What's Missing When We Do This

I've been plugging away at this family genealogy for many months now. I had no idea it could be so addicting. Listening to those who've done far more in their advice has really helped. Source, source, source. This is where it gets tricky. Who has time to go to all these court houses all over the Midwest and hunt this stuff down? I may have to wait until I retire.

The part that's missing is learning about who these people were. What were they like? How did they move in the world? Sometimes, you can get a glimpse through news articles, but mostly, you have only raw data and some dates which will stand to represent that person in time. Kind of sad.

There are those who have taken the time to interview those that came before them. Some people have written things down to tell their story, but mostly people don't do that. They are too busy living the life to write about what it was like.

When I run across something like this, I get excited. Mr. Good has spent lots of time putting together a cohesive set of photos, interviews, books, and genealogy information that tell a story. I want to be him when I grow up.

In contrast, I'm think of an example of a guy who married a relative whom I would never had known more than name, rank, serial number without a story being passed down. He had a nice name. He fathered many children with her, then they divorced in a time when it wasn't common. I knew nothing about him but his date of birth, death, and the names of his kids. I interviewed another very distant family member who had talked to his children. Turns out he was a mean, no-account drunk, who disowned his last three children because he believed they weren't his, left the family with nothing and died a penniless drunk somewhere in Detroit, but not before marrying a 17-year-old in his 50s.

The unfortunate thing is the generation that would hold the key to much of this information is for the most part, now gone. I've interviewed a number of people who are still hanging in there and in some cases, I should have talked to them 10 years earlier - the memory fails, the names are forgotten, the story is lost.

Over the next little bit, while I continue to plug away at finding the stories, I've decided to start telling the ones I remember. Hopefully it will help me and possibly others who are doing as I'm doing and sifting through data instead of reaching the heart of who a person was.

The Edge of Madness:Unraveling the Mystery of Bertha McKinney

Andrew Jackson SURBER married Mary E HINMON 02 Oct 1879 in Polk Township, Bremer
County, Iowa. From that union, four children were born: Ira Franklin (1880), George Richard (1882), Ray Andrew (1887) and Guy Arnold “Bud” (1888).

Left: Andrew Jackson Surber; Center: Mary Hinmon Surber; Right: Surber Children

Guy Arnold Surber (Left)

Mary left the family sometime in the mid-1890s. In 1900, Ira had relocated to South Dakota, George headed West, Ray was being raised by, but never formally adopted by the James Furnoy family (he later went by their last name), and Guy was serving time in the Eldora State Training School for Boys (a place to reform youthful offenders and educate them) in Hardin County, Iowa. It seems the loss of their mother was hard on her children.

Guy left the reformatory at some point and joined the Army at age 25 in 1910. He married Bertha Viola McKinney who was born in Penfield, Champaign, Illinois on 29 Jun 1887. Guy was a musician and had joined the Army band. He served an entire career in service and seemed to thrive in that environment.

He and Bertha had two children: Marijune (1921) and Guy A, Jr (1923). In 1930, the Surber’s were renting a home in Richfield, Minnesota near the local army post and hospital. In 1940, he had attained the rank of Master Sergeant and was still in service and stationed at Fort Amado, Panama Canal. In 1942 at the time of his death, he resided in Los Angeles, California.

Bertha McKinney Surber

According to the 1940 Census, Bertha was living at the Cherokee State Hospital in Cherokee, IA and classified as “insane” in 1940. She died at age 60 in 1948 while still residing there. The cause of her institutionalization is not known – I hope to sort it out in the coming weeks. What caused her hospitalization? Was she mad?
Peri-Menopausal? A drunk? Epileptic? The only way to find out is to petition for her medical records.

As early as 1890, a movement was begun to build a fourth mental hospital in the state and northwest Iowa was the logical location for it. The plan was to relieve crowding from the other hospitals in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, Clarinda, Iowa, Independence, Iowa, In 1894, Cherokee residents started an active campaign to get the legislature to select their city for the new hospital. It took 14 ballots in the legislature to give Cherokee the hospital. The legislature appropriated $12,000 to purchase a site, but it was 6½ years after the first excavation before the administration building, sitting on bare prairie land, was ready for occupancy. There was a struggle each session of the legislature to get appropriations to continue with the building. The original plan for patients was to hold alcoholics, geriactrics, drug addicts, the mentally-ill, and the criminally-insane.1
The facility in Cherokee is a Kirkbride buildings are named after Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride, a nineteenth-century physician and asylum superintendent who authored a treatise on hospital design. This treatise and Dr. Kirkbride's other work had a far-reaching influence on the construction of American insane asylums through much of the latter half of the nineteenth century. Kirkbride buildings are most recognizably characterized by their somewhat unique "bat wing" floorplan and their often lavish Victorian-era architecture. Their design was an attempt at creating a space to facilitate the return to sanity. The buildings were conceived by Dr. Kirkbride and his contemporaries as active participants in treating the mentally ill.2  The hospital was opened for patients on August 15, 1902 under the name Cherokee Lunatic Asylum. The name changed several times over the years, going from Iowa Lunatic Asylum to Cherokee State Hospital. From August 15 to August 26, eight patients were admitted. On August 26, 1902, 306 patients were transferred from Independence and two days later 252 from Clarinda. These patients were brought by special trains and met with teams and hayracks at the end of the Illinois Central Railroad spur and transported to the hospital. Beginning with about 600 patients, the hospital population increased year by year until the peak was reached in December 1945 with a total patient census/population of 1,729, beds in every hall and every building being overtaxed. Then began the gradual campaign to send patients who had reached maximum hospital benefits back to their own counties. Initially, social workers found placements for the mentally-retarded and the indigent in the community and at the "county farms". With the discovery of psychotropic drugs in the 1950s, the push for getting rid of restraints, community-based services and the establishment of Mental Health Centers in the 1960s, the massive asylum census continued its decline. 

1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherokee_Mental_Health_Institute
2 http://www.kirkbridebuildings.com/about/

Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Classes - Dimmick Farr

JACOB ORCUTT > JOHN DIMMICK ORCUTT, SR > JOHN DIMMICK ORCUTT, JR > LOUISA LORRAINE ORCUTT m Silas Farr

Children and adults with disabilities were born with probably the same frequency in previous generations as today, but for many, their life spans were shorter or they did not survive infancy because of a lack of medical advancement. Down’s Syndrome children often had serious heart defects – some stayed home, but many were institutionalized until they died.

People with epilepsy were often housed in special facilities along with the alcoholic, the dementia patient, those with a same-sex attraction, or the severely mentally ill. In the early 19^th century, these were grim and desperate places where many treatments was tantamount to torture. By the late 19^th century, more progressive institutions, such as the Kirkbride institutions, were being built to deal with the myriad of issues that couldn’t be handled by the family at home. Now relics, they used a method of treatment called “The Moral Treatment” and were built to be sanctuaries for the mentally ill who would be active participants in their own recovery.

Throughout the course of the family history, I’ve learned of many in the family who were institutionalized for various reasons. Many of these reasons would be dealt with on an out-patient basis today and medication is available that would allow many of them to have led a normal life had they been born 100 years later.

In the COOPER family for example, the Henry Wesley COOPER line has had many children born with Down Syndrome according to a report from a COOPER family genealogist. The Cooper kin kept those children at home and did not institutionalize.

Just about anything that set your behavior outside of the norm placed you at risk for institutionalization.

One of the cases that stuck out for me in my research was the case of Dimmick FARR, born the

Plainfield, Bremer County, IA sometime between 1874-1880

oldest son of Polk Township, Bremer County, IA pioneer Silas FARR and his wife, Louisa Lorraine ORCUTT. The Farr’s had come to Iowa about 1853. Silas Farr built a steam sawmill in nearby Plainfield in 1855. He ran it as a sawmill for three or four years, then turned it into a grist mill and distillery. It was finally removed. He also farmed. They had two children, Dimmick (1855), was named in honor of Louisa’s father and grandfather, John Dimmick ORCUTT, and Albert (1860). About 1873, when he was 18, Dimmick began displaying unusual behavior that concerned his parents greatly. By the time he reached 24, he was listed in the 1880 Census Supplement for the Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Classes as being diagnosed with Melancholia. He was still in the home at this time. This is a very vague diagnosis, but the Supplement was divided into four classes: The Blind, The Deaf-Mute, The Idiot, and The Insane. Under note B of The Insane section it reads:

“It is not necessary to make minute subdivisions, but to ascertain the number suffering from certain marked forms of insanity-mania, melancholia, paresis (general paralysis), dementia, epilepsy or dipsomania.” 

Dimmick's change of residential accommodations could be related to the fact his parents had gotten elderly. Records indicate he was institutionalized in 1894. His mother died in 1895 while residing with her other son. In 1895, Silas Farr moved to the County Home himself and died there in 1899. Silas had experienced all kinds of financial setbacks, business losses, and lawsuits in his lifetime, so it is likely that he was indigent.  He received a non-county burial after his death.

In 1900, the now 45-year-old Dimmick lived at the Bremer County Poor Farm and Asylum in Warren Township.

Bremer County Poor Farm & Asylum

"The Poor Farm system established in Iowa had a slightly different feel to it than the State Insane Asylums and was meant to reduce the costs of counties in caring for the indigent. The theory of a Poor Farm, or County Farm as it was later known, was to provide the residents with a way to raise their own food, thus making the farm and residents self-sufficient and lessening the drain on local tax funds. The Bremer County Farm raised field crops, dairy cattle, hogs and poultry, as well as maintaining a very large garden. While few records remain, it appears that the atmosphere at the County Farm was that of a large family, rather than an institution. The residents all had jobs appropriate to their age, skills and health. The women helped with the cooking, laundry and gardening, while the men cared for the animals, did the milking and worked in the fields. The farm did its own butchering of the beef, pork and poultry that were used for their food. Part of what was produced was sold and the money used to buy those items that could not be produced on the farm. There was a commission of three people who reviewed cases before a resident entered the facility. There was a judge, a doctor and a lawyer who would decide if placement at the County Farm was appropriate. Early in the history of the County Farm, the residents appear to be elderly or a person with a health problem such as alcoholism. In examining the census information most of the residents were older adults, with occasional families coming for a period of time. Any orphaned children or those whose parents were unable to care for them were transferred to orphanages or placed with a local family.”1 

Because Dimmick was kept in the home so long, he was probably somewhat functional and non-violent, which would have made the choice of this type of institution more compassionate. At the time of his residence there, fully half of the residents were classified as “insane” and the other half “indigent.” He died there on 04 Dec 1901 at the age of 46 of unknown causes and was buried in the Poor Farm cemetery in Warren Township.

Another case coming up next where we visit a State Hospital for the Insane.

1 http://www.iagenweb.org/bremer/census/PFndx.

Louisa's sister, Adaline married Reuben Moore, grandfather of Arthur Dwight Moore who married Florence Smull.

The Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919: Liddle Family

The Great Flu Pandemic of 1918-1919 was first traced to March of 1918 and spread across the
country through the Spring of 1919. Iowa began to see a marked increase in cases in October of 1918. Most of the state's 2.4 million residents were living in rural areas, slowing the spread, but leaving devastation in its wake due to a lack of information, preventive measures, medical staff and hospitals. The toll in the US at the end of the pandemic was 675,000 dead. Worldwide, that number, difficult to gauge, was estimated at 21.5 million dead.

The pandemic hit the state on October 5, 1918, with cases in Des Moines, Dodge City, and Onawa. Camp Dodge, the military encampment, was put on lockdown. By October 9, 1918, Dr. Guilford Sumner, the state health commissioner, banned all indoor funerals for influenza victims. From that date forward, only outdoor funerals were permitted. People were encouraged to clean their mouths and noses at least twice per day.

Little did the Frank Liddle family know in the early days of December 1918, that their lives would be changed dramatically before Christmas. Frank and Letitia farmed outside of Horton in Bremer County, Iowa. Additionally, Frank and son Floyd operated a milk route for the Mohawk Condensed Milk Company. In all likelihood, their travels most likely brought them into contact with the flu.

Chronological Map of the Influenza Epidemic of 1918 indicating the approximate dates on which the disease
reached an epidemic stage.

Frank and his wife Letitia Ogbin Liddle had nine children. Little Arthur Liddle, born in 1887, had died at just over a year old. The remaining eight children resided with their parents on the family farm or were married with families of their own. The eldest son residing at home, Floyd, fell ill with the influenza that was sweeping the state. Then, Letitia fell ill along with little Hazel. Finally, Frank, who had done all he could to hold things together fell ill along with Gynith and Irving. On December 5, 1918, Floyd died. His mother died on the 10th, unaware of her son's passing. Hazel, a particularly cheerful child referred to as her father's favorite followed on December 13th and finally, father Frank succumbed on December 15th. Somehow, Gynith and Irving survived, but were left orphans along with their adult siblings Guy, Grace, and Florence.

Sunnycrest Sanitarium

Irving ended up living to see his 89th birthday and died in 1991. Gynith, who had struggled so valiantly through her brush with death in 1918 ended up being a successful teacher in the Bremer County rural schools, began to notice her health declining in 1929. She was diagnosed with tuberculosis, spent time in at the Sunnycrest Sanitarium in Dubuque, Iowa and saw her health improve.  Weeks later, however, her health again declined, and she died at the age of 26 just after the new year in 1931.


http://www.flu.gov/pandemic/history/

The Mystery of the Basswood School

Peter Smull > Peter Smull > Oscar Smull > Archie LeRoy Smull

Oscar Smull was born in Rock Grove township in Stephenson County, Illinois and spent his early life on the farm of his parents, Peter Smull and Rebecca Cronoble. On 02 Oct 1887, he married Miss Cora Stites who passed away in 1895. They had three children:  Lucy Amanda, Archie LeRoy, and Florence. After Cora's death, Oscar moved in with his cousin Thomas Newton Smull's family with the girls. Son Archie moved in with his aunt and uncle John W. and Ella McDaniel. McDaniel was a wealthy farmer. The later fate of Archie's living situation may well have been determined by the testimony Archie provided in a notorious trial held in Stephenson County in 1908 because I can imagine John was none too pleased with Archie during the trial.

The story began as far back as 1901 when John McDaniel purchased the land adjoining the land where the Basswood School near McConnell, Illinois, was located. McDaniel disputed the land boundary and insisted the school had been built on his land - a survey was completed and the results presented to the school board. His request that the boundaries be adjusted were rebuffed. It sounds like to McDaniel, this inaction started a series of skirmishes that would not end until 1908, dividing the townspeople like the Hatfield's and McCoy's. Numerous attempts to do away with the school were made, including a mysterious fire that burned it to the ground in 1905. In July, the following year, the walls of the new school were blown up in the middle of construction.

The final tale related to the Basswood School dispute occurred in 1908. In March, McDaniel was indicted by two grand juries and charged with "procuring dynamite and having guilty knowledge of its presence in the Basswood School," A bag of forty pounds of dynamite had been found in the school building, fortunately, unexploded.

The star witness for the prosecution was young Archie Smull, his ward, who testified that his uncle had shown him where the dynamite was located in a field and told him to place it in the school and light the fuse. The defense attempted to make Archie look like less than a stellar witness and provided disputing witnesses who provided an alibi for McDaniel and/or other testimony that put a big dent in the case. In the end, the jury could not reach a verdict but tilted toward conviction, but a second trial was ruled out. After reading all the articles available, my guess is John did indeed have ill intent with that bag of dynamite and got very lucky.

Archie Smull by age 19 was a farmhand working in Green County, Wisconsin. He married Hazel Keller in 1914. They had six children. He operated a dairy farm for decades. Archie died in Green County on 22 Mar 1980.

Oscar married again in October, 1907 to Lena Gerbitz. They had four additional children: Oscar James "Jim," Edrye, Francis, and Marjorie. He served as the Superintendent of the County Home for many years before retiring. He died 11 Dec 1945, his daughters Florence and Marjorie preceding him in death.

The Founding Families of Poyner Township

Zachariah Holler > John Holler > George Holler married Lucy Robertson 

George Elam Holler was the son of Johannes "John" Holler and Margaret Low. He was born about 1803 in Rowan County, North Carolina and traveled west with his family; first to Ohio, then to the Washington County, Indiana area.

George married Lucy H. Robertson in Washington County, Indiana on 18 Feb 1823. Recently, a death record was located that says George died 02 Feb 1841. He had died prior to the death of his father and was referenced in his will. In about mid-1853, John and his mother, his sister Sarah and husband David Owens (David was also born in North Carolina), her brother John, and sister Edna and husband William Wheeler and their families left Indiana and moved to Black Hawk County, Iowa, stopping briefly in Illinois along the way.

Nancy, Lucy, and Nathan Poyner are
buried on a section of Nathan's property
now the Poyner Twshp Cemetery

Nathan Poyner, of North Carolina, was a Baptist traveling preacher who had preached to pioneer flocks all over the country under shade trees. In the early 1850s, he located, along with his oldest son Thomas, to Linn County, Iowa.

Thomas purchased 200 acres of land in southeast Black Hawk County in 1851 for $102. He purchased another 160 acres for $228 the following year. Horatio Sanford, a land speculator who had purchased the land from the government a short time before using land warrants, made both sales. The Poyner's settled in southeast Black Hawk County in 1853.

The pioneers to this area built log cabins and began clearing land. Poyner preached to its residents under old shade trees as he had before. Settlers trickled in and the township, named Poyner township in honor of Nathan, was organized by order of the county judge in 1854. Nathan's wife, Nancy Johnston, was the first death in the township. She died in 1853 and was buried on a portion of Poyner land. This location is now part of Poyner Township Cemetery.

Mrs Lucy Holler then married Nathan in the summer of 1854, joining together two of the founding families of the township. In 1856, Poyner son James also moved from Linn County and purchased land in the township.  Nathan Poyner died 16 May 1867. His wife Lucy died 19 Aug 1889.

Sarah Holler, daughter of George and Lucy Holler, married David Owens while in Indiana, an early pioneer who joined the original seven families in the area. David was born in North Carolina and had also resided in Indiana. They had nine children, the middle of whom was Lucy Jane "Lizzie" Owens. Sarah died 20 Feb 1864. David married Elizabeth Brown on 21 Aug 1864 and she died 09 Jun 1866 in Poyner Township. Lucy married Ira S Miller (my 2nd great grandparents) 04 Nov 1869 and they resided in Polk Township, Benton County, Iowa for the remainder of her life. David Owens remarried once more, moving to nearby Barclay Township to farm, and then moved on to Davison County, South Dakota where he died 18 Feb 1909.

Edna Holler, Sarah's younger sister, had married William M Wheeler in Washington County prior to 1850. William had two children by his first marriage who both died as young adults and were buried in Poyner Township. Edna gave birth to eight children: William H., Mary, Emma, Thomas Grant, Albert, Lucy Ann, Henrietta, and Sarah J. Edna cared for her mother Lucy in her declining years until her death. The Wheeler’s remained in Poyner Township for the remainder of their lives. William died 10 Jun 1896 and Edna on 09 Sep 1895.

John B Holler married Harriet in about 1857 in Indiana. They had four children: Eliza, Hattie, Granville, and Edward. They lived in Poyner Township for the remainder of their lives. John died

31 May 1918 and Hattie in 1917.

A little family drama:  Nathan and his first wife had help raise a ward in addition to their children. James B. Edwards, who was born in Rappahannock County, Virginia, 11 Mar 1839. When a child, he came with his parents to Illinois where he was left an orphan at the age of 3 years.  Nathan and Lucy raised an additional ward, Isaac Walter Hollar, who was the orphaned son of Wesley Hollar (another son of Lucy & George Holler) of Indiana. It was reportedly Nathan's wish that the boys share equally in Thomas' land. Thomas, who never married, had a major hand in raising James who ended up farming Thomas' land after his death. After reaching his majority, Isaac struck out on his own in the Muscatine, Iowa area. In 1908, he brought suit in Iowa court over the land. Since no articles were found referencing the case after the suit, one might presume some sort of settlement was reached or the suit was dropped.

What isn't clear is what the original connections was between the Poyner and Holler families, which very well could extend for decades from their North Carolina origins, despite the serpentine nature of how all of them arrived in Poyner Township.

Where There's a Will

Zachariah Holler > Johannes "John" Holler 

Rowan County NC 1780

I was kind of surprised to find a "Southerner" in my family line. The sprawling Holler/Hollar family still has a strong presence in what is now Catawba and Iredell Counties in North Carolina. And, of course, many of them married fellow southerners - some of whom were slave owners and fought for the Confederacy. This Holler, however, left the lands he purchased while a youth and went on a quest for more cheap land out west.

In 1742, Zachariah Holler arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Reportedly, the Hollers were originally from Asbach, Baden-Wurttemberg. According to a family member, they lived in Holland prior to coming to America and launched from Rotterdam. Eighteen years old, he established himself in the Bucks County and farmed with his wife, the former Anna Wannemacher. The Holler (and there are many variations including Hollar) family quickly grew to at least 10 children. Among these was Johannes "John" Holler.

John was born in 09 Nov 1763 in Bucks County.

The war record of John Hollar states that he served twice post-Revolutionary War from Lynn Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania. He saw service in the war for 2 months in the fall of 1780 in a company drafted and called out under Captain Statler, being stationed on the frontier of what was then Southampton County, PA, to guard against the Indians, serving from October until a few days before Christmas. He served again in 1781 under Captain Greylow but saw no action. In both stints he served in the place of a drafted person who didn't want to serve - Philip Kisler in the first, and for Jacob Saunder in the second. Family legend has it that two of his brothers crossed the Delaware River with George Washington, but which brothers, or if in fact this is true and not a tall tale, isn't known.

He reportedly married Sally Shue in about 1781 in Northampton, Pennsylvania and the removed to Rowan County, North Carolina (the then largest county, it is now Catawba and Iredell counties). They had four living children:  John, Jr., Sarah, Christeaner, and Andrew Jackson. Sally died before 1794 and was buried in North Carolina.

John Holler arrived in Rowan and Lincoln countries in approximately 1783. (Catawba and Iredell Counties were formed from these counties). He was about 20 years old when he came to North Carolina. Because John was under age when his father died in Lynn Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, his eldest brother, Adam, administered the property.

After Anna Haller (John's mother) died, Adam (John's older brother) distributed the money among her heirs. John probably traveled to North Carolina with his brother Zachariah, Jr., who also settled in Lincoln and Rowan Counties. Both brothers were involved in land transactions as early as 1795 in Iredell County. John's presence in this region was early as can be traced through records in St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Conover. The Church recorded the births of three or possibly four of John's children: John Jr., born in 1783, and Sarah born in 1785. A third record could be that of Andrew. John and his brother may have been attracted to North Carolina because of Federal or State land grants. John's interest in acquiring land may also have been the reason for his departure for the Midwest in about 1813. It is also true that Catawba County's terrain is very similar to Northampton County. 

"The Holler Family of Catawba and Iredell Counties, North Carolina", by Joanne Holler Atay 

The Rowan County Marriage Bonds records indicate that John Holler and Margaret Low had bonds taken on October 19, 1794. The bondsman was listed as Martin Basinger and the witness was May Troy. When John and Margaret married he would have been almost 29 and Margaret 17. They became the parents of at least nine children: Zachariah, George, Absalom, Israel, Zahariah, Catherine, Elizabeth, Anna, Isaac, Margaret, and Israel.

After living in North Carolina for about 30 years, the Hollers - with the exception of the John Holler, Jr., Andrew Holler, Sr, and Christeaner, children from the first marriage - packed up and moved to Franklin County, Ohio where they lived for about four years before moving on to Washington County, Indiana. John Holler died in Brown Township, Washington County (now Jefferson) February 8, 1849 at the age of 85.

His wife, Margaret, died April 27, 1852, in her 74th year. Both are buried in the Prowsville Cemetery about 5 miles northeast of Campbellsburg.

John left a detailed will and so much about him and he relationship to his children can be taken from its contents:

I, John Holler of Washington County and the State of Indiana do make and publish my last will and testament, hereby revoking and making void all former wills and testaments by me at any time heretofore made;
and first, I direct that my body be decently interred and that my funeral be conducted in a manner corresponding with my estate and situation in life; and as to such worldly estates as it has pleased God to entrust me with I dispose of the same in the following manner, to wit:
my funeral expenses first paid, I direct and bequeath that my sons John Holler and Andrew Holler and my daughter Christeaner have of my estates two hundred and twenty five dollars equally divided between them (ed note: A whopping $75 per child!).
and further; I will and bequeath to David Taylor, the legal heir of my daughter Sarah twenty five dollars if he can be found and if not, twenty five dollars of what I bequeath him shall be equally divided between the three above-named heirs; (ed note: this presume David took a scarper for good and Sarah, the remaining child of the first marriage, most likely was deceased by this time)
and I further direct that my sons Zachariah Holler, George Holler, Israel Holler, Absalom Holler and my daughters Catharine, Elizabeth and Ann have an equal portion of all my estate hereby bequeathed to them at my decease except as herein directed, to wit::
I have paid sixty dollars to John Kelly for my son George and that amount shall be deducted from his portion at the time of my death and of the division;
and further I direct that forty three dollars shall be deducted out of Catharine's part of my estates as I have paid her that amount some time in the year 1848,
and further I direct that my Executor take as much as seventy dollars and purchase land for my daughter Elizabeth and her children;
and I further direct that my daughter Ann have a certain lot of land lying and being situated in Washington County, it being the South East fourth of the South East quarter of Section No. six in township No. 3 north of Range three East;
and I further direct that my daughter Ann have thirteen dollars to purchase a cow;
and as for my son Israel Holler I have paid him in full in land and he has received in full of his portion of all my estates except one dollar before the date hereof; (Anna Holler Enochs was the mother of eight children)
and further I direct and bequeath to my beloved wife Margaret Holler two beds and bedding, one cow, one side saddle and one trunk; (mighty big of him!)
and further I direct that my Executor use lawful means to obtain some money due me in the State of Ohio and if it, or any portion of it can be had shall divide the same among any heirs according to the above will and testament;
and further, I have appointed Jacob Banta my Executor of this, my last will and testament. In testimony whereof, I John Holler, the testator herein have herewith set my hand and seal this twentieth day of January, AD. 1849 

Conspicuously absent was any mention of Isaac "Crock" Holler. Isaac resided in Wayne County, Illinois while the rest of the family resided in Indiana.

Next up is the life of the descendants of George Elam Holler, John Holler's son.