The Summer of Jeremiah

I have to get back to the estate of Jeremiah Wiggins, because I have taken it upon myself to pull together a little binder for the Merrillville-Ross Township Historical Society museum that will include print-outs of Jeremiah's estate papers and my attempted transcriptions thereof, as well as whatever historical background I can dig up on the other people mentioned in those papers. That historical digging is going to take some time and stop me from doing the research to write about anything else here, so this blog will probably be all Jeremiah for some time.


Here is a claim on the estate:


(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of Alice Flora Smedstad.

And my transcription:

Estate of J. Wiggins Decd

To John C. Davis Dr. [abbreviation of "debere," indicating an amount owed]

To 5 Ton of Hay used by [illegible word that appears to have been struck out by the writer] the said Wiggins during his life time at $3.00 per Ton $15.00

Allowed

This would be the back of the folded document:



Transcription:

No. 1
Wiggins Estate
J.C. Davis a/c 15$.

Filed & proved in open court Feb. 10th 1840
Solon Robinson Ck. [clerk]

I just briefly mentioned John C. Davis earlier in this blog, and I have not been able to find out any more about him since then. It appears that he came into Lake County from Philadelphia in 1835 or '36, and made some money selling town lots in the future metropolis of Liverpool. Now we know he also made some money selling hay to Jeremiah Wiggins. I don't know where he got the hay, but I'm betting he didn't grow it himself.

In the early account books at the Hobart Historical Society museum that I have indexed so far,[1] he shows up doing business with George Earle as late as 1847. I can't find him in the 1840 Census of Lake County, nor clearly identify him in any other census, here or in Philadelphia.

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[1] A project that has fallen by the wayside. Someday, someday, I will have time to get back to it. Someday.