Last night while visiting one of my favorite free historical newspapers websites, Advantage Archives, I noticed Preble County, Ohio papers in their holdings. Preble has been home to both the John George (Hans Jurich) Loy branch and the Martin Loy (to America 1741) branch prior to the 1900s; the John George descendants arriving there directly from Maryland, while the Martin Loy descendants, after leaving North Carolina, spent some time in East Tennessee before migrating to Ohio and many then elsewhere. Of the few Martin Loy (to America 1741) descendants with Loy surname that did remain until their death in Preble County was Daniel Loy (1836 Campbell County, TN—1913 Preble County, Ohio), son of Peter Loy, son of John Loy, Jr., son of John Loy, Sr., son of Martin Loy (to America 1741). Daniel’s grandfather John Loy, Jr. and my ancestor John Henry Loy were first cousins.
At ten in the morning, Thursday, 12 November 1913, Daniel Loy died of heart failure at his home in Eaton. His death notice was in the Thursday, 27 November 1913 The Lewisburg Leader (Lewisburg, OH) pg. 11:
Dropped Dead
Daniel Loy of Eaton, aged 80, fell dead at his home in that village on Wednesday morning of last week of heart failure. Funeral services were held Friday afternoon from the home, conducted by Rev. Bream, pastor of the Church of Christ.
Daniel’s widow, Mary A. (Phillips) Loy (1835 Campbell County, TN—1915 Preble County, Ohio), was left alone. She and Daniel had been parents of two sons, but both were dead: Horace Maynard Loy had died at age 4 and William E. Loy had died of Tuberculosis less than two months after his 30th birthday. Although “Willie” had married before his death, his widow Jessie C. (Coblentz) Loy (1870 IN—1959 CA) and their young son had relocated with her parents to Los Angeles, California. [To make matters confusing for novice researchers, also living in Los Angeles county but in Long Beach during 1920s-1940s were my grandmother’s uncle James Wallace Loy and his 4th wife Jessie (Durham) Loy. Both Jessies were born in Indiana but Aunt Jessie was nearly five years and four months older than cousin William E.’s wife Jessie.]
At the time of Daniel’s death, Daniel and Mary’s grandson Howard Milton Loy was 22 years old, but many factors would have prevented his coming to provide care for his widowed grandmother. Not only the distance and unable to leave his own widowed mother, but Howard was currently attending UC Berkeley, the class of 1915, where he was studying Civil Engineering. (He also met his fellow student and future wife Hazel King there, too!)
As it was, Mrs. Caroline C. Harris, administratrix of Daniel’s estate, was also appointed guardian for Daniel’s widow Mary, who was in poor health and a diabetic. Born in 1840, Caroline was only five years younger than Mary. [Note: Caroline’s gravestone erroneously reads 1848 birth, but obituary and about all census confirm Caroline’s 1840 birth.] She was referred to in these estate news articles as “Caroline C.” and “Carrie” but her full name was Nancy Caroline (Congo) Harris, wife of (at that time former) governor Col. Andrew Lintner Harris, Ohio’s 44th governor. The month after Mary’s 1915 passing, Carrie’s husband also passed away after seven months of declining health and had spent time at a sanitarium in Lafayette, Indiana. With her husband at this hospital, Carrie would not have been as overwhelmed in caring for Mary in Mary’s final days. Nevertheless, when Mary died and an administrator was needed for the Loy estate, instead of Carrie again being administratrix, which would have been unthinkable for her to accomplish, T. B. Sturr was named administrator.
Thomas B. Sturr was somewhat related to the Loys: Daniel Loy’s first cousin John W. Loy, son of his uncle Elias Loy, had stepdaughter Ordella by second wife Margaret. Ordella was wife of Thomas B. Sturr. This time there would be more value in the estate than previously thought at the time of Daniel’s death, due to the following event:
From Thursday, 20 May 1915 The Lewisburg Leader (Lewisburg, OH) pg. 4:
Used Tin Can For Bank
Contained $1600 in Cash.
EATON, O.— Stored away in several old fruit cans, cash totaling $1600 was found a few days ago at the home of Mary Loy, widow of Daniel Loy, east Decatur street. The find was made by Carrie Harris, wife of former Governor Harris.
When Loy died several months ago it was not known that any money had been stored away by him. He was a gardener and sold considerable of his produce at retail to a regular list of customers, and it was from this business he saved the money. Since Loy’s death, Mrs. Harris has been looking to the needs of the aged and infirm widow.
Considering Mary only lived three months after the finding of the money, surely hardly any of this money was used and grandson Howard inherited the remainder of the $1600. ($1600 in 1915 is $39,799.29 today, according to one website I found.) Research into the court records would likely tell for sure. Howard and Hazel’s children Milton Edwin Loy, William Clinton Loy, and Patricia Loy Peacock have all passed on (1998, 1997, 2000), so I can’t ask them. But perhaps their children’s families are out there reading this and might be able to share with us the rest of this story. 😉