Joseph A. Bozarth Probate

Joseph A. Bozarth wrote his will on February 28, 1896. He died April 18, 1897, in Illiopolis, Sangamon County. I got it through IRAD because it less expensive. Also, the interns at IRAD are more experienced at finding the entire file. It's their job. It is not the primary job of the Circuit Court Clerk. Documents from IRAD are generally copied in the format in which they exist, ie, double sided pages are copied double sided.


Joseph Bozarth was born in Morgan County where he married Elizabeth Ann Henry and they moved to Sangamon County as did his brother William and his wife Lucinda Jones. William died on January 28, 1896, possibly prompting Joseph to write his will a month later. 


Elizabeth survived her husband as did two of their five children, Florence Bozarth and Eva Bozarth Wood. Eva was married to William Tobias Wood.


Bozarth left his wife a life estate in his property. At the death of his wife and after paying all debts he left the remainder in two parts, "one part to Florence Bozarth without qualification, the other part to be invested in real estate for the benefit of Eva Wood, her heirs and assigns forever." He intended it to be entailed forever.


We also know from the probate that they were members of the Christian Church in Illiopolis which got $7.50 from the estate.


It would appear that Joseph Bozarth did not think Florence would marry. He wanted to make sure Eva's inheritance went to her children and not her husband - a totally unnecessary precaution since Eva outlived her husband by nearly 30 years but not an uncommon one.


Elizabeth Henry Bozarth did not die for ten years, on February 7, 1907, in Kansas. Florence Bozarth did indeed marry, to a Nichols. She received notice of the final estate settlement by mail under that name. Unfortunately no address was given. There is no marriage in the Illinois State Archives database which may just mean she married after 1900.

The Bozarth monument in Riverside Cemetery, Illiopolis, cost $184.15. Elizabeth's plaque is on the other side.


The final settlement of the estate did not occur until December 22, 1908.

William Henry Downing Probate

William Henry Downing's probate file came from the Logan County Circuit Clerk. Parts of it could be found at IRAD and the whole probate would be in the FamilySearch files.


On December 2, 1903, in the typhoid epidemic, William Henry Downing died. He was the only child of William Nelson Downing, who died in the Civil War, ironically of "typhoid pneumonia," and Delilah Downing Downing. He was 40 years old, not expecting to die and had no will.

His heirs were his widow Eliza Harding Downing, sons Clarence, Charles Ellis, Ennis and Floyd. Clarence was 17 and Floyd was 7. [Floyd isn't in the picture.]


The widow was named Administrix on December 8, 1903. David Shellhammer, husband of Delilah Downing Downing, and James Shellhammer, Delilah's first son by her second marriage, stood as sureties. Appointed as appraisers were Lewis Upp, Charles Brooker and William Beckers, all three very close neighbors. Brooker would become the father in law of the eldest son Clarence. Upp was married to a Lincoln, descendant of the same immigrant ancestor as the more famous Lincoln.


They finished up their work promptly and reported on December 28, 1903, valuing the property of the estate at $4,700.25. The list is four pages long and is quite specific at times - "6 rocking chairs, 1 bay mare named Brownie, 1 red steer, 1 gray mare, 66 hogs" - and less specific at others - "1 lot of chickens" [which I first read as "a lot of chickens"]. 


The value of the widow's property as prescribed by law, which included school books, a sewing machine, beds, one fourth of a cow for every family member [fortunately for the cow there were four members], two sheep for every family member, one horse, etc., was $1,281.50. 


The Administrix reported on March 23, 1907. There was $4,700.25 in receipts which included $599.37 for "property not sold but kept...to make up amount shown on appraisement bill." In the long list of bills totalling $3,704.76 we learn that funeral expense was $263.75 and the stone cost $1,140. The balance after all bills was $995.49, less than the widows' amount.

The land apparently passed separately. It is not mentioned. Each son received 80 acres which was farmed by son Ellis until the early 1970s. Most of it is now farmed by his grandson, Roy Downing.

Delilah Downing Downing Shellhammer Will

Delilah Downing Downing Shellhammer was the youngest child of Robert Downing whose probate was previously discussed. I had never considered that she had a will or probate but I found it in the probate records posted online at FamilySearch. These probate files are more work to collect, not being word searchable, but they are also free. Help with the records. 

Delilah died June 22, 1909. She first married William Nelson Downing who died in the Civil War. She then married David Shellhammer. She had a son, William Henry Downing, by her first husband. William Henry died in 1903 leaving four sons. She had two sons, James and Albert, and two daughters, Sarah Jane Shellhammer West and Augusta Shellhammer Park, by her second husband. 


On June 1, 1909, Delilah executed a will. Delilah couldn’t write and had to sign it with her mark. Whether Delilah couldn’t write or was too ill to write at the time is unknown.


Delilah very carefully and specifically divided her property into fifths giving one fifth to each child and the remaining fifth to be equally among the heirs of her deceased son William. Her estate consisted of her personal effects and furniture and land in Section 1, Mt. Pulaski Township. She directed that one heir buy out all the others and that the others cooperate to do that.


Finally she named T. A. Scroggin executor of her will. There were no claims against the estate. Everyone cooperated and probate closed November 1, 1909. 


Some of Delilah’s descendants should have taken a lesson from her will.

10,000 Dead People

It was a long and miserable December thanks to the cold from hell. The bright spot is when I was able to be up but not able to go out I worked on my "10,000 Dead People" database and got it to a place where it could be uploaded. I had to divide it into thirds to do that and fidget with the formatting to get each part to reasonable size. It went up the last week of December and almost immediately I began receiving additions, corrections, etc.

What I personally call 10,000 Dead People is basically a list of people buried in south Logan County, Illinois. Why there? With only a few exceptions this includes all of my ancestors back to the beginning of this country so I am particularly concentrated in this location. Unfortunately that made it more difficult to work on which is why I gave it the frivolous name. I am related to a lot of these people, was very close to some of them, knew many more of them. It's difficult to look at some of them as a name on a stone. Too many memories.

Now it is up and it is a great resource for those researching in south Logan County along with the Logan County ILGenWeb site which, if I do say so, contains many resources for researchers of the same area.

It's permanently a work in progress. If you have additions or corrections send them on.

War of 1812

John Downing was a veteran of the Revolutionary War. After the war he left Pennsylvania for Ohio where he lived for many years before moving on to Logan County in 1821. John and his wife Hannah Frakes had nine children, three of whom served in the War of 1812 from Ohio. They were living in Madison County at the time.

The eldest son John was a Private in Captain Levi Pinney's Company, First Regiment [McArthur's], Ohio Militia. He enlisted May 1, 1812, the same day as his brother Josiah, and was discharged December 12, 1812. Josiah, the second son, was killed in action against the British on July 20, 1812. John named his first son Josiah. John died in 1819 in Ohio. His widow was living with her in-laws in the 1820 census but apparently did not travel to Illinois with them. Josiah left a widow but no children.

John and Hannah's third son and fourth child was Robert Downing. He served in Capt. John Wilson's Company of the Ohio Militia May 8-29, 1813, and July 26-August 26, 1813. This is the service listed in his pension record. He also served as a Private, Renick's Mounted Regiment, Ohio Volunteers. In 1819 Robert married Jane Morrow and in 1821 traveled to Logan County, Illinois, with his parents and surviving siblings. They had 10 children, three of whom married children of a neighbor [unrelated] named Samuel Downing. In general the descendants of John are buried at Bowers-Templeman. The descendants of Samuel are buried at Downing.

Blog Hits Pay Dirt

On February 1 I wrote about Berryman B. Wood, my great great grandfather. I have some pictures and a lot of questions.

http://genealogysleuth.blogspot.com/2009/02/mystery-of-berryman-b-wood.html

As a result I have heard from several people. Two are relatives who have never lived in Logan County. The first is a granddaughter of his son, also Berryman B. Wood, who moved to Minnesota. When I was a child her twin aunts and their husbands [brothers] visited several times. Marlys resides in Minnesota. She has some great pictures.

Tessa wrote that she was related to a cousin. I hear that a lot and it invariably turns out to my relative's husband. But Tessa said no, she is a 3 great granddaughter of Berryman and a great granddaughter of my great aunt Mary. Her family had been the subject of discussion just days before. As soon as we had the connection figured out I heard from her aunt who lives directly across the state from me.

Tessa, young as she is, has been researching for about 15 years. She had lots of information. She even has a possible death date for Berryman. And yes, she has pictures, lots of pictures. Her great grandmother and my grandmother were sisters. I am having a great time with the pictures.

We've been trading all the stories about family skeletons. The infamous ones were in the family only by marriage but we have some that are almost as good who are blood relatives.

Eventually we should be able to draw a much more complete picture of this family line.

Rev. David Clark

David Clark was born in New Jersey in 1776. No proof of his ancestry beyond his parents has been found. There were several Clark families in the town, so much intermarriage and so many people with the same name it is very difficult to determine the lines. Another theory is his father, also David Clark, came from Scotland to New Jersey where he married yet another Sarah Winans.

In 1799 David Clark and his brother John Winans Clark traveled to Bourbon County, Kentucky. There he married Rachel Rutter and they had two children, Samuel and Mary. Sometime before 1806 Rachel and Samuel had died and David married Sarah Winans. They were first cousins. Mary, of course, married a Winans. David Clark was an active Methodist preacher.

In 1807 Richard Winans, Rev. David Clark and Uriah Blue were the first settlers of Section 14, Staunton Township, Miami County, Ohio. Richard was Sarah's brother, also married to a Sarah. Five children were born in Ohio. In 1829 he donated the land for the Hyattsville M. E. Church, sold his possessions to Robert Evans and they moved to Williams Township, Sangamon County, Illinois. He "settled on Wolf Creek, serving during the remainder of his life, as he had for more than twenty years before, as an acceptable and useful local preacher. He was a man of strong convictions, faithful, devout, and highly respected." [Methodist Ministers, Vol. 1, Illinois Great Rivers Conference] Their last child was born in 1830.

Sarah died in 1843 and was buried in Mt. Pulaski Cemetery. Rev. David died in 1847. They share a stone. "Sally Wife of Rev. David Clark and Daugh. of Samuel and Hannah Woodruff died Dec 3, 1843 by the 54th year of her age. Also Rev. David Clark Born Aug 28, 1776 Died Jan 6, 1847 In the 72d year of his age."

They are the great grandparents of Lida.

A Brief Marriage

Ah the happy couple. Don't they look blissful? I think they had pickles at the reception. This is William Nelson Downing and his bride Delilah Downing. Downing is her maiden name and no, they were not related. They were neighbors though. Two of her sisters had already married two of his brothers and, on February 27, 1862, they were married.



It didn't last. Five months and one day later he was gone with her brother and other relatives in 106th Illinois Infantry out of Logan County, Illinois. She never saw him again. Their only son was born February 23, 1863.

William Nelson Downing died April 30, 1865, at Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Delilah's father in law provided her with a hired man and Delilah soon married him.

Their son, William Henry Downing, grew up and married Eliza Sciota Harding - our Lida.