example worthy of emulation.
History of Youngstown and Mahoning Valley, vol. 2, Joseph Green Butler, American Historical Society, Chicago, 1921.