| Notes |
- George, the baby of his family, graduated from Valparaiso University in 1882 and taught school in Tyner, Marshall County, Indiana for two years. His brothers Erastus and Jared married the Jarrell girls from Tyner, so George had some connections there that may have helped him secure a teaching position. He married Susan Bailey, the baby of her family, 16 April, 1884 in LaPorte. Just over a year later, 28 June 1885 they welcomed their first child, naming him Ziba after Susan's father. They lived first in Rolling Prairie, Kankakee township, which was about equidistant from each of their parents, but in 1887 they purchased 80 acres in section 8 of Lincoln township. That was closer to both sets of grandparents and since George's father Gabriel was dying, being closer meant George and Susan could lend their support if necessary. It also made it easier for George to share farming equipment with all the other farmers in the family. Sharing farm equipment is a time-honored tradition in the Midwest and often essential to a young man's success. Even in the days before air-conditioned and CD-Rom equipped tractors, farm equipment was expensive and sharing was a way to help the next generation get established without a large capital outlay.
Gabriel died that winter of 1887 and George got a cash infusion when his brothers Jared and Quin bought out his share in Gabriel's property the following April. Grandfather Ziba was gone by the third of January, 1889, leaving about 40 acres in Lincoln township's section 17 to Susan in his will. This land was diagonally across the road from where George and Susan already farmed. The exact acreage was unspecified. Although the will describes it is a full quarter except for the railroad right of way, it neglected to mention that a small lake called the Upper Fish juts into Susan's land. She also received all the rest of the land in section 17 that her father had not devised in the will. Land ownership maps of the period do not show a residence on Susan's property, so it was probably just farm land. If it had been timber land, the will would likely have specified that because Ziba did devise timber land to one of his sons.
Just as the Drollingers and Hostetlers established a small family enclave in Wills township, Drollingers and Baileys created a little family compound in Lincoln township. East of Susan's piece of section 17 was a piece willed to her sister Ellen Tennis. Across the road abutting George and Susan's 80 acre homestead to the east was 80 acres that Gabriel and Ellen Tennis purchased from George's brother Quinby in 1888. East of the Tennis' property was Susan's brother James Bailey who inherited his 160 acres from their father. Additionally, he owned the northwest quarter of section 17 and the railroad sliced a corner off his property, too. West of Susan and George was an 80 acre parcel that Ziba willed to his daughter Harriet Fults and west of her was the 80 acres willed to his daughter Lydia Wolcott. One way or another, Ziba arranged for five of his children to line up in a row along the southern edge of sections 7, 8, and 9, as well as providing some of them with a little extra land across the road in section 17. Harriet, Susan, Ellen, and James all sited their residences on the same rural road looking south while Lydia's faced the west where the road took a turn to bound her property.
Ziba's sons George W. and Ziba were willed the land in section 1 of Pleasant Township which was Ziba's original purchase. That land is only a few miles from the other siblings. Although Ziba was quite generous with his distributions of property, he did add a stipulation. Because he did not will his wife Elizabeth any property, he charged the children with providing $170 per year for life. The sons were to pay $40 per year, the daughters $20. About two weeks after Ziba penned his will, he added a codicil to remedy the omission of daughter Nancy Page. She did not get property, but instead he gave her notes for $1, 200 that he had loaned to his son Ziba to buy land that adjoined the land Ziba senior was devising to George and Ziba junior. What happened here? Did he absent mindedly forget her, did she live out of the county or state and therefore "out of sight, out of mind," or had she been estranged until she heard she was not mentioned in the will? Records uncovered to this point are silent on the conundrum. The codicil does not require Nancy to pay her mother $20 per year. Again, it is not known if that was deliberate or an oversight.
Few other records detail George and Susan's lives. They were busy raising children and crops, no doubt living a comfortable rural life. George was listed in a 1902 directory with 120 acres and personal property assessed at $25. That 120 acres would include the approximately 40 acres that Susan inherited from her father. George did participate in community life as a justice of the peace in Lincoln township for 30 years. He died on his farm at Mill Creek, a description given not only to the tiny town of Mill Creek, but to the part of the township where the Drollingers and Baileys set down their roots. His obituary says he lived there almost all his life. It does not mention his sojourn in Oak Park, Illinois, where he is enumerated on the 1930 census. Although an article on George's 83rd birthday celebration says George spent eight years in Chicago in the real estate business, he had no listed occupation on the 1930 census. Most likely, George and Susan moved there to be close to their children. Most of them were in Illinois then and at their ages it would be logical for the children to urge them to live closer. They had given all their children wings - not a one became a farmer and only one even stayed in Indiana. Ben sought his fortune in the South Bend real estate market, but Leo, Frank, Elmer, Clyde, Lottie, and Gabriel Owen went to the big city environs of Chicago. Ziba graduated from West Point Military Academy and was a career military officer, ending as officers often do in Washington, D. C. Harley lived in Buffalo, New York.
George died 27 July 1943 and was buried in the Sauktown Cemetery, about five and a half miles north of his farm. Susan moved into LaPorte where her brick Midwestern-style bungalow still stands at 1030 Indiana Avenue. This was the street where the well-to-do retired farmers of LaPorte County lived when they left their farms for a less isolated life. Indiana Avenue is only a few blocks long within easy walking distance of the courthouse and the necessities and niceties of life along Main Street. Susan died in 1952 and was buried next to George.
Kay Germain Ingalls 2003
1920: Lincoln, LA Porte, Indiana
Household Members:
Name Age
Geo Drollinger 61
Susan Drollinger 57
Clyde Drollinger 24
Owen Drollinger 14
Lydia Amina Wescott 70 sister
|
1858 - 1943 (84 years)
[1] 
