After yesterday's tragic posting, how about this little heart-warmer?
HOFF, Bessie L. – (1879-1935) and her husband, Cornelius S., resided on the southeast corner of Harrison and Third streets. By day, they were proprietors of a shoe store on Bridge Street in the storefront currently occupied by Modern Love.
In an 1980s interview about the olden days, George W. Hummer (1908-1990) told an endearing story about Mrs. Hoff. When Hummer was a kid, it was his special joy to ring doorbells and run away. It would be fair to guess that he did this at age 12, which would have been around 1920.
One evening he rang the bell at the Hoff residence, and Constable Clarence Doan sprang out of the bushes and collared him.
When the culprit was presented to Mrs. Hoff, she told the constable something like: Whenever my husband and I hear the doorbell ring three times, we know it's George. No one else does that. So we don't even get up from our chairs. So there's no harm done; let him go.
Now THAT'S history the way I like it.
From "Rick's Frenchtown Encyclopedia"
I am a descendant of this Cornelius Hoff and Charles Dircksen Hoff who began Hoff's Mill, later Pittstown. About half of his children had the name changed to Huff, and my Henry Huff line is buried in Frenchtown Cemetery.