Willshire Connections in Eli D. Plants Estate

Have you ever looked through an old probate estate file, looking through the bills and receipts scribbled on little scraps of paper, paying particular attention to the names of businesses, people, and physicians? It can be quite interesting.

I have looked through probate packets many times, but I usually don’t pay much attention to the itemized bills and receipts. However, depending on what you are looking for, it can be a worthwhile search.

This week’s Tombstone Tuesday was about Eli D. Plants (1817-1876), who lived in Section 16 of Black Creek Township at the time of his death. Eli’s farm was pretty much in the center of the township and was a few miles from Willshire, where Eli and his family went for supplies and medical treatment.

While researching Eli, I spent some time looking through his probate packet. [1] His probate estate is about 138 pages of digital images and, like the usual estate packets from that time period, his contained a number of unpaid bills, submitted for payment from his estate. Receipts showing that the bills were paid are also included.

Eli D. PLants, Dec 1876, Mercer County, Ohio, Probate Estate No. 1811

Several of Eli Plants’ outstanding bills and receipts were from Willshire businesses and physicians and four years after Eli’s death, most of them were still in Willshire and were enumerated in the 1880 census:

Drug Store: Sylvester Brock, age 40
Merchant/Dry Goods: Henry Banta, 55; James D. Banta, 22 [clerk]; Jesse Zimmerman, 26
Hardware Store, furniture manufacture & sale, attended to undertaking: Henry Altheon, 41
Physicians: Dr. Timothy Hankins, 35; J.F. Shaffner, 51

In addition to the business information, medical bills from several physicians provide information about the health and medical treatment of Eli’s family.

There were four children enumerated in the Eli Plants household in the 1870 census: John, 20; Isaac, 16; Sofia, 14; and Eli (Jr), 6. Son John married in 1874 and left this household. Children Isaac, Sofia, and Eli (Jr) still lived at home when Eli died in 1876. 

Some of the bills submitted to the estate:

Dr. Timothy Hankins, Willshire:
This bill goes back to 1875. Several members of the family were ill and it appears Dr. Hankins made house calls, calling them visit see. Visits in 1875 for members of the Eli Plants family, each visit $2.50:
February 8, 10, 12: son with pneumonia, three visits
February 14-15: Eli with erysipelas, two visits
February 23, 24, 25, 27: small boy with a fever, four visits
March 12: prescriptions for son, $1.00
March 22: prescription & bitters for son, $.75
May 15: prescription for the oldest girl at home, $1.00
May 26-31: visits to the oldest girl with 2 visits on the 31^st

This may be a clue to what happened to their youngest son, Eli (Jr), whose fate is unknown. He may have died about this time. I have not found a death record for him, although the deaths of the other family members were reported. I suspect Eli (Jr) died sometime before the elder Eli’s death because the son is not mentioned as an heir in the final estate settlement of his father.

The visits to the oldest girl, from 15-31 May 1875, were visits to daughter Sofia E. Plants, who was obviously very ill. According to Mercer County Probate Death records, Sofia E. Plants died of pneumonia on 30 May 1875, a one-day discrepancy in her death date if the doctor saw her twice on the 31^st. [2]   

Dr. Timothy Hankins, Willshire, medical bill 1875-6

Dr. J.F. Shaffner, Willshire, also tended to Eli Plants:
Attendance and medicine, $3.50. [no date]

Eli and family required pharmaceuticals for their illnesses.

C [Charles] Vance, Willshire, dealer in drugs, medicines, paints, oils, dyestuffs, groceries, glassware, etc., submitted an itemized bill dated 18 Oct 1876, with items from 22 May-30 Sep 1876 that included: whiskey, cod liver oil, opium, quinine, coal oil, items totaling $3.20.

Vance, Willshire, Ohio

Sylvester Brock, Willshire, druggist, submitted and outstanding bill from 13 September 1875 through 15 September 1876. The items include quinine, whiskey, Neats Foot Oil, tobacco, cough mixture, pills, cod liver oil, the cost from $.20-$1 per item.

Sylvester Brock, Willshire druggist

There were other unpaid debts for miscellaneous items:

Henry Altheon, Willshire: provided Eli’s coffin, dated 7 October 1876, $24.00.

Henry Altheon, Willshire, Ohio

Zimmerman & Co, Willshire: June 1876, miscellaneous items, such as straw hats, coffee, sugar, yard goods/material, suiting, thimble, silk tie, suit clothes, tobacco, totaling $17.62.

Zimmerman & Co, Willshire, Ohio

Richard D. Coppersmith, Black Creek Township, grocer and huckster: outstanding bill of $14.91, mostly for grocery items. Both Eli Plants and R.D. Coppersmith lived in Section 16 of Black Creek Township. The little community of Pond was nearby. Perhaps Coppersmith had a grocery there?  

Wood Clair & Co, Willshire: misc. items, totaling $13.45.

There were other outstanding bills, even some from Decatur, Indiana.

A summary of some payments from the estate. [I did not include all receipts in this total]:
JF Shaffner, $3.75
H. Altheon, $25.44
Zimmerman & Co, $19.04
S. Brock, $9.62
R.D. Coppersmith, $14.91
Tim Hankins, $49.80
Johnson & Sood, $5.02
Henry Banta, $11.30
Wood Clair & Co, $13.45
Trustees of Centenary Church, $3.00
Total due from all submitted: $432.99.

The outstanding bill to the Trustees of Centenary Church is interesting. That church was not far from the Plants’ property, but I assumed that Eli probably attended Duck Creek Church because he is buried in Duck Creek Cemetery.

What a lot to learn from those little scraps of paper.  

[1] Mercer County, Ohio, Probate, Estate of Eli D. Plants, No. 1811, deceased 6 Oct 1876, John L. LaMoreux, Administrator, appointed 14 October 1876; Ancestry.com.

[2] Mercer County, Ohio, Probate Deaths, Book 1, 1867-1888, p.70, Sofia E. Plants, 30 May 1875.