Bio: Hoff, Mathew & Catherine

Surnames: HOFF MERTES BRECKLIN

----Source: ABBOTSFORD, WIS. CENTENNIAL BOOK - 1973

Hoff, Mathew & Catherine

Mathew Hoff, born in Germany, came to the United States when eighteen years of age and in 1876, took up a homestead in Taylor Co., Wis., one mile north of the county line, in the town of Little Black.

Miss Catherine Mertes, born in Canada, years later, came with her parents to Fond du Lac, where she became the bride of Mathew Hoff. Ten children, five boys and five girls, were born to them. They were Nick, Peter, Joe, Henry, George, Mary, Catherine, Elizabeth, Alice, and Lucy. Peter and Catherine died at the ages of twelve and fourteen years.

George Married Miss Martha Brecklin and went to Curtiss, where he engaged in the hardware business for thirty-two years. Three daughters and a son were born to them. After recently selling their property in Curtiss, they moved to Abbotsford and bought a newly built home on the west side of town.

Joe has lived here off and on, first coming in 1919, when he establish a Kodak finishing studio. He then bought, from Mrs. James Colby, seven acres of land and the buildings, comprised of a house, a barn, a garage, and a green house, and other garden plants for spring sale.

Unless one visited the place, one would never know that for years Joe carried on an archery supply business, that enjoyed patronage from nearly every state in the union. The upstairs of his home, a room in the garage, and the barn were given over to archery equipment machinery for making bows, arrows, targets, quivers, and a variety of supplies.