Peter D’s Estate 2

The previous post gave background to a legal notice that was published on page 12 of the 29 October 1919 issue of The Aurora Republican. That notice reported two items of particular interest to our family: that Peter D Buller’s estate was not settled until twenty-two years after his death and that, in addition to the land in Farmers Valley that he purchased and homesteaded, Peter D owned property in York County. This post will explore both of those discoveries, especially as they might shed light on each other. We begin with the York County property.

According to the legal notice shown to the right, Peter D owned 80 acres in York County: “The North Half (N½) of the Northeast Quarter (NE¼) of Section No. Sixteen (16), Township No. Ten (10) North, Range No. Four (4) West of the 6th P. M.” To my knowledge, this is the first time we have heard of any parcel of land other than the Hamilton County farm. 

The description given, township 10 north range 4 west, locates the property in Brown township, which lies immediately to the north of Henderson township. A 1911 plat map confirms the information in the newspaper notice and helps us to locate the property more precisely. For a full-size version of the map, see here.

 

Since Peter D’s property was in the northeast quarter of section 16, his land was 4 miles north and 1½ miles east of Henderson. The York County property was thus roughly an 8-mile ride or drive from the Farmers Valley home. The extract below shows his land in greater detail (for an aerial view of the property today, see the north half of the pivot circle here).

The black square on the right of the plot signifies a house or farm site. Who lived there, we do not (yet) know. Apart from that, the plat map clearly states that, in 1911—fourteen years after he passed away—Peter D owned 80 acres in section 16 of Brown township.

Seeing Peter D’s name on this map clears up some confusion from a number of years back. In a post published on 17 September 2016 I blundered about trying to explain why a 1916 plat map for Farmers Valley precinct in Hamilton County still listed Peter Buller as the owner of the northeast quarter of section 12 nineteen years after his death (see further here). At that time I thought the Peter Buller listed on the map must be Peter P, the son of Peter D. That was mistaken. With the 1916 map as with this one for 1911, the owner listed was the long-deceased Peter D Buller.

How can this be? I do not pretend to have any special insight into the situation, only a hypothesis that makes sense of the facts that we know thus far: Peter D was still listed as owner in the land records because his estate had not yet been settled. The titles to the 160 acres in Farmers Valley and the 80 acres in Brown still bore Peter D’s name because no one had taken the steps to settle his estate, which was necessary for the titles to be transferred to new owners. Abraham Buller’s petition for a hearing began the process of remedying the situation, so that title to the family property could be legally assigned to its rightful owners, that is, to Peter D’s rightful heirs.

In sum, the legal notice printed in the 29 October 1919 issue of The Aurora Republican is important not only because it documents the settlement of Peter D’s estate but also because it reveals that he owned more land than we have previously known and because it helps us to understand why his name appeared as a landowner on plat maps long after he had passed away. 

Of course, questions remain. With respect to the land, when and from whom did Peter D acquire the 80 acres in York County? A subsequent post will collect all we know about that. With respect to Peter D’s estate, why did the family wait more than two decades to settle the inheritance of his real property? The next post in this series will tackle that question, although perhaps not in the way one might expect.