History of Weidasville, (Lehigh County) Pennsylvania United States of America

Our database does not include an historic photo for Weidasville, (Lehigh County) Pennsylvania, do you have one you would like to contribute? Contact Us!

Walter James Hoffman, ethnologist, was born at Weidasville. Lehigh county, Pa., May 30, 1846; son of William F. and Elizabeth (Weida) Hoffman. His paternal ancestors for several generations were physicians, and descended from the Barons Hoffman, hereditary grand marshals of Styria, as early as 1460. His maternal ancestors were Huguenots, the head of that branch having settled in the state of New York before 1686. He acquired his preparatory education under private teachers and at the public schools, and studied medicine under the direction of his father. He was graduated from Jefferson Medical college in 1866, and practised his profession in Reading, Pa., until the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war, in 1870, when he accepted the commission of staff-surgeon in the Prussian army and proceeded to the vicinity of Metz, serving with the 7th army corps. For this service he was decorated by the Emperor of Germany. Returning to the United States, he was appointed acting assistant surgeon, U.S.A., May 10, 1871, and detailed as naturalist and mineralogist to the expedition for the exploration of Nevada and Arizona, under Lieutenant Wheeler. During this service new geographic areas were traversed, particularly that portion of the public domain formerly designated as the "Great American Desert." The party was the first to cross and re-cross the "Death Valley," and to report upon its meagre resources. His duty also involved visiting and reporting upon all the mines of the western half of Nevada, northwestern California and northern Arizona. Returning to Washington for the completion of his reports, Dr. Hoffman for the third time declined the appointment of surgeon and naturalist to the Polar regions, but accepted the position of post surgeon at the military post at Grant River, Dak. During this time he studied the mythology and language of the Sioux Indians, the names of over thirteen thousand of whom were on the annuity roll of the agent. The following spring (1873) he was appointed medical office-assistant and naturalist to accompany the Yellowstone expedition of 1873; being specially detailed to the 7th U.S. cavalry, commanded by General Custer, and later to the 22d U.S. infantry, commanded by Gen. D. S. Stanley, commander of the expedition. In the autumn of 1873 he resumed his practice in Reading, Pa., and was president of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of that city, 1876-77. In 1877 he was appointed to take charge of the collection of ethnology and mineralogy under Prof. F. V. Hayden, chief of the U.S. geographical and geological survey of the territories. At the organization of the bureau of etnnology, Sept. 10, 1879, he was appointed assistant ethnologist in charge. Dr. Hoffman visited nearly all the Indian tribes within the United States, in the prosecution of researches relating to Indian gesture language and pictographie writing. In 1887 he began a study of the cult society of the Ojibwa of Minnesota, known as the "Grand Medicine Society," into which body he was admitted, the first white man to become a member. This required five years, and enabled him to secure the traditions of the Indian cosmogony and genesis of man, the ritual of initiation, and the musical notation of songs used at the ceremonies. The result of this work is published in the reports of the bureau of ethnology. Similar service was rendered in connection with the secret medico-religious or cult societies of the Menomoni Indians. Apart from numerous publications and papers relating to the Indians, Dr. Hoffman published, in various American and foreign periodicals, numerous monographs and reports on natural history, mineralogy, etc., and one on the ethnography and philology of the Pennsylvania Germans. He invented in 1870 an improved bullet extractor for use in military surgery, and was appointed by the Imperial Ottoman government to supervise their manufacture for use in the medical corps of the Turkish army. He was special agent at the World's Columbian exposition of 1893, in the department of ethnology. He was a member of the leading scientific and historical societies of the United States and Europe, more than forty in all. He was decorated by Emperor William of Germany, April 20, 1873; by Louis I. of Portugal, Jan. 5, 1887; by the President of Venezuela, S.A., Nov. 12, 1887; by Achille I. of Araucania and Patagonia, Nov. 7, 1887; by Marie, Princess de Lusignan, 1889; by Oscar II. of Norway and Sweden; by Francis Joseph I., May, 1890; by the Bey of Tunis, June 20, 1890; by Prince Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria, Dec. 7, 1890; by William II. of Germany, 1892, and by the Grand Duke of Baden, December, 1892. He also received various diplomas and medals from scientific societies and expositions. He died in Reading, Pa., Nov. 8, 1899.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Weidasville, (Lehigh County) Pennsylvania

Biographies: