Just for Helen

This is Jacob Shank's gravestone in the Leathers Farm Cemetery.  It has fallen part way into the grave and I had to dig down to see the name.  I have tried several times to find out something about Jacob but until last week I could not find much trace of him.  

I know from our land records that his wife was Mary Shank but had never found much more about him.  I had found him and May on the 1880 census in Eureka Springs.  He bought he land from John Dixon in April 1882 and died just 2 years later in April 1884.  I found Jacob and Mary at Ancestry on the 1875 Kansas state census in Crawford Co, but was not sure it was the right Jacob.  So, Friday, I went to the courthouse and looked at his will.  He leaves all his land on the South East side of Dry Creek to his wife Mary and his land North of Dry Creek to his daughter Ruth Ann Kincaid.  He says her husband Alfred L. Kincaid is not to have any of his possessions.  The Jacob in Kansas has a daughter named R A, so that is the correct Jacob.  

On world connect I found Jacob as a son of John and Juliann Shank of Holmes County, Ohio.  Also on Ancestry I found Jacob married Mary Turner 28 Aug 1858 Holmes County, Ohio.   Jacob served in the  Civil War in the Ohio 16th Infantry from 1861 to 1864 and was a Wagon Master.

I found Ruth Ann and her husband on the 1880 census in Kansas with a young daughter.  But, in 1900 Alfred is in Oklahoma Territory with a different wife and his daughter from the first marriage is with them.  That likely means that Ruth Ann died between 1880 and 1900.

Jacob's widow sold 40 acres of land along Dry Creek for $150 to SP Jones in 1892.  In 1894, widow Shank married Thomas P. Wilson.  Thomas P Wilson had divorce his first wife a few years previously.  Mr. Wilson is buried in Glenwood Cemetery, but his first divorced wife lies in the space next to him.  I do not know where Mary is buried. 

Helen can take up the ball and try to find where Mary Shank lies.  Maybe she can find her granddaughter Gussie Kincaid.