Hoffmans and Macbeths: 52 Ancestors Prompt “Map It Out”

Geography, Love and Marriage in the Early Twentieth Century

            I recently started studying plat maps from the early twentieth century, looking up my grandparents’ farm sites in southern Minnesota to better understand the geography of the places I’d visited as a child. I was surprised to discover how close many extended family members had lived in the years between 1900 and 1930. Suddenly I had a whole new understanding of family relationships.

            The map below shows parts of two townships in Blue Earth County, Minnesota—Mankato Township and Le Ray Township. The plat map was prepared in 1916. The highlighted “plats” or acres of land were farms owned by my extended family members. Dozens of my ancestors lived mere miles from one another—the furthest distances between the highlighted farm places are perhaps five miles at most.

            Seeing the physical proximity of these families helped me understand how couples met and fell in love—three of my grandmother’s sisters literally married the “boy next door” —Nora Hoffman’s family, William and Lena Hoffman, lived at site No. 3, and the Seltenreich boys, the three young men Nora’s sisters married, lived right across the road at site No. 4.

            My grandmother Nora married a boy just down the road a few miles; Ivan Macbeth grew up at site No. 8. Nora’s brother, Elmer Hoffman, married Mildred Edwards, whose family lived nearby at site No. 6. This romance led to Elmer’s sister, Jennie Hoffman, pairing up with Mildred’s brother Delbert Edwards. Nora’s youngest sister married Robert Miller, who grew up at site No. 1, the Charles Miller farm.

Elmer Hoffman and Mildred Edwards Wedding--I think man on left may be Delbert Edwards and woman to right Jennie Hoffman, who married later.

            The Hoffmans weren’t the only family who found familiarity breeding love rather than contempt. My grandfather Ivan Macbeth’s extended family also married neighbors. Ivan’s father, Walter, also grew up at site No. 8. His brother Charles farmed the site next door, site No. 9. Nearby at site No. 10, several members of the extended Britt family lived and farmed. The Britts intermarried with the Macbeths several times over several generations. Walter Macbeth married Lucy Dane, whose grandmother was a Britt. Walter’s sister Caroline Macbeth married William C Britt, and his sister Mary E. Macbeth married Handy E. Britt.

            A generation later, Walter’s daughter (and my grandfather Ivan’s sister) Ethel Mary Macbeth married a neighbor to the west, George Ott, who owned site No. 7. Another of Walter’s daughters, Annie Macbeth, married Gus Schostag, who lived at site No. 5.

            Travel in the early part of the twentieth century was still slow and often difficult, so meeting potential romantic partners could be difficult. Most of these families were farmers, so worked at home, never meeting other people at a workplace. Schools and churches tended to be small and nearby—the schools these families attended were one room, usually with fewer than thirty pupils total. Young people simply didn’t meet many people of the opposite sex, so had few potential partners to choose amongst. I wonder whether my ancestors’ choices to marry were based on romantic love or were they more of a practical decision? Can you really find true love in a five mile radius? I hope my ancestors did.