These are all in the East Liberty township as you know. I have not been to the Hoffman Cave but hope to see it soon. I have had an invitation to go to it in the next few weeks to see where it is. I'm anxious to see if it is the cave since there are so many in this area. I have five on my property alone.
At the Huskey cemetery (located a little above Gourd Creek Cave -mentioned in the Bushwacker book) there are three graves marked with the name Deam. One is James Deam and the others are just with the last name. It is possible it is a misspelling and it is the Deems. As you know, there were other Deems living in the area long after the war. One story mentions a boy, in the 1870's, by the name of Deem who disappeared around Corn Creek for awhile but was found. I hope to be able to find the spot where the Deem house was but the odds are pretty slim.
There is another story of the death of Phillip Deem. It wasn't James Deems who was reading the letter, but Phillip who was killed reading the letter and Jim Deems' house which was burned.