Edward W. Hocker

EDWARD W. HOCKER The Genealogical Society reports with sorrow the death, in his ninetieth year, of Edward W. Hocker on 9 July 1962. Although he had retired two years ago from active work in genealogical and historical fields because of failing health and eyesight, he had maintained a keen interest in these subjects up to the time of his death. He was born in Norristown on 22 May 1873, the son of Edward and Sophia Hocker, both of whom had come from Germany only to meet in Norristown. The elder Edward Hocker, immediately upon President Lincoln's call for 75,000 volunteers for three months' service, offered his services, and was enrolled in Company B, under Captain Robert E. Taylor, of Colonel John F. Hartranft's Pennsylvania Fourth Volunteer Regiment, mustered 20 April 1861. Upon release from that service, the elder Hocker joined Battery F of the Fifth U. S. Artillery, serving two terms of three years each. When he applied for naturalization, his three honorable discharge papers prompted Judge Henry Pauling to waive further questioning. On 29 September 1879 he joined at Norristown the General Zook Post, No. 11, Pennsylvania Grand Army of the Republic. The elder Hockers lived in the old Fifth Ward of Norristown, bounded by Main, Arch and Walnut Streets. From here young Edward attended the Sandy Street School and was graduated from Norristown High School in 1889. In Collegeville on 9 April 1901 he was married by Rev. Joseph H. Hendricks to Frances Moser, born 12 July 1876, daughter of Elwood Smith Moser, founder of the Providence Independent, and his wife Margaret Gayner. Mrs. Hocker died 31 August 1960. Edward W. Hocker entered the newspaper field in 1889, right after his graduation from high school. For nearly forty years he was an active newspaperman, associated first with the Norristown Review, from 1898 to 1903 with the Philadelphia Press, from 1903 to 1907 with the Pennsburg weekly, Town and Country, as editor, and from 1907 until 1927 with the Germantown Independent Gazette, also as editor. Until his retirement he wrote, under the pen-name of "Norris," a column of historical notes, "Up and Down Montgomery County," for the Norristown Times Herald. During these years, while he was acquiring his extensive knowledge of Pennsylvania history, he inevitably became interested in the background and families of the people who made that history. During his last thirty years he utilized that knowledge in genealogical research, fully realizing the two fields were only different aspects of the same subject. A Life Member of the Genealogical Society since 1932, and Fellow of 274 Edward W. Hocker 275 the Society, his first major contribution to genealogical research began soon after. From 1934 until the late 1940's he collected, transcribed and indexed inscriptions from headstones in cemeteries in Roxborough, Germantown and Chestnut Hill, as well as in Bucks and Montgomery Counties. Some of these cemeteries are no longer extant,. and in others many stones are now Illegible, so that his records are of Inestimable value to genealogists. Another outstanding contribution made by Mr. Hocker appeared in 1935: "Genealogical Data Relating to the German Settlers of Pennsylvania and Adjacent Territory from Advertisements in German Newspapers Published in Philadelphia and Germantown, 1743 - 1800." This collection of translated newspaper extracts, a copy of which is in the Reading Room of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, is a veritable gold mine for those interested in German genealogy. His extensive personal collection of professional genealogical work was deposited in 1961 in the Genealogical Society. Thus the fruits of his many years of research will be available for reference to future genealogists. Mr. Hocker's published works include Germantown, 1683-1933, which appeared in 1933 and established him as the recognized authority on the history of that area. In 1936 he published The Fighting Parson of the American Revolution, a biography of General Peter Muhlenberg. In 1948 appeared "The Sower Printing House of Colonial Times," published in Volume LIII of the Proceedings and Addresses of the Pennsylvania German Society. His Montgomery County History, published first in 1959 under the auspices of the Norristown Times Herald, in commemoration of the county's 175th anniversary, has been reprinted in Volume XII of the Bulletin of the Montgomery County Historical Society. Concurrently with these works appeared numerous historical and biographical articles in the early publications of the Germantown Historical Soci ety, of which he was librarian when he retired; later in the Germantown Crier, the present organ of that society, and in the Bulletin of Pennsylvania's Department of Internal Affairs. His ability as a genealogist is abundantly reflected in all these publications. Mr. Hocker is survived by a son Fred, of Harrisburg; a daughter Margaret, Mrs. Charles H. Hoover, of Lafayette Hills; two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. To them the Society extends its sincere sympathr