Wednesday, March 12, 2008

All in all it was a good day

Went to Peru. . .

The Marriage Record for May Hale and George Armstrong did not include parental information.

The Death Record for May L. Armstrong (Miami County Health Dept. Book C-5 page 5, December 18, 1899) gives her parents as Albert Hale and Elizabeth Foutz. So she is NOT the daughter of Jacob and Rosanna (Wise) Hale. I didn't get a death certificate as it would have cost $10. I was fortunate that the clerk allowed me to look at the record. Afterwards, she said "for future reference" in case I needed additional searches, they are supposed to charge $35 per half hour for lookups, plus the charge for the certificate!

The Estate Packet for Christina Wise was found in the archives building! Got my hands dirty ;-) I "made copies" of all the documents in the file using my camera since photocopies were $1 apiece! Most came out quite well, with a few being a little soft in focus, but they can be read.

In addition to the people already named in a previous post, there are documents that mention William Wise and John Wise, though no relationships are given.

There was a statement (see image below) signed by Rosanna Hale (her mark) and witnessed by M. H. Grunden which fits in quite nicely with the census information found by Pseudo-Anonymous Gary earlier this week (which also prompted this overdue visit to Peru). In the 1900 census for Steelton Borough, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania (page 55B), Rosana Hale is listed in the household of Martin H. Grunden as widowed, mother-in-law.


There is no date on this document, but similar ones for William Kircher and Luella Culbertson were dated October 4, 1887. It reads: "Whereas, the assets in the hands of William Kircher, Administrator of the Estate of Christina Wise, deceased are insufficient to pay the claims allowed against the same in full - to avoid the additional expense of settling said estate as insolvent, I, Rosanna Hale, consent to accept, and hereby acknowledge the receipt of about eighty-three per cent of my claim against said estate, to-wit: Seventy-seven & 27/100 Dollars, in full payment and satisfaction of said claim. Witness M. H. Grunden. Rosanna x Hale, her mark."

Found the deed book entry where Peter Wise and his wife, Christina, sold their 180 acres of land on April 5, 1866 for $8,000.

On May 14, 1866 Peter purchased town lots 5, 6, & 7 in Gilead. On October 26, 1868 he purchased 5 acres of land that was bordered on the east by the town of Gilead.

Those two entries in 1866 were in one of the books I had skipped on my previous visit to the courthouse a month ago. The reason I had skipped over them was because in the 1870 census it still showed that Peter owned land. What didn't "click" though was the fact that in 1850 his real estate was valued at $4,000 while in 1870 it was only $1,000. Lesson learned: Check all records for the time period of your ancestor, not just the years you think there "might" be transactions.

However, I didn't find the records for the sale of the lots and 5 acres under the Wise surname. So I checked for transactions by William Kircher, the administrator of Christina's estate, and found the record of the sale of the five acres on April 15, 1887 and the sale of the town lots on September 10, 1887.

As a point of reference, this is a portion of the 1860 census for Seward Township, Kosciusko County, Indiana page 60. After looking at it for a while I can now see that it could be Mary A. rather than May A., but then again, maybe not.

3 comments:

Lisa Wallen Logsdon said...

Becky...I realize this is an older post but was doing a search for Grunden at Geneabloggers and came up with at least two posts by you about Martin H. Grunden. I think you are looking at Hales and not Grundens in particular but I just wanted to let you know that I am a Grunden descendant and I have Martin in my database. Small world!

Becky Wiseman said...

Lisa - it is a small world! Do you have any information on the family of Martin Grunden and his wife (Mary Hale)? I'm still hoping to find a descendant that might have more info on Rosanna Wise Hale's siblings!! Sure would like to be able to "prove" that my Jacob Wise is Rosanna's brother!

Lisa Wallen Logsdon said...

I don't have a lot in my data. I have Martin's wife as Alice Hale (Mary Alice?) and that Martin is the son of Charles and Elizabeth HOOVER Grunden. I probably can't help you at all with the wife of Jacob Hale since I only knew Jacob was Martin's father in law from Martin's obit.

"GRUNDEN, MARTIN H., was born in Dauphin county, PA., March 3, 1846, son of Charles Grunden. He attended the public schools until he was 14 years of age, when he entered the store of H. Felix, at Harrisburg, as a clerk, where he remained two years. In February, 1863, he enlisted in company E, Twelfth PA cavalry, under Capt. D.A. Irwin, an ex-member of the Legislature, and now commander of the Soldiers'Home, at Washington, D.C., and served until his discharge, July 20, 1865. He was then in the employment of the Northern Central railroad for one year, after which he was engaged in the dairy business for two years. He then entered the service of the Pennsylvania Steel Co., at Steelton, where he was employed for 14 years. In 1894 he engaged in the coal business, in which he has since continued. In 1873 Mr. Grunden was married to Miss Alice, daughter of Jacob Hale, of Steelton, by whom he has three children: Rina, Alva, and Hale, who died February 11, 1894, aged twenty years."

Martin is believed to be a descendant from my earliest known Grunden ancestor - just did a blog on them yesterday for Surname Saturday.

Wish I could have helped you with Rosanna, sorry!