Samuel E. Hoffman was born in Pennsylvania about 1835. He came to Kansas from Iowa, locating in Neosho Falls, Woodson County, in 1858, being the first lawyer in that section of the state. Mr. Hoffman was prominent in the early stages of statehood, being a member of the Wyandotte constitutional convention of 1859 and of the first State Senate in 1861. He was also one of the agents appointed to select lands granted to the state by the general government in 1861-62. The later years of his life were spent in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was engaged in banking.