Jonathan Maxwell (Maxville) Hoffmeister (Huffmaster) was born in Hawkins County, TN on 19 July 1822. By at least 1 January 1845, he was a student at Maryville College. In 1847, his brother and fellow MC student James F. Hoffmeister and JMH's fiancee Frances Matilda McGhee both died in a local epidemic. While a student, he worked in the courthouse making deeds, hand wrote the MC diplomas for Dr. Anderson, joined the New Providence Lodge of Masons, wrote numerous articles in local newspapers, and was a member of the Beth-Hacma-Ve-Bereth literary society. He graduated in 1848 with fellow classmates William Edward Caldwell, Sylvanus Howell, Thomas Jefferson Lamar, James Monroe Meek, and Samuel Wright Wallace. After graduating, he married Elizabeth Caroline McGhee (younger sister of Frances Matilda McGhee) and became a Presbyterian minister in northeast Tennessee. He died on 31 January 1864 in Abingdon, VA due to illness.

1848