FRANCES CHIVERS WESTMORELAND HOFFMAN

 (1843 – 1915)

Frances Chivers Westmoreland was born on June 1, 1843, in Fredonia, Chambers County, Alabama.  She was the seventh daughter and ninth child of Mark Jackson Westmoreland and Anna Maria Coppedge.  Her oldest sister, Mary Elizabeth Fletcher Westmoreland had been married four months prior to Fannie’s birth.  She had married Reuben Charles Holifield in Chambers County, Alabama.

          Her parents were raised on neighboring farms in Pike County, Georgia.  The Westmoreland farm was owned by Mark’s father, Reuben Westmoreland.  Anna Maria’s father, Charles Coppedge, ran his own farm nearby.  Both parents were descended from a long line of American immigrants from England.  The Westmorelands were originally of the Neville family that held the Earldom of Westmoreland.  However, when that family supported the Roman Catholic cause of Queen Mary of Scotland, they lost their titled status.  James Westmoreland landed in America sometime before 1650 to escape the ongoing persecution of his family.  He arrived in Boston, Massachusetts, but quickly settled in Virginia.

The Coppedge family, on the other hand, arrived from England around 1680 with a group led by John Paine, intending to start a new colony in Virginia.  They settled in the Wicomico Parish, Northumberland County, Virginia.  Both families followed the steady migration of early settlers south and finished with Charles Coppedge and Reuben Westmoreland living in Pike County, Georgia.

Even though the families were fairly wealthy farmers, Mark decided to make religion his life’s work.  He became a circuit rider in the Baptist Church in West Georgia and East Alabama.  At that time, this area was in transition from being predominately Creek Indian territory to white man’s land.  Indian raids were common, but after the treaty of 1836, the Indians gave up much of the land. The land they retained was quickly swindled from the Indians by unscrupulous whites.  By the time Frances was born, Indian terror had mostly subsided.

          Frances’ childhood consisted of being with her sisters much of the time.  Not only did her mother have the nine children, another child was born in 1846.  They named him Reuben Hill Westmoreland.  By the time Frances was eight years old, the family had moved to the Auburn area in what was then in Macon County, Alabama.   In 1850, the family at home consisted of the parents, Mark (48) and Anna Maria (46), and children Millicent (24), Eliza (20), Ann (18), Rebecca (16), Mark (14), Lenora (12), Frances (7) and Reuben (4).  The two eldest children had married and moved away.  Sister Mary Elizabeth and her husband lived not far away, and they had a two year-old son, Algernon.  Brother Charles had married Sarah E. Burns in Columbus, Georgia.

Ironically, most of the members of the family, including the Holifields, belonged to the Methodist Church in Auburn.  On the church rolls in 1850, they are listed, but Mark Westmoreland has a notation that he had “gone to the Baptists”.   We have no way of knowing if this is when he began circuit riding under the auspices of the Baptist church, or if he had all along.  He was a charter member of County Line Christian Church in Fayette County, Georgia in 1825.  When he and Anna Maria were married in 1824, they probably lived on his Father’s farm, but gradually moved westward from there to Coweta County and Meriwether County in Georgia. By 1843, the family was located in Fredonia, Chambers County, Alabama the 1850 census places then in Auburn in Macon County Alabama.

As Fannie continued to grow into her teenage years, pre-war turmoil and personal tragedy entered her life.  In 1851, her grandfather Charles Coppedge passed away.  Her older sisters began to marry and move away, beginning their own families.  Then in the year 1854, disaster struck.

In late summer of 1854, as her sister Elizabeth Harriett was planning her wedding to Alsea Holifield, Fannie’s mother died.  At eleven years old, this came crashing down on her and her father, pulling these two closer together.  Less than a year later, Fannie’s grandmother Martha Coppedge died.  Almost two years after her mother’s death in 1854, Fannie’s oldest sister, Mary Elizabeth Holifield succumbed from complications of childbirth.

By the age of 15 in 1858, only Fannie’s sister (Becky) and brother (Reuben) were left in the household of Mark Westmoreland.  In a remarkable time in East Alabama, educational institutions for women were opening in almost every town of any size.  Just in the area of Fannie’s locale were Oak Bowery Female College, Auburn Masonic Female College, Tuskegee Female College and the East Alabama Female College.  The two schools in Tuskegee were opened by the Methodists (Tuskegee Female) and the Baptist (East Alabama Female) in direct competition with each other.  Mark, being a Baptist, sent Fannie to East Alabama Female College.

For a young woman in the late 1850’s in Alabama to gain higher education was a new phenomenon.  Certainly her older sisters did not have this chance.   Although these schools did not offer the same level of education as their male counterparts, Fannie received a classical education that included a mastery of Latin, French and Greek mythology.  When she graduated on July 4, 1860, she was on top of the world; a world that would cease to exist in very short period of time.

Fannie C. Westmoreland’s Diploma from

 East Alabama Female Institute

Following graduation, Fannie left for Atlanta to become the tutor of the children of her father’s first cousin, Dr. John Gray Westmoreland.  John’s wife had died in 1850, but not before she bore two children, Dora and Robert, ages 12 and 10 in 1860.  While in this war-boiling atmosphere in 1860-61 Atlanta, she met a fellow educator, William Moore from Ohio.  Love blossomed between the two, and soon they were engaged to be married.  A heavenly existence seemed to be in store for the two young people. But something happened on the way to heaven.

Disaster struck: Rebels fired on Fort Sumter, Georgia and Alabama seceded from the Union, and the Confederate States of America was created.  William Moore was determined to return to Ohio and join the Union Army.  Fannie was adamant about remaining single rather than to have a husband that would fight against her heritage.  The engagement was called off and Fannie returned broken-hearted to Alabama.

Fannie received a teaching position in Wetumpka, Alabama.   In a few months, an older man came courting her.  His named was Henry Hoffman, son of a German immigrant.  He had a farm near Buycksville, about 10 miles north of Wetumpka.  He was a widower - his wife had died giving birth to his daughter Annie.   Henry was attracted to Fannie, and he was also worried about his daughter Annie should he have to join the fighting that was about to come.  Fannie, on the rebound and looking for security, agreed to marry him.   They were married in a ceremony performed at her sister Harriet Holifield’s home in Tallassee on September 12, 1861.  By this time, Fannie’s father Mark Westmoreland had already joined the C.S.A. army as a chaplain, and was involved in the first Battle of Bull Run in Virginia.  He wrote to her the letter that was featured in a previous chapter.

Of course the war years were hard for everyone, but living on a thriving plantation in Coosa County food was usually plentiful.  Fannie’s main problem was adjusting to living in Buycksville, a very close knit community whose residents were almost all from a group that originated in Orangeburg, South Carolina.   This group included family names like Buyck, Spigener, Du Pont and Hoffman.  They were mostly Dutch-German immigrants and found land plentiful in Alabama.  Upon arriving in Buyckville, Fannie immediately got into an argument and was slapped by one of the more important slaves.  The slave was punished by being sold; Fannie remained.

In February of 1862 husband Henry was elected adjutant in 68^th Regiment of the 17^th Brigade in the 8^th Division, Alabama Militia (Coosa Home Guard), which kept him close by.  In 1863, he was appointed Justice of the Peace, which exempted him from military duty.  By 1865, every able bodied man left was pressed into service in the local home guard.   Henry’s circumstances allowed him and Fannie to begin a family, and in June, 1862 their first child was born.  They named him Walter Henry.   Fannie spent her time raising Walter, as well as her step-daughter Annie, who in 1862 was only two years old...

Fannie’s father Mark Westmoreland remained in the army and served with the 63^rd Georgia Infantry Regiment. By 1864 the war had taken its toll on him, and he resigned due to ill health and returned to Alabama.  He stayed at his daughter Harriett Holifield’s home in Tallassee and died on August 13, 1864.  He was buried in Tallassee in a plot belonging to the Holifield family.

As the war came to a close, a second son was born to Henry and Fannie.  He was born on March 2, 1865 and was named Paul Mark.   Following the war, with the beginning of Reconstruction, the times were chaotic and dangerous.  Food and supplies were scarce.  At first no government existed and then came the carpet baggers and scalawags to punish the poor losers.  Gradually, Henry became sicker and sicker. 

Little medical attention was available.  In 1868, another baby was born to Henry and Fannie.  This time is was a girl and they named her Ada Reuben.

As Henry illness grew worse, Fannie’s stepdaughter’s grandparents started spending more time with Annie.  Henry died in 1872 and Annie moved in with the Spigeners.  Fannie decided to leave the Buycksville community and moved herself, Walter, Paul and Ada to Auburn, Alabama.  Annie remained in Buycksville.

Fannie was able to purchase a house near the campus of the East Alabama Male College, which has just been acquired by the state of Alabama and named a land grant college.  The conversion to the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama was in progress as Fannie and her children moved in.  This property, located near the present day administration building was later donated to the A&M College by the Hoffman family.  In Auburn, Fannie was able to take on work as a seamstress, while raising her sons Walter (age 10 in 1872), Paul (age 7 in 1872), and doting on her daughter Ada (age 4 in 1872).  Due to her educational background, she also was able to teach Latin and other foreign languages.

By 1880, son Walter was already earning money as a traveling merchant selling pots and pans and other household items to the rural residents around the local area.  This start in life led to the opening a general store in nearby Waverly, Alabama and ultimately into the scrap metal business, for which Walter had a knack and prospered.   In 1880, Paul (now 15) was in school.  Ada (age 10 and listed as Eliza in the 1880 census) was also in school. 

Both Walter and Paul attended the A&M College at Auburn, but neither received a degree.  In the June, 1884 “State Agricultural and Mechanical College Programme for Commencement 1884”, Paul was listed as a distinguished student in the freshman class in Latin.  This was not surprising because Fannie was also gifted in this language.  Here are photographs of Walter in his cadet uniform from his A&M days and Paul around that period:

     Walter Henry Hoffman         Paul Mark Hoffman

        On August 9, 1884 Walter married Frances Isabella Mayberry in Waverly, Alabama.  Frances Mayberry was from a prominent family of that area.  This marriage moved the focus of the Hoffman family from Auburn to Waverly, although the distance was less than 10 miles.   In 1886, Walter and Frances had a child, but it was born and died on July 4^th. 

In 1889, Fannie’s daughter Ada graduated from Shorter College in Rome, Georgia.  Her first teaching job was as an assistant teacher at Alabama University High School in Birmingham, Alabama.  Fannie moved briefly to Birmingham to help get Ada settled. In 1890, Ada met and married John McWilliams of Jonesville, Alabama.  They settled in the Birmingham area and raised a large family.  Fannie returned to Waverly.

For the next several years, Fannie was the doting grandmother.  Walter and Frances had seven children that lived past infancy: Ada, Roy, Henry, Warren, Dorothy, Murray, and Walter Joseph.  Paul and Pearl had three children: Culver, John Leon, and Pearl Allene.  Ada and John had five children: Reva, Edith, John, Paul Robert, and Ada Lenora.

Frances Chivers Westmoreland Hoffman

     In the 1890’s, with no children at home to raise, Fannie began to take part in the women’s clubs springing up across the nation at that time.  Most were affiliated with churches.  The initial object of their attention was prohibition of alcohol.   Temperance rallies were commonplace, especially in the rural areas of Alabama.

A second cause developed as, after the war, the industrialization age got started.  In east Alabama and West Georgia, cloth mills were being expanded and opened.  Northern investors saw in the South an opportunity to hire cheap labor.  The abuses of children (often with their family’s approval) grew in frequency and harshness.  With the typical indifference, the owners conned the poor working class into virtual slavery by providing housing, supplies on credit from the company store, and generally making it impossible to break the cycle of debt versus wages in the mill communities.  Federal, state and local governments were reluctant to address the issues.

The third cause of women’s clubs at that time was the right of women to vote.  This was not a favorite issue in the South, because their Northern counterparts supported suffrage for black women as well.

It was in this environment that Fannie lived in the early 1900’s.  Her son Paul had a thriving plant nursery in Waverly, but his wife Pearl was in poor health.  To help Paul and Pearl, Fannie would frequent the juvenile courts and locate Negro boys who were willing to stay on Paul’s farm.  They were expected to go to school, church and to work on Mr. Paul's place.  Mr. Paul's home was always filled with children that did not have a home of their own. 

By 1908, Fannie was ready to do something else with her life.  It is not really known what she was trying to accomplish, but she wanted to move to Washington, D.C. for some reason.  To that end, she corresponded with Booker T. Washington, the famous Negro educator from Tuskegee.   Her son Paul was an innovative plant farmer and knew George Washington Carver from the Tuskegee Institute.  This connection would probably have prompted Fannie to ask Mr. Washington for assistance.  The letter he wrote back to her is as follows:

If she received any help from Mr. Washington it is not known.  But sometime after 1910 but before the end of 1913, Fannie did move to Washington, D.C.  She obtained work at the Library of Congress.  What else she did in the nation’s capitol remains an enigma.  She rented a room in a house that was located at 228 Second Street, N.E.    This is now the location of the Hart Senate Office Building.

Fannie is on the left in this picture. 

This bust of Abraham Lincoln was made by Sculptor Gutzon Borglum, best known for his Mount Rushmore likeness of Lincoln. A gift of Eugene Meyer, Jr. in 1908, it was displayed for many years in the Rotunda, but now rests one floor below in the Capitol Crypt.

In 1914, Fannie received an honor for her father’s service in the Civil War.  This was given by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in a ceremony at the Mount Vernon Methodist Episcopal Church located on Massachusetts Avenue near Mount Vernon Square in Washington, D. C. Following are two newspaper articles from the Washington Post in January, 1914.  The first announced the ceremony and the second summarized the events.

Following this award ceremony, Fannie continued to live in Washington.   On November 7^th, 1915, she died in her room.  The following announcement appeared in the Washington Post:

Note the error in her age in this article.  Fannie was really 72 years old

When word of her death was received in Alabama, sons Walter and Paul went by train to bring the body of their mother back to Alabama for burial.  Family lore is that her room had been ransacked, but it was not clear if this was the result of a burglary or from the search by the police.  In any case, it has always been believed that items known to be in her possession were never recovered.

After transporting her remains to Auburn, she was laid to rest in Pine Hill Cemetery in Auburn, Alabama.  She was buried in plot a next to her sister Eliza Harriet Holifield and her husband Alsea Holifield, who had died in 1900 and 1896, respectively.

Neighborhood in D.C. Where Fannie Lived. 

Picture taken 2005 by

Tom Merrill

After many years of weather exposure, any identification of the grave site was obliterated.  Several descendents, working independently, were interested in finding the exact spot of her grave.  Finally records were obtained that revealed that the site was in the Holifield section, plot 230.  Once this was known, plans were made by the descendents to have a marker prepared and a reunion held to celebrate Fannie’s life and re-dedicate her grave.

The reunion was held in April, 2002, with more than seventy people attending, many meeting each other for the first time.  It was a great success and much family history information was shared among the participants.  As church bells pealed in the distance, the family prayed and put the new marker in place.

In all, Fannie and Henry Hoffman had three children, 15 grandchildren, 34 great-grandchildren, 39 great-great-grandchildren, numerous great-great-great grandchildren.  Several great-great-great-great grandchildren are beginning to populate the world as we enter 2006.

We all owe a good part of our heritage to this brave woman who suffered through some very hard times to make us the citizens of the world we are today.

Some attendees of the April, 2002 Grave Marking Ceremony

Typical Southern Cross of Honor