"Portrait & Biographical Record of the Willamette Valley Oregon."  Chapman 
Publishing Company, 1903. p. 1220.
 
WILLIAM T. HOFFMAN

     Carrying on an extensive business as one of the largest grain buyers and
dealers in Polk county, is Mr. Hoffman, of Monmouth, president of the Oregon
Milling and Warehouse Company.  A man of unlimited energy and ambition, he has
been an important factor in developing the agricultural resources of this part
of the state, attracting favorable attention to the quality and quantity of the
grain here raised, and helping to place it in the most remunerative markets.
     A son of the late Dr. Charles Hoffman, he was born July 26, 1869, at Grant,
Grayson county, Va.  He comes of German ancestry, his paternal grandfather
having been an officer in the Prussian army.  Charles Hoffman was born in
Hanover, Germany, and there reared and educated.  At the age of seventeen years,
while attending a German university, he was forced to leave the institution on
account of a student rebellion against the King of Prussia, and emigrated at
once to the United States.  Having received the degree of M. D. at a German
university, he served as surgeon in the Mexican war, afterward filling the same
office in the confederate army.  He traveled extensively throughout the Union,
visiting most of the states, finally settling permanently in Grant, Va., where
his death occurred, in 1897, at the age of seventy-six years.  Dr. Hoffman
married Sarah Grubb, who was born in Grant, Va., a daughter of William Grubb, a
pioneer settler of Grayson county, and one of its most thriving farmers.  Five
children were born of their union, and of these one daughter has died, and three
sons and one daughter survive.
     After receiving his diploma from the Grant High School, in his native town,
William T. Hoffman entered Glasgow College, at Glasgow, Ky., and was graduated
therefrom, in July, 1888, with the degree of B. S.  The following spring he
started in life on his own account, on March 20, 1889, beginning work in an
Idaho mine.  A year later he came to Oregon, settling at first in the southern
part of the state, where he was employed in a saw-mill for two years.  Removing
to Monmouth in 1892, Mr. Hoffman attended the State Normal School for a year,
when, in 1893, he was graduated with the degree of B. S. D.  The ensuing two
years he taught school in Amity, Ore., being successful as a teacher. In 1895,
in company with E. B. Jamison, he engaged in business as a grain dealer at
Airlie, commencing on a modest scale, but as business increased the firm was
merged into the Oregon Milling and Warehouse Company, Mr. Hoffman being made
president, and Mr. Jamison secretary and treasurer.  Additional room being
needed, a new warehouse was built at Monmouth in 1896, and put in charge of Mr.
Hoffman, the flour mills at Independence being under the management of Mr.
Jamison.  This company has built up a most profitable manufacturing and
mercantile business, amounting to $100,000 per annum.  Although Mr. Hoffman
spent a large part of the years of 1900 and 1901 in Nome, Alaska, where he has
an interest in the Holyoke mines, he has always retained his position with the
company and has been an important factor in advancing its interests.
     On March 11, 1902, at Oregon City, Mr. Hoffman married Miss M. E. Baker.
Her father, the late Frank Baker, was born in Virginia, near Abingdon, and
during the Civil war was a soldier in the Union Army.  Subsequently moving
westward, he located first in Missouri, living there until 1870, when he came to
Oregon City, where he was successfully engaged in farming pursuits until his
death.  Mr. Hoffman is a warm advocate of the principles of the Republican
party, which he supports by voice and vote, and is active in public affairs, at
the present time being city recorder.  Fraternally he is a member of the Woodmen
of the World.
     
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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in August 2006 by Diana Smith.  Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.