Dickinson Co., KS AHGP-Portrait and
Biographical Album of Dickinson, Saline, McPherson and
Marion Counties-Christian B. Hoffman
Portrait and Biographical
Album of Dickinson, Saline, McPherson and Marion
Counties
Chapman Brothers, Chicago, 1893
CHRISTIAN B. HOFFMAN, a well-known
business man of Enterprise, was born in
Azmoos, Switzerland, on the 30th of November,
1851. His education was acquired in the
public schools, and after coming to this country
he attended the Central Wesleyan College, of
Warrenton, Mo., from which he was graduated in
the Class of '72. The following year, he entered
upon his business career as the junior member of
the firm of C. Hoffman & Son, millers. This business
is a leading industry of the city. The annual
output is about one hundred and twenty
thousand barrels of flour; thirty thousand barrels
of meal are also sold annually, and fifteen
thousand barrels of rye flour. They ship about
three hundred carloads of corn annually, and
about one half of their flour is sent to foreign
markets. Employment is furnished to about thirty five
men, and the business has long been on a good
paying basis.
In 1884, Mr. Hoffman of this sketch established
the Enterprise Bank, of which he has since been
President, and for two years the business was carried
on under his personal control, with the aid of
II. M. Warner, Cashier. He has also been President
of the Ehrsam Machine Company since its incorporation,
another of the leading industries of the
city. Mr. Hoffman is now giving much of his
time and attention to the work of the Kansas-
Sinaloa Investment Company, which was organized
under the laws of the State in 1889, with a
capital stock of $100,000. Our subject is the
President. The first Board of Directors was composed
of J. W. Lovell, a publisher of New York
City; Herr Flurscheim, a large manufacturer of
Baden Baden, Germany; and C. F. Lindstrom, of
Topolobampo, Mexico. The principles of the company
are: To the laborer the full product of his
labor. Public control of public utilities. Free
land, free money and free education. Its motto
is: "A service for a service." A tract of over two
thousand acres of land has been purchased in Sinaloa,
Mexico, and has been irrigated by a main
canal over one hundred miles long. There are to
be no corporations or monopolies, and all public
works are to be controlled by the government of
the colony. The only outside means of transportation
at this time is by water, but soon a railroad
twelve hundred miles long will be built across the
country to Galveston, Tex., through a region rich
in minerals, metals and agricultural facilities. The
place has already been settled up by a large colony,
mostly of American people, many from Kansas.
C. F. Lindstrom, of Topolobampo, is the resident
agent and manager, and all affairs are under the
charge of a board of directors. The business has
taken Mr. Hoffman repeatedly to the scene of operations.
This scheme is a gigantic one, but it has
already been proven that it can be carried out successfully
and with mutual benefit. It indicates
the great progressive spirit and enterprise of Mr.
Hoffman.
On the 16th of .January, 1873, in Warrenton,
Mo., our subject married Miss A. C. Hopkins, a
native of Virginia, and by their union have been
born five children: Ralph, Ernest, Walter, Daisy,
and Thaddeus. Mr. Hoffman has taken quite a
prominent part in educational interests and is one
of the seven men who succeeded in establishing
the Normal College in this place. He is a charter
member of the Odd Fellows' society of Enterprise,
and also belongs to the United Workmen Lodge.
In 1881, he was elected to the State Legislature on
the Republican ticket, and was the author of the
Hoffman Bill for the regulation of railway rates.
He was also a member of the Railroad Committee.
In 1881, our subject made an independent race for
Senator in the district composed of Ottawa and
Dickinson Counties, being led to take this step
through the position of the Republican party on
railroad legislation and prohibition. The district
gave Blaine eighteen hundred majority, but he
suffered defeat with less than one hundred votes,
and carried his own county by a majority of over
three hundred. Since that time Mr. Hoffman has
been independent in politics. Hon. J. A. Anderson,
who is Minister to Egypt, having been defeated
for re-nomination to Congress, he arranged for
an independent campaign, and Mr. Hoffman made a
canvass for him. In seven out of ten counties the
County Republican Committee was captured and
resolutions passed denouncing the Concordia Convention
and favoring the election of Mr. Anderson,
who received the election by a large majority,
nineteen thousand voles being cast for him, while
his opponent, Mr. Wilson, received only five thousand.
In 1880, Mr. Hoffman became a member of
the State Central Committee of the Union Labor
party and in 1890 affiliated with the People's
party. He is a sagacious, far-sighted and shrewd
business man, strictly honorable in all his dealings,
and is one of the most valued citizens in Dickinson
County.
(c) 2009 Sheryl McClure for Dickinson County KS AHGP