Bunce Genealogy and History Supplement, Part 2 of 10

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The information about Peter BUNCE serving as City Marshal of Tecumseh was found in his old account book, where he had recorded the fees he was paid for his services over a period of two weeks, in May, 1858, not from a public source. It may have been a situation where he was substituting for the regular Marshal, or perhaps the men in the area did the work on a rotation basis, because in early 1858 county residents refused to pay property taxes in Shawnee County in reaction to voter fraud in the election held in the fall of 1857. This led to a shortage of funds for public works. Also, Peter BUNCE’s wife, Mary Bolender (KRESS) BUNCE, was a cousin of the wife of one of the members of the Board of County Commissioners, Edward HOAGLAND, who was also the Probate Judge, and as Peter BUNCE was a big man, he may have been asked to help by Judge HOAGLAND. Below is a transcript from Peter BUNCE’s account book for the work he did as City Marshal for two weeks in May, 1858.

The numbers on left side seem to refer to dates when he performed the enumerated duties. Question marks (?) indicate where the handwriting was difficult to decipher or from the faintness of the writing due to the age of the paper, which is quite yellowed.

Tescumseh May 14, 1858
Commenced to serve as City Marshal
[Date][Activity][Amount]
16Collect tax1.50
17Collect tax1.50
20to serving two writ one on Henry GUVMICELE (?) and acquitted one on ROBBERT [sic] EDWARDS fined $5 and cost of one dollar
21Served two writs one on W. H. MARTIN and one on B. D. CASTLEMAN
Fined $5 dollars and cost Each

26-27To one day on Court-house*2.6
26To man and turn(?)8.00
27To man and turn(?) [might be team]4.00
28Go to(?) George OSBORN for road & ________(?)1.75
29To serving two writs one John M. TOMLIN(?) one on William YOUNG. Acquitted  
31One day with man and team(?)3.00
31Spent(?) one day around Court house*

* According to the chapter on Shawnee County, Kansas from the History of the State of Kansas, a courthouse was built in the town of Tescumseh, when it was briefly the county seat in 1857, but when the county seat was transferred to Topeka by popular vote, the court house was torn down and its material used in the construction of other buildings in the area. The construction of this court house was another issue of conten­tion for the citizens in the area, because the authority to build it came from representatives who had been elected fraudu­lently and was another reason the citizens refused to pay county taxes, i.e., they did not want to support the court house. After the county seat was moved to Topeka, people left Tescumseh, buildings decayed and it ceased to exist as an incorporated town. See, History of the State of Kansas, p. 537.

Also, the biographical sketch of Peter BUNCE referenced above appears on p. 584 of the book, History of the State of Kansas, edited by Wm. G. Cutler, published 1883, in Chicago by A. T. Andreas.


Evidence suggests that Peter BUNCE, Sr. was a grandson of Jacob BUNCE, who in turn was a great-grandson of Thomas BUNCE, an original proprietor of Hartford, Connecticut in 1636. In a letter from Alice Kennedy Howard to Bonnie Bunce dated Thanksgiving Day, 1975, she stated:

Jacob BUNCE (John, John, Thomas) was baptized in Wethersfield, Conn. 22 May 1715. He moved first to Litchfield, where his two first children, Isaiah and Jonas, were born. Jacob’s first wife and the mother of his first six children was Martha _______. The family moved from Litchfield to Canaan, Connecticut (about 15 miles from Egremont, Berkshire Co., Mass.) and there a son named Abraham was born 8 Nov 1747 and Daniel in 8 Jul 1749 and a daughter Elizabeth. Martha died in Canaan 19 Dec 1759. The death of Martha and the baptism of Abraham are recorded in the First Church of Canaan. The same church has a record of Jacob’s second marriage to Hope GRAVES on 4 Aug 1760, and the baptism of their child Annis on 9 Jun 1761.

The family later moved to Norfolk in 1761, and then Mrs. Howard lost track of them, although she did find a record of what she believed was the son, Daniel BUNCE, in a book, Revolutionary Soldiers Resident or Dying in Onondaga Co., New York With Supplementary List of Possible Veterans by Rev. W. N. Beauchamp, which stated Daniel BUNCE was age 71 years in 1820, which agreed with the above birthdate for him. Also she had found the name of an “Abiram BUNCE” on an early tax list for Egremont, Berkshire Co., Mass. She thought this may have been a misspelling of the name of Abraham BUNCE of the above family. Mrs. Alice K. Howard compiled a 250-page manuscript entitled Genealogy of the Bunce Family of Connecticut, a copy of which she gave to the Connecticut State Library in Hartford, as well as several other libraries where descendants of Thomas Bunce were known to have lived.

Additional information on the family of Jacob BUNCE was in a letter from Russell E. Bidlack to Bonnie BUNCE, dated 13 Mar 1988. Mr. Bidlack had hired a professional genealogist to do some work for him in New York state. “[A]bout 1770, Jacob BUNCE moved to King’s District, Albany Co., New York, now Canaan twp., Columbia Co., New York. He was taxed there in 1779, which is my last record of Jacob BUNCE. Jacob’s first wife was Martha _____— whom he probably married in Cornwall, CT, about 1740. His second wife was Hope GRAVES, whom he married in Canaan, CT, in 1760. I suspect she was a daughter of Joseph GRAVES, later of Canaan, NY.” Mr. Bidlack was working from the belief that he was a descendant of Daniel BUNCE mentioned above.

At the time of the 1810 census, the family of Peter BUNCE, Sr. did not appear “near Egremont, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts,” as has been passed down in our family, but rather the family appeared on the census for Hillsdale, (formerly known as Noblestown and still earlier as Kakeout), Columbia Co., New York, which is across the New York/Massachusetts state border and is probably less than 10 miles from South Egremont, where Peter's wife, Rhoda (LOOMIS) BUNCE was born. Hillsdale is also just a short distance from Canaan, Columbia Co., New York. Any one of Jacob’s eldest sons may have been the father of Peter BUNCE, Sr., who was born in 1772. Unfortunately the town hall of Egremont was burned down in the mid-1800’s and its records lost forever. There is evidence that other BUNCEs lived at Hillsdale, since Mrs. HOWARD also had a record of the baptisms of 4 children of Matthias BUNCE at St. James Church in Great Barrington, Mass. (a few miles north of Egremont), and Matthias was of Nobletown, now known as Hillsdale. His children were of the same generation as Peter, Sr. i.e. born in the 1770’s, but there is no record of Peter BUNCE was a son of Matthias, nor what Matthias’ relationship was to Jacob BUNCE, if any. See also emails from Chuck Danis about Mathias BUNCE.


Stanley Russell BUNCE passed away in Portland, Oregon 16 Jul 1982.


According to Vida E. Bunce, her sister-in-law, the maiden name of the mother of Stella Pearl WILLIAMS, wife of George C. BUNCE, was BRODY or BRODIE. Additionally, Pearl was a sister of Emery Williams, who married Ethel Longsinger, a first cousin of George C. BUNCE.

Stella Pearl (WILLIAMS) BUNCE passed away in Portland, Oregon on 14 Sep 1985, and was interred in a cemetery in Gresham, Oregon.


Vida E. BUNCE passed away in Denver, Colorado on 25 November 1999, at the age of 95 years, 2 months and 6 days, and her remains were interred in a grave next to those of her brother, Leslie R. Bunce.

Now that my Aunt Vida is gone, I (Bonnie BUNCE) want to share some of my memories of her. She was only 5 foot 2-1/2 inches tall, and by the time I was 13 years old, I was as tall as she was. She had quit a full-time job as a stenographer at the federal Fitzsimons Army Hospital to take on the responsibility of helping my father, her brother Leslie R. Bunce, raise my sister Betty and I, after our parents were divorced in 1953, and my father got custody of us. Due to the turmoil of the divorce and our mother's neglect, Betty and I had emotional problems, such as stuttering and nightmares. This did not daunt my resourceful and gentle aunt, since she made it rule that we had to have a nap each afternoon, which we did not appreciate at the time. To help us get to sleep, she would read children’s stories to us, and sometimes got a hoarse throat because we would not let her stop with just one story. This story-telling instilled in both of us a life-long love of reading, and contributed to our later success in school. It also helped us get much needed rest that enabled us get over our stuttering in time for school the next fall.

She and my father placed a lot of value in a good education, and insisted during summer vacations that we be enrolled in the summer reading program offered through the local library, and both my sister and I have a certificate for each year of grade school showing we read the required number of books.

Betty and I contracted the illness rheumatic fever during an epidemic while in our early years of grade school, and this placed a great burden on my father and Aunt Vida, but they never tolerated self-pity and often urged us to change our behavior to avoid getting sick. Additionally, my Aunt Vida read articles on research done to control rheumatic fever, and eventually she fed us a high-protein diet with lots of vitamins and vegetable juices, which helped us a great deal for we missed fewer days from school. My father did not want us to take penicillin, which was used to control rheumatic fever in those days, because he had had an allergic reaction to it, and my sister also had had a bad reaction to it. Even now, I eat many of the foods and vitamins I learned about during the days when health food was considered unnecessary and merely a fad. So, I saw my aunt as a pioneer in her own way, willing to try anything to improve our health, as long as it was not harmful.

Aunt Vida also had a funny sense of humor. She told us when she was young in the early 1900s she once got some bananas for Christmas and liked their flavor so much that, being the farmer’s daughter she was, she dug out the tiny seeds and tried to plant them to grow more, but did not get any! Another time she wanted to fly, so jumped out of the barn with an opened umbrella, but luckily was not hurt. Another of her memories involved the farm horses. Once she, my father and their younger brother, my Uncle Stanley, were riding the two farm horses, with my father on the younger, faster one. For some reason, the horse my father was riding started to gallop, and then the usually slower animal my young Aunt Vida and Uncle Stanley were riding, took off at a gallop too, trying to catch up to the younger one. My aunt was surprised and scared, and unable to control the animal, and while tearing across the contryside, she heard her younger brother cry out, “Stop the horse, I’m slipping off and hanging onto its tail!” My aunt was so scared that she didn’t turn around to see if it was true. Finally the horses got tired, and the children got home safely.

For awhile during her childhood, Aunt Vida was able to take piano lessons, and she said her teacher told her she was good enough to become a concert pianist; the teacher even had been willing to teach her for free, because of her talent, but on account of her mother’s ill health, and her responsibilities at home, she was unable to continue the lessons. Her love of music continued all her life, and I remember she often had the radio playing as I was grew up; however, she did not like rock’n’roll, calling it “bang-bang music,” but she and my dad never forbade us from listening to it. In her later years, she and my father became fans of country music, often watching country-western music programs on TV, especially those of Dolly Parton. Her other favorite TV programs were nature shows, as she did not enjoy fictional dramas, because she was so much of a realist. Those of us left behind really miss her.

Of course, life for her, as the eldest daughter, was not all fun and games, because she said from early life she was expected to help her mother fix dinner, and remembers being a child of 4, sitting in a chair shucking beans for supper. Also when her mother became ill, she and her brother, Leslie, almost raised their 3 younger siblings, by making sure they and their clothes clean for school, and she also did a lot of sewing and crocheting to help keep herself and siblings clothed. She mentioned numerous times that working as a stenographer had been easier for her than staying home to care for family members!

Lastly, although she was not religious, since her mother’s illness and her own frailty as a child precluded opportunities to attend church as she grew up, she seemed to feel a kinship with “the infinite,” because every once in awhile she would tell the story of what had happened to her shortly before her mother died in early 1935. About 6 weeks before her mother’s final illness, she would wake up almost every night dreaming about an ambulance coming to their house in the early morn­ing hours, and it worried her, since she was not healthy and she felt the dream was prophetic, believing that the ambu­lance was going to come for her. When the ambulance came in the early morning hours, however, it came for her mother instead. She never could figure out why she had had that dream, although she and her mother shared a bed at the time. What was amazing about the dream is that on other occasions she claimed that she rarely remembered having any dreams whatsoever!

I've thought that perhaps she had inherited a sixth sense or psychic ability from her Mehaffey ancestors, since the surname was said to mean ‘son of the dark peace.’


William J. BUNCE is another family member buried near his parents at the old Barrington Methodist-Episcopal cemetery near Warsaw, Yates Co., New York.


Obituary from Friday, 4 Mar 1966 of Rocky Mountain News, Denver, Colorado:

“Funeral services for Henry Carroll, former Denver Public Schools teacher, will be Friday at Kit Carson Memorial Chapel, Ft. Lyon Veterans Administration Hospital. Burial will be in Ft. Lyon.

“Mr. Carroll died Tuesday [1 Mar 1966] in Ft. Lyon after a short illness. He was 75. He lived at 1149 Fillmore st.

“An original member of the 50th Aero Squadron, he served in the Aviation Section of the U.S. Signal Corps following his graduation from Oklahoma University. He fought in the Meuse, Argonne and Belleau Woods battles of World War I.

"After his discharge, he taught at East, North and Manual High Schools. In 1930 he was hospital­ized because of a service-connected injury. He has been a patient at Ft. Lyon since 1931.

"Surviving, in addition to his wife, Eva, are …”


According to the marriage record, dated 31 Dec 1877, on file in the Office of the City Clerk of Leominster, Massachusetts, Isaac CHARRON was the husband of Mary Ellen “Nellie” COLE, not Arthur. Rather than being her husband, Arthur was the name of one of her two sons; the other was named Roy Chester Charron. The name of Isaac CHARRON also appeared in the probate record of his father-in-law, Leonard COLE, where it shows he and his wife, Nellie CHARRON, posted a bond, so that Leonard COLE’s widow could be appointed administratrix of his estate. This was probably deemed necessary since Maria (HAWLEY) COLE was unrelated to Leonard’s children, the other heirs to his estate.


Photo of Hon. Jeffery B. CLOGSTON Photo ca. 1890 of Mary CLOGSTON, grand-dau. of Dr. Richard and Rebecca (KRESS) HUSON  It appears the reference to “Mrs. Mary (Hoagland) Klogston” was an phonetic spelling error in the Bunce Genealogy and History. In the book, History of the State of Kansas, edited by William G. Cutler, published 1883, on p. 1201 in the chapter on Greenwood County, Kan­sas, in a section on the town of Eureka, there is a biographical sketch and engraved photograph of Hon. J. B. CLOGSTON, only son of three children of Lewis and Frances (KEPPLE) CLOGSTON, who had studied medicine in 1865 with “Dr. HUSON” of Tecumseh, Shawnee Co., Kansas, and also married “Miss Mary R. HOGGLAND” in November, 1863, while he was on leave from the Army during the Civil War. He served in Co. H, 11th Kansas Cavalry during the war, and was mustered out with the rest of his regiment at Fort Leavenworth in Septem­ber, 1865. “Mary R. HOGGLAND” was Mary R. HOAGLAND, who was the only daughter of Edward and Eliza Ann (HUSON) HOAGLAND, and also grand-daughter of Dr. Richard and Rebecca (KRESS) HUSON. J. B. and Mary (HOAGLAND) CLOGSTON were the parents of three sons, according to this record: Louis E., born March, 1870; Robert H., born in April, 1875; and Fred, born in September, 1878. However, another record on this family in the book History of Greenwood County, Kansas,, ©1986, published by the Greenwood Historical Society, on pp. 171-72 says they were the parents of 9 children, but only 4 lived to adulthood, namely, Lew E. CLOGSTON, who married Jennie SMITH; Robert H. CLOGSTON, who married Virginia LITTLE; Fred B. CLOGSTON, who married Lulu STANLEY, and Emma F. CLOGSTON, who married Ole L. PAULSON. This record has further details on the public career of Hon. J. B. CLOGSTON and how he served on an advisory committe to the Kansas Supreme Court for many years before returning to his private law practice. The source for the record in the Greenwood County history was a grandson of Ole L. and Emma F. (CLOGSTON) PAULSON. It was most likely with this family that Rebecca (KRESS) HUSON spent her final years, as was stated on p. 44 of Bunce Genealogy and History.


GENERAL NOTES ON THE COLE LINE.  The COLEs on pp. 84-89 of this genealogy were descended from Robert COLE, who came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony with Governor WINTHROP in 1630 with the first company, and later in 1634, he went with Roger WILLIAMS to Rhode Island and was one of the 13 original proprietors of the Providence Plantation as well as one of the first 12 members of the First Baptist Church in Providence in 1639. He was born ca. 1598 and died in 1655 at Warwick, Rhode Island. A list of references on the Robert COLE family can be viewed as well.


The City Clerk's Office for Leominster has no record of a son, Albert COLE, born to Leonard and Mary (HARRIS) COLE, although the name of Henry Albert Cole, is on the 1855 Massachusetts state census. Another record found revealed that Henry Albert COLE was born May 7, 1855, and died the following year on May 2, 1856.

Also, Leonard and Mary (HARRIS) COLE had another child who died young, whose name is not included in this genealogy. She was their firstborn daughter, Mary Ann COLE, born 13 Aug 1844, died 2 Sep 1845, buried in the Leominster Cemetery. Source: book, Leominster Vital Records to the Year 1849, pp. 44 and 304.


In the September, 1920 probate record (Case No. 72804, Worcester Co., Mass. Probate Court) for his father, Charles L. COLE, the address given for Alden B. COLE was Lawrence, Kansas.  Below is a copy of the 1920 census record for the household of Alden Bernard COLE:

Alden B. COLE, residing at Wakarusa Twp., Lawrence, Kansas
Series T625   Roll 531   Page 223
taken early Jan., 1920, (two dates, 2 and 5)
NameS
e
x
A
g
e

R
a
c
e
Relationship
to Head of
Household
Marital
Status
OccupationBirth
Place
Birth
Place
of
Father
Birth
Place
of
Mother
Alden B. COLEM33WHeadMfarmerNHMAPA
Gertrude K. COLEF26WWifeM
KSILMO
Waldo R. COLEM4-5/12WSon

KSNHKS
Randall L. COLEM1-8/12WSon

MANHKS


The correct maiden name for Anna “COLE” is KENNEDY, not COLE. She was a sister of Ida RICHARDSON (KENNEDY) COLE (see 1860 census record below). According to the obituary for her father, Jesse O. KENNEDY, dated June, 1906, Anna R. KENNEDY was the wife of Mr. DuBREE of Philadelphia, not “Mr. DuPREE” as was recorded in the Bunce Genealogy and History.


In the probate record (Case No. 4675, Worcester Co. Probate Court) for her father, Carey COLE’s name was spelled “Carrie L. COLE,” so she was unmarried at the time of her father’s death in August, 1885. According to the defunct website Marriage Records of Leominster, Massachusetts web site:  “Carrie L. Cole of L. and J. E. Bowen of Lansingburg, NY, m. Apr. 23, 1889,” so it appears her first husband’s last name was “Bowen,” not Brown.


According to a copy of my grandfather’s U.S. Postal Service government personnel file, the correct spelling of Charles “Charra” COLE’s middle name is “CHARRON.” Probably “Charra” is the way that he pronounced it, since it is a French name. Also in his personnel file, he wrote on a form that his place of birth was New Hampton, Belknap Co., New Hampshire, and his name appears on the 1880 census in the household of his father at New Hampton, New Hampshire, at the age 2 months, so his birthplace was not North Hampton, as stated in the Bunce Genealogy and History. It appears his middle name was given to him in honor of his uncle, Isaac CHARRON, who had married his aunt Nellie COLE. In the September, 1920 probate record for his father, Charles L. COLE, the address given for Charles C. COLE was New York, N.Y. Charles C. COLE worked for the New York City U.S. Post Office most of his adult life, beginning 22 Mar 1909, to the date of his retirement on 30 April 1950, at age 70. One of the forms in his personnel file gives his wife’s name as Mary V. MONSEES, birthdate 20 Jan 1885. This same record shows he graduated from high school, but had never served in the military.

Below is a copy of the 1920 census record for the household of Charles Charron Cole. It is interesting to note that this address is just a few houses down the street from 253 W. Houston St., the home of Ellen Mary (CLARK) MONSEES and her son, Clarence, in 1920. This confirms the story told to Bonnie Bunce by her mother that she lived near her grandmother in early life, and remembered that she was taken to a Roman Catholic church “around the corner” from her grandmother’s home, where she was baptized at about age 4.

Charles C. COLE
residing at 247 W. Houston St., Manhattan, NY
Series T625   Roll 1185   Page 99
taken 1920
NameS
e
x
A
g
e
R
a
c
e
Relationship
to Head of
Household
Marital
Status
OccupationBirth
Place
Birth
Place
of
Father
Birth
Place
of
Mother
Charles COLEM39WHeadMclerk officeNHMAPA
Mary COLEF34WWifeM
NYNYNY
Evelyn COLEF7WDaughterS
NYNHNY
Grace COLEF5WDaughterS
NYNHNY

In an email from Edward F. Ryan, Jr., dated 6 Feb 2006, he stated that his grandfather, Charles C. Cole, was buried in St. Gertrude’s Cemetery in Rahway, Union Co., New Jersey in October, 1954, and that he had died from a heart attack at age 74.


The birthdate given for Charles Leonard COLE, 26 Jul 1846, in this genealogy is correct, based on the book Leominster Vital Records to the end of the Year 1849. We have been unable to locate the date and location of his marriage to Ida Richardson KENNEDY in Massachusetts, but he married her on 18 Apr 1869 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, according to information on the application for membership in Sons of the American Revolution, submitted by their grandson, Frederick William Keough, Jr. in 1966. It appears that he married again according to a record on the defunct website, Marriage Records of Leominster, Massachusetts, where it states:  “Charles Leonard COLE and Antoinette E. BOYDEN, both of L., m. Apr. 24, 1900 in L.” Since the name of Antoinette Cole does not appear in his last will and testament nor in the probate records, she probably died prior to the date he wrote his will in March, 1918. Nor does it appear he had any children by her, since all those named in his will were his children by Ida R. (KENNEDY) COLE per her probate record. Additionally the record for him on the 1920 Mass. census gave his marital status as “Wd.,” probably the abbreviation for “widowed.”

The following is a copy of the 1880 census record for the family of Charles L. COLE in New Hampton, Belknap Co., New Hampshire, taken 3-4 June 1880, p. 3, Supervisor Dist. 82, Enumerator Dist. 11, Dwelling No. 30, Family Number 30:

Name
R
a
c
e
S
e
x
A
g
e
Month Born
If During
Census Year
Relationship
to Head of
Household
Marital
Status
OccupationBirth
Place
Birth
Place
of
Father
Birth
Place
of
Mother
Charles L. COLE*WM32
[Self]MarriedFarmerMass.Mass.Mass.
Ida R. COLEWF25
WifeMarried Penn.Penn.Penn.
Leonard O. COLEWM8
Son

N.H.**Mass.Penn.
Eva E. COLEWF7
Daughter

N.H.**Mass.Penn.
Ella C. COLEWF5
Daughter

N.H.**Mass.Penn.
Grace E. COLEWF3
Daughter

N.H.**Mass.Penn.
Charles C. COLEWM2/12Apr.Son

N.H.Mass.Penn.

Footnotes to census record:

* The age given for Charles L. Cole is wrong by at least a year since in 1880 he would have been 34 years old on the 26th of July. This just may have been forgetfulness on his part. It should also be remembered that sometimes the census takers got information from someone else in the household other than the head of the household, so perhaps his wife provided the information.

** Leonard O. Cole was born in Leominster, Massachusetts according a record obtained from the Leominster City Clerk’s office, so a couple of the other children may have also been born in Leominster, rather than in New Hampshire, as well, since it is not now known when the family moved to New Hampshire. It appears the family had moved back to Leominster by Aug., 1885, at the time of Charles COLE’s father’s death at that time, so we know their youngest daughter May Ida COLE was born in Leominster.

The probate record for his estate reveals, however, that he died in Leominster on 4 Sep 1920, rather than at Shrewsbury. The City Directory for Leominster, Massachusetts for 1891 recorded that he was employed at that time as a wig maker and human hair worker. He resided at 56 Main St. in 1891 through 1900, when he moved to 90 Main St. where he resided until his death in 1920. Either of the houses on Main St. may have been the one owned by his wife, Ida RICHARDSON (KENNEDY) COLE, when she died in 1898, because the probate record for Ida R. COLE in the Worcester Co., Massachusetts Probate Court, File No. 23371, has an antiquated description of a piece of real estate that she owned at the time of her death as being on or near Main St. In 1899, Charles L. COLE had petitioned the Probate Court for permission to mortgage the property in order to pay medical bills owed after his wife’s death.

Transcribed copy of the typed Last Will and Testament of Charles Leonard Cole, filed in Probate Court for Worcester County, Massachusetts, File No. 72804.

“KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS:

“That, I, Charles L. Cole, of Leominster, in the Common­wealth of Massachusetts, do make this my last will and testa­ment, revoking all wills by me at any time heretofore made.

“After the payment of my just debts and funeral expenses, I give, devise, and bequeath as follows:

“FIRST:  I nominate and appoint as joint executors of this my last will my daughter May I. Robertson and my son Alden B. Cole, and I request that they be exempt from giving surety or sureties on their official bonds or bond. I also request that they serve as executors of this my will without compensa­tion or charge other than the legacies given them under this my last will. I hereby authorize and empower my said execu­tors to sell both real and personal estate, by public auction or by private sale, for such prices and upon such terms as they may judge best, and to convey the same by such deeds and instruments of conveyance and transfer, as may be necessary and proper.

“SECOND:  I order and direct, if at the time of my decease I hold any promissory note or notes against any legatees under this will or have any claim or claims against any lega­tees as may appear upon any memoranda or book of mine, that all such notes and claims and advancements shall be regarded as a portion of my estate, and shall be deducted from the respective legacies given to such legatees under the resid­uary clause in this will; and it is immaterial whether such notes or claims are barred by any Statute of Limitations or not or whether the legatees have been discharged from the debts under the bankrupt or insolvent laws of the United States or of any State. Interest upon all notes shall be at the rate specified therein, and upon book memoranda simple interest at the rate of five per cent. per annum. Interest is not to cease at my death, but is to continue until my estate is settled and the legacies are paid.

“THIRD:  I give to my son Waldo E. Cole secretary desk and marble top center table.

“FOURTH:  I give to my said daughter May I. Robertson, all the remainder of my household furniture, including pictures, ornaments, silverware, dishes, tools, garden implements.

“FIFTH:  All the rest, residue, and remainder of my estate of which I shall die seized and possessed and to which I shall be in any way entitled at the time of my decease, I give, de­vise, and bequeath in equal shares to my children, namely:  Leonard O. Cole, Eva E. Wagner, Ella C. Keough, Grace E. Wood, Charles C. Cole, Waldo E. Cole, Alden B. Cole, and May I. Robertson, my real estate in fee simple and my per­sonal property absolutely, to be divided among them, share and share alike, as equally as may be possible.

“In testimony whereof I hereunto set my hand and seal this 15th day of March, A.D. 1918.

“Charles L. Cole [signed and sealed]

“Signed by the testator in the presence of us, who, at his request, and in his presence, and in the presence of one another, have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses.

Elizabeth A. Leslie [signed]
Blanche E. Manzer [signed]
F. J. Ward_____ ? [signed]”

[According to a petition for the issuance of letters testmentary filed by Alden B. Cole and May I. Robertson in the file, filed with the Probate Court on 10 Sep 1920, Charles L. Cole had died in Leominster, Worcester Co., Massachusetts on 4 Sep 1920.]

“ … leaving as his only heirs at law and next of kin, the persons whose names, residences and relation­ship to the deceased are as follows:”

NameResidenceRelationship

Leonard O. Cole,Chicago, Ill.Son.
Eva E. Wagner,Nyack, New YorkDaughter.
Ella C. Keough,Teer, North Carolina  Daughter.
Grace E. Wood,Fitchburg, Mass.Daughter.
Charles C. Cole,New York, N.Y.Son.
Waldo E. Cole,Worcester, Mass.Son.
Alden B. Cole,Lawrence, KansasSon.
May I. Robertson,  Leominster, Mass.Daughter.

[Note:  Ida Richardson (Kennedy) Cole, the wife of Charles L. Cole and mother of his 8 children, had previously passed away on 1 Aug 1898, at age 43, in Leominster.]


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