Among the legendary central Missouri “hornpipe fiddlers” was the State Champion from Mokane, Missouri, Albert “Jake” Hockemeyer. Jake Hockemeyer was born April 9, 1919 in the Readsville community of southeastern Callaway County, and died on March 13, 1997 at seventy-seven. Jake lived most of his life in Mokane, a farm and railroad town west of Readsville on the northern brim of the Missouri River, and he retired in 1986 as school custodian and bus driver for the local high school district. Jake’s German grandfather came from Pennsylvania after the Civil War, first to Franklin County and then moving across the Missouri River into Callaway County.

Jake Hockemeyer was a master artist in the Missouri Folk Arts Program Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program in 1986 and 1988.