John H. Hoffecker

John Henry Hoffecker (born September 12, 1827 in Smyrna , Kent County , Delaware , †  June 16, 1900 in Smyrna) was an American politician . Between 1899 and 1900 he represented the state of Delaware in the US House of Representatives .

Career

John Hoffecker attended both public and private schools and was later trained as an engineer. In this profession he worked in Smyrna. He later became president of the Philadelphia & Smyrna Transportation Co . His son Walter would later succeed him in this position .

Politically, he was originally a member of the Whig Party . After its dissolution in the mid-1850s, he moved to the then newly founded Republican Party . In 1876 and 1884 he was a delegate at the respective Republican National Conventions . In 1888 he was elected to the Delaware House of Representatives. From 1878 to 1898 he was chairman of the Smyrna City Council. In 1896 he ran unsuccessfully for the office of governor of Delaware as a candidate for a split-off and the Prohibition Party . A first attempt to be elected governor had failed as early as 1886.

In 1898 Hoffecker was elected to the US House of Representatives with 54% of the vote against the Democratic incumbent L. Irving Handy . There he took up his new mandate on March 4, 1899. In 1900 he attended the Federal Republican Party Conference in Philadelphia . From there he traveled to Smyrna on a home leave, where he suffered a fatal stroke on June 16, 1900. John Hoffecker was married twice. His son Walter was elected to Congress as his father's successor when the by-election was due .

Web links

• John H. Hoffecker in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• John H. Hoffecker in the database of Find a Grave (English)