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LEWIS F. HOFFMAN, farmer and stock raiser, post office, Sherman was born in Ross county, Ohio, September 21, 1829, son of Moses Hoffman, who was born in Greenbriar county, Virginia, November 24, 1798, a Rhoda Turman, born February 14, 1806, a widow of Richard Winn. By this marriage there were nine children, seven of which lived to be adults, while two died in infancy. In 1829, he left his home in Ohio, in a wagon, to which were hitched three yoke of oxen, for Sangamon county, camping out on the way, doing their own cooking, and located on the place where they now live. Their first dwelling place was a camp made out of logs, with three sides, one end being left out, where they built a fire in front, and remained there a portion of the winter. In 1830, he broke thirty acres of prairie and planted corn, which supplied them with breadstuff. The following winter came on the big snow, and the only that he could gather his corn was to make snow shoes out of clapboards which he tied to his feet and hauled it in on a hand sled, and, as Mrs. H. said, stowed it under her bed. Mr. Hoffman was an enterprising business man, and at his death had accumulated a property of seven hundred and forty acres of land. He died June 8, 1842. Was a soldier in the Black Hawk war, under Colonel W. F. Elkin, and was commissioned as Captain in the State militia. Mrs. Hoffman again married Solomon Wood, in 1847. One child blessed this union, Solomon. Mr. Wood died April 18, 1848. Mrs. Wood is still living with her son on the old homestead, where she has lived nearly fifty-two years.