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From B. J. Griswold, THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE, INDIANA and THE STORY OF THE TOWNSHIPS OF ALLEN COUNTY, by Mrs. Samuel R. Taylor, Chicago, Robert O. Law Company, 1917

DAVID M. SHOAFF, who came to Allen County in 1839, with his brave young wife, MARY MENDENHALL, and their 2 little babes, had their share of hardships, and triumphs also. Young, moneyless, and with very little else than pluck, they made their way, MR. SHOAFF working in the winters for better situated neighbors at the princely stipend of 50 cents a day, and spending the summer at his own clearing, in which work MARY helped him, gathering and burning brush while her babies played at a safe distance on the ground. Safe distance, do we say? As if any distance were safe in a country which harbored wild animals and teemed with snakes not all of which were harmless. Who can tell what fears assailed the young pioneer mother’s heart at the slightest call of distress from her little ones while she worked to help make them a home? Among other incidents attending the pioneer life of DAVID SHOAFF is related a memorable trip he made to Maumee City, Ohio. Salt it seems was selling in Fort Wayne for $9 per barrel in the spring of 1840. This was deemed too high a price to pay with wages at 50 cents per day. Still, salt was a necessity. A brother, JAMES P. SHOAFF, furnished the money and DAVID SHOAFF and F. C. FREEMAN undertook the trip. It was early March and the snow was so deep and heavy that it took 12 days to reach Maumee City. The return trip was made by way of the still frozen Maumee River, a route quite common in winter, but fraught with some danger in March. They had some narrow escapes from drowning, though they reached home safely at last, but it was a rather expensive barrel of salt after all, even reckoning their wages at 50 cents a day. The arrow that flieth by day had been driven from the woods, but arrows were not all the risks that beset the settler’s path to fortune. When in the fall of 1843 DAVID SHOAFF helped to build the houses of his brother J. P. SHOAFF, and SQUIRE JONES, they were the first houses between his own home and Heller’s Corners on that road which ADAM HULL and his neighbors helped to cut. DAVID SHOAFF and RAPIN ANDREWS, though coming to Perry at nearly the same time, but in quite different circumstances, were both there in time to be two of the 11 voters in the township to cast a vote at the first presidential election held there. DAVID was a Whig.

Is this John “F” for Freeman Shoaff, son of John P. Shoaff, brother of David???

Wife of Peter (next to and matching A. Allen)

ALLEN, ALMIRA Dec. 17, 1863 41Y (21) 11M 7D

Wife of John

ALLEN, ALMIRA Jan. 7, 1882 19Y 24D dau. J. & A.

The Shoaff family appears to have come from Miami County, Ohio. David M. Shoaff married his wife, Mary “Polly” Mendenhall there on March 13, 1836. She was the daughter of Joseph Mendenhall and Deidama Hill.

The 1835 Quadrennial Enumeration of Adult White Males of Miami County, Ohio, show the following of the Shoaff names there:

No ages listed but assume they were “of age” and probably over 21 at the time. Though David was married the next year, he would have been too young to be listed in 1835.