The Mysterious Mr. Hoard

This is the mysterious John Tyler Hoard, my great-great-grandfather.  I've been looking for him for 25 years since my grandmother died. Apparently, the family changed the spelling of Hord to Hoard. He was born on March 4, 1840, in Lorane, Indiana, a wisp of a village in the northern part of Whitley County, where most of my grandmother's family lived. This picture of Hoard was in my collection. It was taken by the infamous Frank Kelly, who had studios both in my hometown of South Whitley, as well as the country seat, Columbia City, Indiana. John Tyler Hoard was one of five children born to Kellis Hord and Angelina Moore. He served with an Ohio company in the Civil War and married Catherine Creager, daughter of Christian Henry Creager, one of the early residents of South Whitley, who reportedly owned a sawmill and built State Street. (Note: Creager's children by his first wife are missing in this reference.) From a family letter dated 1902: As early as the reign of King John (1215) we find honorable mention of the Hord family in Engliand where they stood high and many were knighted. The genealogy follows them on down through successive reigns until 1685 when John Hord, an English gentleman, came to Virginia. He was engaged in the rebellion of the Duke of Monmouth against King James the II and came to America after the defeat of the former. He purchased a large tract of large in what is now Caroline County on the Rappahanock which he named Shady Grove. His house was brought from England in six sections and part of it is still standing (1902). It is located two miles south of the Rappahanock River and eight miles below where the vilage of Port Royal now stands. Here John Hord lived and died in 1712 and from this man is descended every many bearing the name of Hord in America. He had six sons. The coat of arms bears a raven and there is a Count de Hord spoken of in Voltaire's Life in Charles XII, so it is thought perhaps the family originated in Sweden. This letter is from a typed, undated letter to an unknown person from another unknown person named Bill, which was included among the papers given to me by LeNore Alice Hoard Enz. ### Hot links may direct users to other facts. Basic demographic data is saved on Ancestry.com under the family tree of Amy LeNore McVay Abbott. Family names: Creager, Obenchain, Hoard, Enz, Evans, Sarah Mae Hoard, Marilyn Enz McVay, LeNore Hoard Enz