McKean County John Hoffman Biography

Biography of John Roland Huffman

JOHN ROLAND HUFFMAN-MARGARET NMI KOENIG

John Roland Huffman was born in Charlotte, Eaton County, Michigan on June16,1888, the youngest child of John Riley and Rebecca Ellen (Cooper) Huffman.

On June 1, 1911 he was married in Saint Luke�s Episcopal Church at Smethport, McKean County, Pennsylvania, by Reverend William E. VanDyke, to Margaret NMI Koenig. Miss Koenig had grown up in Smethport as the youngest child of Leonhard L. and Bernadina Augustine (Fluma) Koenig. Margaret died at the Millard Filmore hospital in Buffalo, New York on January 28, 1967. She was in the hospital for her last cataract surgery, on the second eye, having previously had successful surgery on the other eye. At this time the state of the art for cataract surgery required patients to lie on their back with sand bags alongside of the head for quite a long time after surgery to promote proper healing. Margaret had severe asthma and lying in this position overnight, an asthma attack caused her lungs to fill with fluid and she suffocated. She was the tenacious type that would stick to her regimen for recovery with fortitude.

John also had lung problems and suffered from severe emphysema. Desolate and lost without his beloved Margaret, he died on November 11, 1967, soon after her demise.His son, Bernard Roland Huffman�s family in Buffalo, took him to live with them after Margaret�s death. John�s behavior, however became unpredictably erratic requiring that some one be with him at all times. This was just to much care for a working family to provide. All of the children then agreed that putting him in The Stone Nursing Home at Smethport was the only thing to do. He was there only short time when he died.

When John was about three his parents moved back to Hartford City, Blackford County Indiana, where his parents had started their married life and where John�s father had been born. John was baptized here into the First Presbyterian Church of Hartford City on June 12, 1894 when he was four days shy of his sixth birthday. He grew up in Hartford City attending public schools until completion of his ninth grade (freshman year).At this time, he was eighteen and ready to face the world so he took off for the oil fields around Casey, Illinois. Here he worked as a gas engine mechanic and attained a reputation for being an expert in the maintenance of this type of engine. After a couple of years, however, he went back to work with his father now living in Battle Creek, Michigan and worked there as a carpenter.

His brother James Cooper Huffman had been living in Smethport, Pennsylvania, working at a near by glass plant, and had married a local girl named Mayme Wolfe. John decided to go out with his brother and secure employment at the same plant James was working in.One day walking down main street window shopping he bumped into Margaret Koenig also window shopping and smitten with each other they started going together. After a fairly short courtship they tied a fine marriage knot.

Margaret was a telephone switchboard operator when she met John. In those days the connections between customers was done manually, through a switch board. There were a host of sockets on the board for different circuits and a host of plugs in front of the operator also for the different circuits. The operator would use the proper plug and connect it to the proper socket thus connecting the caller to the callee.

During the years 1911 to 1920 John and Margaret went back and forth between Battle Creek and Smethport.A son and daughter were born in Battle Creek, Michigan during this period of time, Leonard Riley Huffman in 1912 and Ellen Louise Huffman in 1914 and John�s father died in 1913. When he lived in Battle Creek John drove a taxi at Camp Custer which was being built to train soldiers for the war. As a family man of thirty with two children John was excused from service in W.W. I. Around 1920 John�s family moved to Smethport where John started his own construction business. At some time around 1920 John�s mother remarried a man named McLaughlin, this was also when John moved from Battle Creek to Smethport. He did well with his construction work until the depression forced him out of business.

John then secured work at the Pennsylvania State Highway Department as a carpenter where he worked until the state had a political change in the government. The change resulted in his dismissal when he refused to change his political registration from Republican to Democrat.

He then obtained employment as a carpenter at the local Quaker State oil refinery. In politics as has been noted he was a Republican. John and Margaret were not regular church goers but their children were all baptized in St. Luke�s Episcopal Church at Smethport, the church where they had been married. Their children also attended Sunday School here on a regular basis. John attended church sporadically until Reverend Culp called him one day and asked why he hadn�t been to church lately,John answered; when I go to church I expect to be preached to by someone better than I am, if he isn�t better then I don�t go. That of course ended his attendance at St. Luke�s Episcopal church for a long time.With her acute asthma Margaret never knew when an attack might occur, so her church and social life were very restricted.

In later years John joined his sons in a construction company venture called J. R. Huffman & Sons which did well for awhile but finally went bankrupt. The company did excellent work but there was no one in it with a head for business, someone to take care of the operational chores. The business sort of just ran itself while it existed.

John was elected to the Smethport District School Board where he held various positions in the many years that he served in this capacity.

>ohn and Margaret had four children as follows:
Leonard Riley Huffman born in Battle Creek, Michigan on June 5, 1912
Ellen Louise Huffman born in Battle Creek, Michigan on Aug. 2, 1914
>Bernard Roland Huffman born In Smethport, Pennsylvania on Mar. 21, 1922 James Cooper Huffman born in Smethport, Pennsylvania on Sept. 28, 1924.

They are both buried at Rosehill Cemetery in Smethport along with Margaret�s parents. John lived to an age of 79 years 4 months and 24 days while Margaret lived to an age of 76 years 8 months and 6 days.