In Mrs. Hoffman's character, to tenderness of feeling were added great firmness, strength of mind, and moral courage. She was often seen in the midst of contagion and suffering where the cheek of the warrior would blanch with fear. She exposed her own life, however, not like the warrior, to destroy, but to save; and hundreds were saved by her humane efforts, combined with those of her co-workers. Her life beautifully exemplified the truth of what Crabbe says of woman:
——In extremes of cold and heat,
Where wandering man may trace his kind; Wherever grief and want retreat,
In woman they compassion find.
And if, as the poet Grainger asserts,
The height of virtue is to serve mankind,
Mrs. Hoffman reached a point towards which many aspire, but above which few ascend.
HEROISM OF SCHOHARIE WOMEN.
Invaders! vain your battles' steel and fire.
Halleck.
During the struggle for Independence, there were three noted forts in the Schoharie settlement, called the Upper, Middle and Lower; and when, in the autumn of 1780, Sir John Johnson sallied forth from Niagara, with his five hundred or more British, tory and German troops, and made an attack on these forts, an opportunity was given for the display of patriotism and courage, as well by the women of the settlement as by the men.