Scruggs/Hovis Ancestors
Father's SIDE
My Scruggs Ancestors
came from England and were among the first to immigrate to America landing in Virginia about 1650. Over time the family migrated to Kentucky, then to Missouri and when Kansas opened to settlers, my great great grandfather, Simeon Scruggs, moved his family, where they stayed for about 60 years.
My great grandfather, Joseph Murphy Scruggs I, moved his family to Oklahoma in about 1908 and from there grandfather, Joseph Murphy Scruggs II, who was only the third of 7 children to live to adulthood, immigrated to Canada about 1915 to work in the Turner Valley oilfields. It was here that he met Clarise Ruth Hovis, and after their marriage in 1920, when she was 18. By 1931, the family (now with 4 children) moved to the Peace River country of northern Alberta where they homesteaded. One more son joined the family later. The family stayed there for nearly 50 years. After Joseph passed away, Clarise moved to Edmonton.
My Hovis Ancestors
came from Germany and settled in Pennsylvania in the late 1700s and some of the family, including my great grandfather, Martin Luther Hovis, moved to Ohio. There he met and married Fleetie Estelle Naylor. They may have met because Fleetie’s father was also born in Pennsylvania.
Martin moved to the Turner Valley oilfields in S. Alberta about 1912 and was the chief driller on the famous well “Dingman No.1†which is recognized as the first oil discovery in Alberta on May 14, 1914. Fleetie and their five children followed to Canada by rail later in 1914 and Martin and Fleetie lived in Black Diamond, Alberta until the end of their days.
My grandmother, Clarise Ruth Hovis was the fourth child out of a family of six and married Joseph Murphy Scruggs II at the age 18. Fleetie remarried several years after Martin passed away.
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You can follow my journey to discover my European Ancestors
Much has been written about my direct ancestor Viricus Hofius and some of the following research was done by others.
Like many other Family Names this one has changed over time and shows up as Hof/Hofe/Hofius/Hovius/Hovis.
Viricus (or Wirich) Hofius b. 1651, Hamborn, Ksp. Beeck, today’s Germany. He was born “Wirich Hoius†auf dem Hofe at Hoffmannshof, Beeck Parish, near Duisburg, Germany. In 1667 he began studying theology at Duisburg, and was registered as "Wiricus Hofius Hammerensis" – which is ‘Wirich Hofius from Homborn’. Pastor Viricus Hofius later studied at Wittenberg and from 1677 to 1725 (for 48 years) held the first Reformist Minister's post at Radevormwalde, some 80 km. south of Hamborn.
Hofmannshof had been a mediaeval mansion in today’s district of Duisburg and the city district of Hamborn. The farm was located north of the Beeckbach, north-east of the Abbey of Hamborn on the corner of today's Duisburger Straße and Kampstraße, where today the Clauberg-Gymnasium stands.
Our ancestor, Viricus Hofus was born “auf dem Hofe†which meant ‘on the farm’. He married 12/5/1680, Hamborn, Maria Plucket (1659-1701) b. Hamborn and d. Radevormwalde, Germany, just one year after the birth of her 10th child.
Their son Johannes Hofius (1694-1754); (Also our ancestor) was b. Radevormwalde, Germany, d. Iserlohn, Germany, was a Protestant Minister and was also registered at the Duisburg Seminary 10/10/1713, and was ordained 7/31/1721.
Morison/Wuzer Ancestors
Mother's SIDE
My Morison Ancestors
immigrated to Canada from Scotland about 1866 and settled in Eastern Ontario/South West Quebec. My great grandfather, James Strachan Morison, was the middle son of 11 children and married my great grandmother, Harriet Tempest, in Quebec in February 1888. The Tempest family came from England in the first half of the 1800s.
James and Harriet moved to Western Canada and the Red Deer, Alberta area in February 1889 where their first child, William Vernon Morison, was born.
Homesteading papers were filed in 1897 by James S Morison close to Tuttle, Alberta (south west of Red Deer), but it appears he may have left Alberta soon after the turn of the century, possibly searching for silver in the mountains around Nakusp, BC. The 1891 census shows they had 2 children and in the 1901 census we find Harriet by herself with 4 children.
The children may have grown up without a father and they all left home in their teen years. My grandfather, William Vernon Morison, roamed around S. Alberta as a young man, and then served in WWI, after which he married, Hilda Rose Wurzer, from Nobleford, Alberta in 1920.
This new family lived in southern Alberta for several years and then homesteaded in the Peace River country from 1931 to 1949. They would have known the Scruggs family in the area.
My Wurzer Ancestors
immigrated to America from Austria-Hungary area, landing in Baltimore in 1882. The family settled in North Dakota where the eldest son, who was my 3X great grandfather, Melchior Wurzer, passed away within 2 years of arriving in the USA. In 1908, two of Melchior's grandsons, John Michael and Adolph Wurzer and their families, moved to Southern Alberta and farmed around the Nobleford area.
My grandmother, Hilda Rose Wurzer, was the second daughter of John Michael Wurzer and married my grandfather, William Vernon Morison, in 1920. They moved to Black Diamond, Alberta in the late 1920s and then homesteaded in the Peace River country in Northern Alberta.