While researching this week for my Tombstone Tuesday Blog, I came across and pretty awesome document about my 4X Great Uncle, Frederick Overly. It was his Last Will and Testament, all 42 pages of it. Frederick made a good life for himself and his family. He became a prominent citizen of Hopetown, in Ross County, Ohio. His will was very detailed and ironically legible. Maybe that is why I found it so fascinating.
On page one of the file, the principal responsible agents were declared. His son, John Overly, is the executor. He son, George Overly and Jacob Cryder are declared Securities. ( I’ll have to figure out what this role is.) It is revealed that that Frederick had $1700 dollars in cash and $ 3500 in Bonds (honestly I did not know there were Bonds back in 1844. The Appraisers are Lewis W. Sifford, George Haynes, and Michael Cryder. The next page is a declaration page where the appraisers swear under oath that they will make a fair and honest appraisal of the Frederick Overly Estate.
In the next four pages, the appraisers list a complete inventory of Frederick’s belongings. They record one hundred and thirty-nine lines with multiples of many of the items. This inventory included wagons, horses cows and farm equipment.
In the next four pages, are records which detailed loans that Frederick had with other people at the time of the writing of his will and notes to explain these loans. Frederick had outstanding loans to six individuals at the time of his death. The first one was for $25 which George Redman and Daniel Higgins. It was partially paid $11 in 1844, and $7 in 1845 and the rest was forgiven at some point because court document states that nothing is owed. The next loan was was to his nephew, Adam Overly, (son of his brother Casper) most of which had already been repaid but $10.75 remained. Samuel Wheel owed him $10.00. Loans to Benjamin Kinnaman and Jacob Hines appear to have been forgiven with no explanation. Jacob Hines is the brother-in-law of Frederick, brother to Mary Ann. The remaining loan was to John Little for a land purchase for $75 due to be repaid a year after Frederick’s death.
After the first eight pages and in the inventory pages, it was reported that he had Fourteen hundred and seventy-nine dollars in silver, one hundred and thirteen dollars in gold and seven dollars in banks bills. He also had ninety five dollars that was owed to him by other people. Adding all that up and it comes to about $1700 in cash. In today’s dollars that would be equivalent to $61,000 in cash.
The next four pages list the sale of Frederick’s personal items and who bought them. I found this interesting for several reasons. First of all everyone took part in the sale including the family members and his widow Mary Ann Overly. They all purchased the items that they wanted. The second reason why this fascinated me was that for each sale, the buyers names were recorded. It was a Who’s Who of Hopetown, Ohio in 1848 or at least those families who live close by Frederick and Mary Ann Overly. It is fascinating for a genealogist. This sale information was recorded with the court on the 5th of July, 1848. After the sale, Fredericks estate is valued at $1990.19.
The next section of the will pertains to Frederick’ s property. In the first document of this section, the appraiser’s state to the Court that “ the widow is not intending to keep the house we allow her cash instead of other property to the amount of one hundred dollars for her support for one year from the death of deceased. “ It is sign June 1, 1848. I can only assume that the plan was for her to go live with either a son or daughter for the remainder of her life. I am surprised that she would receive only one hundred dollars.
The remaining pages deal with the acreage which Frederick owned. He owns 456 acres of land in Springfield Township, 158 acres in Green Township, 396 acres in Harrison Township and 160 acres in Colorain Township for a total of 1072 acres of land as of April 1848 when his will was written.
George gets 196 of 276 acres of land Springfield Township, Section Five. Eighty of those acres are excluded to be given to John who also receives 180 a acres which were currently being farmed by Martin Overly, Frederick’s brother. He instructed John and George that they must have a road built between the two adjoining parcels with a connection to Chillicothe Road. His daughter, Elizabeth (Tharp), received 158 acres in Green Township, the SE corner of section Thirty-three. His daughter, Polly, received 160 acres of land in Harrison Township the SW Corner of section Nine. Margaret received 240 acres of land in Harrison Township adjacent to Polly’s land. Margaret’s is located in NE corner of section number Eight and the east half of the NW section of Twenty. He instructs Margaret and Polly to build a road between their adjoining parcels to connect to Aldelpia Road. His daughter, Susanna Jennings, one hundred sixty acres in Colerain township NE Corner in section twenty.
His land was divided among his children and came with very specific instructions. The land was to be kept in the family until all of his children had passed away and until all of his grandchildren had reach the age of maturity, 21 one years old.
The remaining pages are receipts that were turned into the estate for duties rendered as they pertained to settling the estate.
They paid eight dollars for his wooden casket and fourteen dollars for taxes for the property given to Elizabeth Overly Tharp.
I found this a fascinating read and decided that it would make a good blog post about “Documents” for the Week 17 of 2022 blog. I have looked at many wills during my research but nothing as well documented as this or as legible.
Happy Hunting,
Jan
Needles in a Haystack 