The last post ended a brief series on Peter D’s estate. In that series we learned that, although Peter D passed away in 1897, his estate was not settled until twenty-two years later, in 1919. We also discovered that his estate included more than the 160 acres of the original farm, that Peter D owned an additional 80 acres in Brown township of York County (more on that later) and that apparently it was the family’s desire to sell that property that finally led them to file the paperwork to settle Peter D’s estate. We will return to the series on Peter D and Sarah’s Hamilton County farm in due course, but first we need to turn our attention to Sarah Siebert Buller (pictured on the right with daughter Mary, circa 1900), specifically to her death and estate settlement.
Sarah was fifty years old when Peter died, and she remained a widow the final twenty-four years of her life. As we noted in recent posts, she apparently remained on the Hamilton County farm for five years, then in 1902 moved into Henderson, to lot 3 of block 5. The 1910 and 1920 censuses confirm that she lived in town the last years of her life.
Less than two years after she and her children sold the 80 acres in York County to Heinrich E. Mierau, on 15 February 1922, Sarah passed away at the age of seventy-four. Her death was reported in a number of newspapers from different locales. The York Daily News-Times offered the first report, on 18 February 1922.
Three days after that, on 21 February 1922, the Lincoln State Journal offered an abbreviated account of the same.
The following day (22 February 1922) the Henderson column of another York newspaper, The New Teller, gave a slightly different report.
Whereas the first two reports state that Sarah died in her own home, this one says that she died in the home of her son, D. C. Buller. One would think that the Henderson correspondent would have a better idea of where Sarah died, but the fact that the same correspondent has the son’s middle initial incorrect (he was David S Buller, not David C Buller) creates some doubts. Note further that Sarah was reported to have “been in poor health for some time.”
The next report came one day later in the Henderson section of the York Republican. The 23 February 1922 issue both agrees and disagrees with the previous reports.
This account agrees with the claim that she passed away at her son David’s home, and this one also has his middle initial correct. We are also told the length of her illness, about eleven months, and that she was not seriously ill until the final hour of her life. This account does contain one error: Sarah had ten children who survived her, not nine. Here we are also informed that two children were not present: John, of Mountain Lake, Minnesota, could not attend due to illness; J. P. had moved to Hawaii a year earlier and obviously did not have time to make it back before the funeral.
Earlier in the same Henderson column shown immediately above, we read of two relatives who were able make it back for Sarah’s funeral.
The last we knew, Sarah’s son Henry was renting the Hamilton County farm (see here); although he now lived in Canada, he made it back for the funeral. Who, then, was farming the Hamilton County property in 1922? That is a question that merits further attention.
The Benjamin mentioned here was likely Benjamin D Buller, Peter D’s brother. Benjamin and his family had come to the United States on the same ship as Peter D and Sarah but settled, it seems, first in Inman, Kansas, before moving to Medford, Oklahoma. He made the trip north to attend his sister-in-law’s funeral.
Two reports dated 24 February 1922, the one on the left from the Sutton News and the one on the right from the York Democrat, are the final accounts of Sarah’s passing.
The Sutton News places her death at “the family home,” which could refer to Sarah’s home or David’s home or perhaps even the family farm, if David happened to live there at the time (we do not yet know if that was the case, but it is possible). The York Democrat returns full circle and locates Sarah’s death in her own home in Henderson. Note also that this paper lists her age as seventy, when she actually was seventy-four.
When Peter D Buller passed away, only one Nebraska paper that we know of reported his death; Sarah’s death, on the other hand, was noted in six different newspapers, including one in the state capital, Lincoln. What is most striking, however, is the variations between the six accounts of Sarah’s death. The newspaper reports agree that Sarah Buller, a resident of Nebraska for forty-eight years and the mother of a number of children, had died. One or another of the accounts disagree on her age at death, the location where she died, the number of children who survived her, or the exact name of one of her sons.
I note these variations as a reminder that we should not take everything reported in print as gospel truth. Some of the details we find in contemporary sources such as these are mistaken, and all of them should be tested against what we do know. We know, for example, that Sarah died on 15 February 1922 and that she was survived by ten children: seven sons and three daughters. We also know that she was buried in the cemetery west of Henderson (see here). We do not know, however, where Sarah died or the nature of her illness. Those are questions for further examination.
Even when contemporary sources agree, we should check their claims against what we know to be true. For example, four of the newspaper accounts state that Sarah, who died in 1922, had been a resident of Nebraska for forty-eight years. That would place her immigration date in 1874, when the first wave of Mennonite immigrants came to Henderson. Peter D and Sarah, however, did not immigrate until 1879. Thus, although four newspapers agree that Sarah resided in Nebraska for forty-eight years, they are demonstrably mistaken. This also serves as a useful reminder not to believe everything we read in print, whether it was written in 1922 or even today (including this blog, which sometimes makes mistakes).
* The photograph of Sarah and Mary above was provided, I believe, by Carolyn (Peters) Stucky.
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