Introduction
Table of contents
Welcome to the Johannes Hahn Family History site. In this location
you will find much of what is known about Johannes Hahn and his descendants.
New information is always welcome, with some restrictions (see
here).
This site is based on information from "German Speaking People West of
the Catawba River 1750-1800" by Lorena Shell Eaker. For those who are not
familiar with the book, the Catawba River is in western North Carolina, its head
somewhere in the Appalachian Mountains.
The Hahn/Hawn/Honn history in these pages don't always meet
the standards for standard genealogy research because I have not personally
documented all the information and verified their authenticity. To begin with, I came to genealogy late in life and it had its basis in an old, typed report commissioned by a Hawn elder, Abel Quincy Hawn (1873-1926) and carried out by Col. George Yoder (see the account
here). Col. Yoder (1826-1920), who was a prominent historian in Hickory, NC in his day. He was a member of the Yoder family, which made quite an impact on this city and continues to do so. A local historian, Derick Hartshorn, has researched his life and published his findings at
http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~yoderj/id62.htm.
Unofficially, he has been called colorful, somewhat self-indulgent and his writings less than totally factual. Upon reading the Hahn history, one will find his report long on supposition and short on facts. But resources were scarce in his day so it is supposed that he did as well as he could with what he had to work with. He also did much work for the Yoder family.
The Yoder history we had was enlarged on by my aunt, Allie Hawn Glenn, who was a significant historian in her own right, and her son, my cousin, Neil. They started with Abel Quincy Hawn, her grandfather, and his descendants and ended with as much of the family as she was able to gather as of 1949. (She tried to interest me in genealogy but failed until I was near retirement age. Suddenly, I could not learn enough!)
Remember, computers were but a dream then, long distance calls were almost prohibitively expensive and travel to courthouses and other souces of information was almost unheard of. She relied mostly on what's called "oral history" and family Bibles for information, more than likely. Her findings were recorded on an old manual typewriter of the day.
Having worked as a newspaper reporter for a number of years,(and no doubt my aunt's urgings finally taking hold) I became curious about the family a few years ago while talking to a woman who was a member of the Hawn family. I don't remember how but I acquired some photocopied pages from "Shoe Cobbler's Kin," written by Lorena Shell Eaker, also a distant cousin of ours. I had newly come to computers and the Internet and found a genealogy program for my Macintosh from Gene Software. I began using "Shoe Cobbler's Kin" to fill in the information, having no idea that I was violating a number of protocols. From there I went to "German Speaking People West of the Catawba River 1750-1800," continuing to violate those same protocols.
But my results were seen and read by others in and out of the Hawn/Hahn/Honn family. You will see those results if you read letters starting farther into this website. Many have been lost to computer crashes but enough survived to help you see what an impact my improper writings had on my family.
This 2009 version is the third attempt to bring the family history up to date. It will probably be the last, unless I can twist someone else's arm to carry it on.
There have been a number of high points in my genealogical "career", not the least of which is the volume of responses from people about their own searches. I found a retired minister in Texas, with whom I became a frequent correspondent. David Hahn, may be rest in peace, died in 2003. I met him once and he was much impressed with the land Johannes chose for his family. I miss him.
Another young man wrote about the joy his grandfather discovered when he found his roots in my pages. He had lived 90-plus years never knowing where he came from and was very grateful for the information he found.
My sincere thanks to Mrs. Eaker for her permission to quote from
"Shoe Cobbler's Kin" and "German Speaking People... , " both published by SCK
Publications, PO Box 2125, Church Hill, Tenn. 37642 and Genealogy Publishing
Service, 448 Ruby Mine Road, Franklin, N. C. 28734. Both have abundant
information on a great many families besides the Hahns and would be a treasure
to own. Please write to her at
renas@usit.net for information.
I invite you to begin here and enjoy your travels through the Johannes Hahn
Family History. Please drop me a line to let me know if you found it useful. If you wonder about references to Missouri, I learned that about 1800 a number of families, Hahns included, traveled to the newly opened land of the Louisiana purchase to start new lives. There's a note, I believe in "German Speaking People...," that describes the terrain in Missouri and the population that closely describes the family names from Catawba County, NC to be found there.
Linda Hawn Setzer
The table of contents begins here.
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This page was compiled by Linda H. Setzer,. You may write her at Linda Setzer (lhsetzer@embarqmail.com.)
Please return to Johannes Hahn Home Page where you may sign the guestbook.
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Copyright 2009 Linda Hawn Setzer
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