Elizabeth Back, adopted by Maggard

Elizabeth Hoffman

• AKA. Elizabeth Hoffman-Maggard Back
• Birth: 1755 - Augusta County, Virginia Colony
• Death: 1826 - Harlan County, Kentucky, USA
• Parents: Nicholaus Hoffman, Barbara Elisabeth Hoffman (born Koestnerin)
• Adoptive Parents: Samuel Maggard Samuel Daniel Maggard and Catherine Catherine Maggard
• Sister: Mary Hoffman
• Husband: Joseph Back
• Children: Joseph Back, John Back, Mary Back, Henry Back

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CAUTION:

Not the Elizabeth born 13 Jul 1746 to Johan Hoffman and Maria Sabina Volk.

This Elizabeth married Joseph Back and the other married Henry Back.

Biography

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/168582980/elizabeth-back

Her parents were Nicholaus Hoffman and Barbara Elisabeth Koestnerin.

She was born in what was then Augusta County, Virginia. It is now Rockingham County, Virginia. Both of her parents died in 1770, and she was apprenticed to Samuel Maggard in 1771. That was how her last name became Hoffman-Maggard. Samuel was the son of Hans Maggard, who was the immigrant in his family. Samuel had a brother named David.

Samuel married a woman whose first name was Catherine.
They adopted Elizabeth.
Samuel's brother David married Margaret Mauck--they adopted Elizabeth's sister Mary.

This has been documented in many records. The book covering Samuel Maggard is "Coming Down Cumberland," by V.N. "Bud" Phillips. The book covering David Maggard is, "Hans Maggard's Other Son: A History and Genealogy of the David Maggard Family," by Mary Kay Hushman Lavezzari.

A copy of the document for this apprenticeship is posted on this page.

She married Joseph Back around 1773.

Joseph Back and Elizabeth Hoffman-Maggard had at least four children:

• 1. Joseph Jr. (born about 1773) who married a woman whose last name may have been Hoffman, but her first name is not known. Joseph Jr. was murdered in 1802, supposedly by members of the Ford family (according to Dr. Wilgus Bach).
• 2. John (born Nov. 19, 1774) who married Catherine Robertson.
• 3. Mary (born Nov. 1, 1777) who gave birth to a son (out of wedlock), who she named Alfred Back, but then she died, a few weeks later.
• 4. Henry (born Feb. 6, 1785) who married Susannah Maggard

The family migrated to southeastern Kentucky in 1791, and they established the Bach (Back) family there.

Elizabeth Hoffman-Maggard Back died in 1826.
She was the first person to be buried here, in what later became known as The Maggard Cemetery.
It was named The Maggard Cemetery, because of her close connection to the Maggard family.
(Her son John was best friends with Samuel Maggard, who was the grandson of Samuel and Catherine Maggard, who had adopted her.)

Her original marker was just a simple stone with her name on it.
In 1922, Dr. Wilgus Bach discovered her grave, and, out of respect, he had a new marker made for her that was much larger, and had information about her inscribed on it.
Unfortunately, he made two errors in the inscription.
First, he had her date of birth as July 13, 1746, because that was the date of birth that he had seen in the old Bach Family Bible for a woman named Elizabeth Back.
He thought that was THIS woman, Elizabeth Hoffman-Maggard Back, who was the wife of Joseph Back.
But that date of birth was actually the date of birth for another woman named Elizabeth Back, which was her sister-in-law, Elizabeth Hoffman Back, the wife of Henry Back (Joseph Back's brother).

The second error that Dr. Bach made was that he had her place of birth as Thuringia, Germany, because he had seen a handwritten statement in the old Bach Family Bible that the family was from Thuringia.
However, that statement was referring to Joseph Back's parents, who were from Thuringia, and who had immigrated to America in 1740 and settled in Culpeper County, Virginia.
Joseph Back, as well as his wife, Elizabeth Hoffman-Maggard Back, were both born in Virginia.

The gravestone that Dr. Bach had created for her, stood in this cemetery for 66 years.
In the fall of 1988, some members of "The Back-Bach Genealogical Society" pulled it out of the ground and threw it over the hill.
They then erected another gravestone that was meant to describe Elizabeth Hoffman Back, the wife of Henry Back.
They did that, in order to "prove" the fraudulent genealogy that they would later sell, in 1994.
However, that woman never came to Kentucky.
She died in Rockingham County, Virginia, where she had moved, after her husband Henry had died, in 1808. She had moved there, to live near her widowed sister Margaret, whose husband John Back had died back in 1794. (John Back was a brother to Henry Back.)

Elizabeth Hoffman Back (Henry Back's widow) was seen living in Rockingham County, in the 1810 Census Report, with her son Aaron.
They lived right next door to the Hammer family, and Aaron married their daughter, the following year. Aaron and his mother were also listed in numerous tax lists in Rockingham County, up until 1815, when Elizabeth died. Aaron moved to Ohio, the following year, with his wife and child.

The (illegal) removal of Elizabeth Hoffman-Maggard Back's gravestone from this cemetery was documented in an article written by Custer Back, who was one of the men who removed it, in the October, 1988 edition of the "Filson Club History Quarterly."
His article described the fake genealogy of "The Back-Bach Genealogical Society," and he actually bragged about what he and his cousins did, including Troy L. Back. (You can find this article online.)

After her gravestone was thrown over the hill, Wardie and Hazel Craft retrieved it, and they took it back to their home in Caney, Kentucky, which they had converted into a museum called, "Memory Hill."
They placed it out behind their house, next to The Memory Hill Cemetery. Shortly after that, some people from "The Back-Bach Genealogical Society," who were furious that the gravestone had been retrieved, and saved, went to Memory Hill and they had the word "INCORRECT" carved along the bottom of the gravestone.
Please see Find A Grave memorial #207033808.

The remains of Elizabeth Hoffman-Maggard Back (wife of Joseph Back) are in The Maggard Cemetery, under that fake gravestone that "The Back-Bach Genealogical Society" had erected in 1988, describing her sister-in-law Elizabeth Hoffman (wife of Henry Back).

However, the remains of Elizabeth Hoffman (wife of Henry Back), and the daughter of John Hoffman and Maria Sabina Folg, are in Rockingham County, Virginia.

The spinning wheel that Samuel Maggard gave her when her apprenticeship ended, in 1773, is now at the Breathitt County Museum, in Jackson, Kentucky. She and Joseph brought it with them, when they left Virginia.

This is the gravestone, before the word "INCORRECT" was chiseled across the bottom of it.

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Aug 5 2022, 23:33:35 UTC

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