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Matrilineal Monday - Emma Miller Eckman

Emma Miller was born in August of 1858 to Coradis and Elizabeth Winters Eckman. The Millers lived in Smithville, Lancaster County, PA. Sadly, her parents have me stumped ... for the moment!

She married Aldus John Eckman in 1875 and bore him 10 children. One of whom - Mabel Florence - is the grandmother of my husband. The Eckmans lived in Providence Township, Lancaster County, PA. Their children are:
  1. Charles Miller (1875-1876)
  2. Jenny Elizabeth (1877-)
  3. Anna Mae (1879-)
  4. Laura Daisy (1881-)
  5. Jesse Hall (1882-1974)
  6. Joseph Winters (1887-1960)
  7. Mabel Florence (1888-1975) <-- hubby's grandmother
  8. Russell Conklin (1890-)
  9. Pearl Louisa (1895-1988)
  10. Olive Viola (1902-1986)

Aldus passed on 16 April 1934. Emma did not join him in death until 24 September 1942. They are buried together at the Clearfield United Methodist Church in Smithville.

Emma's obituary was published in the Lancaster Daily Intelligencer Journal. It simply reads: Emma Eckman, eighty three of Providence Township, widow of Aldus J. Eckman died at 4:45 p.m. Thursday at her home. The daughter of the late Coradis and Elizabeth Winters Miller, she is survived by the following children: William, of Buffalo, New York; Mrs. Charles Martin, of Conestoga Cener; Mae Eckman, of Reading; Mrs. B.C. Eckman, of Philadelphia; Jessie Eckman and Joseph Eckman of Christiana; Mrs. John C Eckman, of Philadelphia; Roscoe, ofHarrisburg; Mr. Paul Silverthorne, of Reading; and Mrs. Walter Lawrence of New Providence. Twenty grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren also survive.

Unlike most of the females in the family, Emma left behind quite an extensive paper trail at the Lancaster County Courthouse. She wrote her will out just a little over a month after Aldus passed. It was dated 22 May 1934. She left her daughter Anna May Eckman her player piano. She bequethed $25 to the Clearfield Cemetery Association. She then instructed her executor - Abram Reese - to convert everything else to cash. After all bills were paid and the estate settled, she requested the remainder to be divided evenly among her nine children. She then named her nine children: Laura Hill, Anna May Eckman, Pearl Louisa Silverthorn, Olive Viola Eckman, Mabel F. Eckman, Joseph W. Eckman, Roscoe C. Eckman, Jessie H. Eckman, and Jennie Martin.

Her estate was inventoried and filed in the Orphans Court of Lancaster County in November 1942. Her inventory reveals a certificate of deposit (CD) at the Farmers National Bank in Quarryville in the amount of $205. The inventory then lists items by room. The house contained a cold cellar, a basement kitchen, a first floor kitchen, a living room, and a first floor bedroom. It also included the unspecified contents of the barn. Her entire inventory was valued at $329.07.

The inventory was included - along with her two tracts of land - in the Resident Inheritance Tax Assessment. The first tract was 25 acres more or less with a two story frame dwelling house and a small frame barn. It was located "on a road leading from New Providence to Smithville." The land adjoined that of Walter H. Lawrence, Joseph Funk, Richard Bowers and John Wade. It was valued at $1,100. Her second tract of land, which adjoined the first and that of John Wade, was a one acre wooded lot valued at $20. Her estate then was valued at $1,449.07.

A schedule of her debts included a $98 doctor bill to Dr. John D. Helm. The funeral bill of $285 was listed for Carl Reynolds of Quarryville.
  •  Carl Reylnolds - I have to sidetrack a moment - ran the Reynolds Funeral Home in Quarryville which is still in operation today. Carl's father - Fred Reynolds - founded the funeral home in 1895. According to his 2002 obituary in the Intelligencer Journal, Carl Reynolds Sr., died of natural causes at age 101. He owned and operated the funeral home from 1919 until his 1965 retirement. He had graduated from Quarryville High School and Eckels College of Mortuary Science in Philadelphia. He was a member of St. Paul's Church in Quarryville.
The schedule of debts also included: $5 for cutting the death date on her tombstone by I. Diller Miller Sons; $3.34 to Mabel M. Wiggins for fire insurance; $200 administration costs; and $1,281.60 for a judgement held by the PA Department of Public Assistance which was originally $2000 and had been entered earlier that year.

In January 1943, Abram W. Reese petition the court to sell Emma's land to pay her debts. It was granted and, on 1 April 1943, the winning bid went to Naomi C. Schnieder. She bought both tracts of land as a whole for $600.

The Deed of Indenture from Emma's estate to Naomi Schneider also lent some insight as to when and from whom Aldus originally bought the land. In April 1922 he received the 26 acre tract from Emma L. Groff, a single woman. The one acre wooded lot had been conveyed to Emma herself in April 1898. The previous owners had been John and Mary Gerhardt.

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