Deborah Vanderhoof Decker 1805-1832

Research Question

Was Deborah Vanderhoof (1805-1832) a daughter of Jacob Vanderhoof (1772-1847) and Ann Hopler (1772-1841)?

Online family trees

Some trees posit Deborah as a child of Jacob Vanderhoof and Ann Hopler.

One of the many trees at Ancestry listing children
of Jacob Vanderhoof and Ann Hopler

Published book of Vanderhoof researcher

Louisa Caroline Freeman Hickerson mentioned Deborah Vanderhoof in her book, Vanderhoof, though not as a daughter of Jacob and Ann. Three Decker brothers married Vanderhoof women. Louisa did not determine the parentage of Deborah.

Page of Freeman's book about Decker and Vanderhoof marriages.
Housed at the Denville Historical Society

Marriage of Deborah Vanderhoof and John Decker, 1822

On March 19, 1822 Deborah Vanderhoof and John Decker were married by Pastor John Ford in Morris County, New Jersey. Marriages in Morris County can be found in books digitized at Family Search. The range of years is from the late 1700s through the late 1800s, including past 1848, when New Jersey required centralized recording of marriages.

"March 19 1822 John Decker, Stony Brook to
Deborah Vanderhoof of Rockaway Valley"

"March 19 1822 John Decker, Stony Brook to
Deborah Vanderhoof of Rockaway Valley"

The problem with these marriage records is that additional information is scarce. For example, ages of the parties and names of parents are often not given.

Burial and gravestone evidence

Deborah Vanderhoof and John Decker were buried at Rockaway Valley United Methodist Church Cemetery in Boonton, Morris County.

Gravestones in Rockaway Valley United Methodist Church Cemetery
visited on the cold day of November 11, 2025.
Deborah Vanderhoof died March 13, 1832 
John Decker died September 5, 1877
Rachel Jacobus died November 17, 1866

The date of death etched on Deborah's stone is March 13, 1832. I'm no expert on gravestones, but I do not think that her stone was created at the time of her death; therefore, it is prone to inaccuracies. Next to Deborah is her husband, John Decker (1800-1877). Next to John is his second wife, Rachel Jacobus (1796-1866).

Children of Deborah Vanderhoof and John Decker and problems with the timeline

Deborah and John had children. Names of the children can reveal names of grandparents. John Decker's parents were Andrew Decker and Elizabeth Dulhagle. The two oldest children were named Elizabeth and Andrew. It is possible that other children were born and named after Deborah's side of the family and that we do not know about these children because they died young or they married and moved away before the 1850 census.

--Elizabeth Decker (1822-1897) married Cyrus Dixon (1814-1868)

--Andrew Decker (1827-1906) married Martha Dixon (1830-1919)

--Sarah Louise Decker (1830-19xx) married William Kanouse (1823-1903)

--Catherine Amanda Decker (1835-1915) married Charles Augustus Kincaid (1832-1901).

The year of birth for the youngest child, Catherine, varies in records, but is usually in the early 1830s. The year of birth on her gravestone is 1835. So Catherine's mother, Deborah, died anytime after her birth until her father remarried before the 1850 census. There were no recordings of deaths to the county or State of New Jersey in the 1830s. Either Deborah did not die in 1832 or Catherine was not born in 1835, or Deborah was not her mother.

Conclusion

With the information so far gathered, the parentage of Deborah Vanderhoof remains a mystery. No direct evidence links Deborah to Jacob Vanderhoof and Ann Hopler. None of the known and speculated children of Jacob and Ann named a daughter Deborah. Online trees copy one another. Further evidence is required to link Deborah to any set of parents.

If you have probate, church, or family Bible records related to Morris County Vanderhoofs, I would welcome hearing from you.

The Two Samuel Vanderhoofs

Sometimes two people share similar facts, causing confusion to later generations who try to sort through records to craft accurate family trees.

This happened with two men named Samuel Vanderhoof. Both men were born about 1811 in Morris County, New Jersey. We know they were two different people because they are listed separately in the census and because one relocated to Wisconsin. Family trees and hints at Ancestry intermingle the two individuals as one.

1880 federal census
Town of Plymouth, Sheboygan County, Wisconsin.
Samuel Vanderhoof, age 72.
With wife and children.

The Samuel Vanderhoof pictured in the 1880 census in Wisconsin married Eleanor Anderson in New Jersey. They moved to Wisconsin in the early 1850s. He is likely a son of Jacob Vanderhoof (1772-1847) and Ann Hopler (1772-1841), though no documentation of this has surfaced yet.

The Samuel Vanderhoof who remained in New Jersey was the son of Cornelius Vanderhoof and maybe Catharine Smith.

1880 federal census
Boonton Township, Morris County, New Jersey.
Samuel Vanderhoof, age 69.
With second wife, Sarah, and her son, Walter Stiers.
Samuel's daughter, Mary Catherine, is with husband Charles Struble
in the first listed household.

New Jersey Samuel Vanderhoof married Julie Ann Vanderhoof in the early 1840s. She was the daughter of Abraham Johannis Vanderhoof (died 1836) and Catharine Kierstede. Julie died between the 1870 census and Samuel's remarriage in 1878. 1876 is her year of death on her gravestone in Rockaway Valley United Methodist Church Cemetery in Boonton, but I have not found a record of her death filed with the Archives. Presumably Samuel and Julie were cousins on their Vanderhoof lines, but I have not determined how at this point in the research.

Samuel and Julie had a daughter who lived to adulthood and had children. She was born around 1842 and used two different given names, Mary and Catherine, which added to the confusion of this branch. On January 1, 1862 in Boonton she married Charles Struble (1840-1926). Mary/Catherine died in 1898.

On August 21, 1878 Samuel Vanderhoof remarried to Sarah Ann Moore (1812-1894) in Rockaway Valley. This was Sarah's third marriage. Her first husband was Samuel Garrison Stires (1815-1869). Her second husband was Washington Stickle (1806-1877).

Marriage record
Samuel Vanderhooff (Vanderhoof) and Sarah Stickle
married August 21, 1878
in Rockaway Valley, Boonton, Morris County, New Jersey.
Available on microfilm at the New Jersey State Archives, Trenton.

According to this marriage record, the parents of Samuel were Cornelius Vanderhoof and Catharine [no surname]. Samuel died February 21, 1886 in Rockaway Valley. His parents on the death certificate were Cornelius Vanderhoof and --- Smith [no given name].

Death certificate
Samuel Vanderhoff died February 21, 1886
in Rockaway Valley, Boonton, Morris County, New Jersey.
Available on microfilm at the New Jersey State Archives, Trenton.

As I sift through Vanderhoof records, the gains are generation by generation. Records are sparser in the first half of the 1800s. Marriages were recorded in Morris County prior to state-wide registration began in 1848, but names of parents were rare on these early marriage records.

Other articles about Vanderhoofs with the same names, places, and dates:

-Elizabeth Cook married Vanderhoof

-William Vanderhoof (born early 1860s)

-Peter Vanderhoof

Frank and the Fatal Prank

In 1926, Frank Vanderhoof, age twenty, died from injuries sustained at this place of work. He was employed by the Pequanoc Soft Rubber Company in Butler, Morris County, New Jersey. (Note: Pequannock is the modern spelling of this township. Variant spellings are seen across records and centuries.) Frank died at Saint Joseph's Hospital in Paterson, Passaic County.

Death certificate of Frank Vanderhoof.
Died August 27, 1926 in Paterson, Passaic County, New Jersey.
Father- Walter Vanderhoof. Mother- Caroline Harris.
Buried at Mount Rest Cemetery in Butler, Morris County, New Jersey.

A note for the majority of people who cannot visit the New Jersey State Archives in person: Death certificates from 1904 through 1948 are organized alphabetically by year on microfilm. New Jersey does not publish birth, marriage, and death certificates. An index exists for some of these years. If you can visit the Archives, you can photograph every certificate for a surname of interest. The index provides a name, partial date, and location (maybe city, definitely county). You need to view the actual record of death to see the full date, place, names of parents, place of burial, and all of that other information that the family historian needs to more fully assemble the tree.

Index of death certificates New Jersey.
Available online through Ancestry
or without a paywall at The New Jersey Death Index

I snapped pictures on my phone of all the death certificates in 1926 for Vanderhoof and variant spellings. The next image after Frank's death certificate was not another death certificate, but rather an elaboration of the cause of Frank's death.

Image after Frank's death certificate.
Handwritten: "Rupture & hemorrhage
caused by applying an 80 lb
pressure air hose to rectum
(prank)"

I don't know if this additional image was Side Two of the death certificate or if it was a separate page. Sometimes this supplement follows a death certificate.

In Frank's case, this supplement clarified that the rupture and hemorrhage of his intestines was caused by a prank- applying a pressure hose to his rectum.

When a death is special or unusual, a newspaper article may have been published with additional details. This would be separate from any Notice of Death or Obituary.

Newspaper article about the death of Frank Vanderhoof
and the possible criminal action against Andrew Balla

Atlantic City is about 130 miles from Butler, but the local paper there carried the story. This is a reminder to look far and wide for newspaper reports. The article added a second person to the incident, a "practical joker" named Andrew Balla.

Andrew was arrested for manslaughter. Another article, this time in Trenton, clarified that Frank and Andrew were coworkers. They customarily used high-pressure hoses to dust off their clothes. Details were skipped, but Frank died after Andrew "turned the blower" upon him.

Another newspaper article about Frank's death
and Andrew's criminal charges

What became of the case? I did not find further articles. If Andrew spent any time in jail or prison, it was not long. Two years after Frank's death, Andrew married Phoebe Haycock in 1928. Their daughter, Helen Louise, was born the following year.

In the 1930 census, Andrew and family were living in Bloomingdale. He was still employed at the rubber plant.

Andrew died in 1993 and Phoebe in 2012.

In 1957, the rubber factory burnt down, causing economic devastation to Butler.

Picture of the burning Pequanoc Rubber Company of Butler, New Jersey

Family stories about this incident would have been handed down through the Vanderhoof family and the Balla family. The accuracy would have diminished over time as the story was retold anywhere from two to five generations. If anyone is a member of these branches and heard about this story, please comment.