Part of the Indiana Biographies Project
David Hoover
This gentleman was one of the honored pioneers who aided in laying the foundation on which to erect the superstructure of Wayne county's present prosperity and progress. Through the period of early development he was an important factor in the improvement and advancement of this section of the state, and was also concerned with the broader interests which had to do with the welfare of the commonwealth.
David Hoover was born in Randolph county, North Carolina, on the 14th of April, 1781, and was a son of Andrew and Elizabeth (Waymire) Hoover. He removed with his father's family to Ohio in 1802, and in 1807 came to Whitewater, Indiana. He was one of the earliest settlers in this section of the state. The land was still in its primitive condition, the forests were uncut and the work of progress and civilization had scarcely been begun. Mr. Hoover was married March 31, 1807, to Catharine Yount, near the Great Miami, and removed to the land selected and entered in 1806, and on which, before his removal, he had erected a log cabin. There he made his home until his death in 1866. Although his educational privileges were exceedingly limited, having, as he wrote, "never had an opportunity of reading a newspaper nor seen a bank note until after he was a man grown," he accumulated a fund of practical knowledge which fitted him for the various public trusts confided to him by his fellow citizens. In 1810 he was appointed a justice of the peace of Wayne county and filled that office for many years, discharging his duties with marked fairness and ability. In 1815 he was appointed an associate judge of the Wayne county circuit court and his service in that position covered an extended period. In February, 1817, he was elected clerk of that court, and held the office by re-election nearly fourteen years. He would undoubtedly have been continued in that position for a longer period had it not been incumbent upon him as an office-holder to remove to the county seat. He preferred the farm, however, and in consequence retired from office. He served as a member of the Indiana senate for six years and left the impress of his strong individuality, clear insight and sound judgment upon the statutes of the state. A man of strong intellectuality, of honorable purpose and keen discernment, he was well fitted for leadership in matters of public moment, and in the first half of the century was one of the most prominent men of Indiana. He delighted in reading and collected a large and valuable library, embracing a wide range of literature, science and general knowledge. This more than supplied the deficiency in his school education, and his example strongly commends itself to the thousands of young men who, like him, have been deprived of early advantages, but who, following in his footsteps, may attain success, and perhaps fame. He stated his political position thus: "In politics I profess to belong to the Jeffersonian school," and he took his motto from Jefferson's first inaugural, "Equal and exact justice to all men." He declared himself a firm believer in the Christian religion and was opposed to all wars and to slavery.
Unto Mr. and Mrs. Hoover were born ten children. Elizabeth, the eldest, married Jacob Thornburg, of Newcastle, and after his death became the wife of Simon T. Powell, of that place; Hiram married Elizabeth Marmon, and after her death removed to Kansas, where he married Mary Price and spent his remaining days; Mary died in childhood; Susan was the wife of William L. Brady, of Richmond; Sarah was the wife of Benjamin Hill, of Wayne township, Wayne county; Isabel married James M. Brown, of Richmond; Esther became the wife of Henry Shroyer, of Newcastle; William and Rebecca died in early childhood; and David married Phoebe Macy, and resided on the old family homestead until his death. His children are Andrew M., Henry Irvin and David Simon.
Judge Hoover died in 1866, in his eighty-sixth year, and his wife passed away in 1865, in her seventy-sixth year. His was a long, active, useful and honorable life, and his name is indelibly inscribed on the pages of Wayne county's history.
His grandfather on his mother's side, Rudolph Waymire, was a native of Hanover, Germany, who used to boast that he had been a soldier under his Britannic majesty, and that he was in the battle of Dettingen in 1743. For some time previous to his emigration to America he also served under Frederick the Great, of Prussia, as one of his body guard, a company into which no man was admitted who was not seven feet or more in height, he being seven feet eight inches!
Source:
Biographical and Genealogical History of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin Counties, Indiana. Chicago.
The Lewis Publishing Company. 1899.