Among the items I found in my grandfather’s genealogy were two old legal documents. The first was the final accounts of Frederick Squire (KGVJ-W7B) by his executor and son, Edmund Frederick Squire (KF5Z-Q8X), in 1888. Frederick’s total assets when he died were valued at just over $3,000, but he had nearly $2,000 in debts and funeral and estate execution expenses, leaving just over $1,100 for his heirs. I found it fascinating to read all the itemized expenses and see how prices have changed. For example, 2-days rental of horse and buggy cost $4 (that is about $108 in 2019 dollars, adjusted for inflation). Funeral expenses were $32 (about $863 in 2019 dollars). This document is especially interesting to me because my own grandparents recently died and I have been helping to settle their estate, so it has been interesting to see the process from 1888 and now. There were a number of fees for proving the will, hiring a lawyer, taking testimony, and filing the accounts, so it is clearly at least as expensive and a hassle then as it is now.
Frederick’s will stated that his wife, Ann, would get $400 on the sale of his estate and $100 every year thereafter for the remainder of her life. The final accounting shows $300 going to Ann Squire as the “widow’s exemption.” I don’t know why it is less than the $400 in the will. She did get paid for two other items on the expense list, “asst. of devise” and “different times,” but I have no idea that these mean.
Frederick’s will is available on Ancestry.com in the Pennsylvania Wills and Probate Records collection, and it provided a treasure trove of genealogical information. I also transcribed the will and uploaded it on Ancestry and FamilySearch.org. The scanned copy of the final accounts is also on FamilySearch.
The other document I found was a land sale agreement between Edmund Frederick Squire and his son, John Jay Squire (L439-D3P), in 1913, wherein Edmund sold a plot of his land in Corry, Pennsylvania to his son for $800 plus interest, payable $100 per year. The document contains a description of the land, totaling three acres, and bordering on Marion St. This document and it’s transcription are available on FamilySearch.org as well.
I did a little searching and found roughly where the land was, on the east side, near the end, of Marion St.
1876 map of land plots in Corry, PA. The red star is my best guess of about where Edmund’s land was. By 1913 that plot belonging to H. D. Francis had been broken into smaller plots, some of which probably still belonged to the same family because land belonging to Francis is listed as a border to Edmund’s land.
This is what the area looks like today. Marion St. seems to have gotten shorter with time. On the 1920 U.S. Census, John Jay Squire’s address is listed as 720 Marion St, with other houses on Mound St listed next to him. Google Maps puts 720 Marion St in the middle of a field today, though it looks like there might be the foundation of a building there.
Genealogy Adventures 