| Notes |
- Martin V.3 Drollinger (Elias2, Frederick1) was born 28 March 1837 in Ohio and died 25 October 1911 in Fort Wayne, Allen County, Indiana. He married first Susanna Jane Sprowl 19 June 1863 in Roann, Wabash County, Indiana. Susanna, probable daughter of John and Elizabeth Sprowl, was born between 1841 and 1847 in Pennsylvania and died on 11 April 1875 in Wabash County, Indiana. Second Martin married Celia A. Belden 4 January 1876 in Roann, Wabash County, Indiana. Celia was born in 1856 in Delaware, died after 1914.
Beneath the benignly serene surface of the Martin V. Drollinger described in Past and Present of Randolph County, was a man coping with gut-wrenching, migraine inducing family crises in several periods of his life. Reading only the biographical puffery in a piece on Martin's young son Harry, the researcher could be forgiven for thinking that Martin's 74 years were trouble free. Of course, just knowing that Martin had 12 children hints at an interesting life. Past and Present lauded him as such "a skilled farmer that the land retained its original fertility," and adds he died "after a life devoted to general farming ? rearing his large family in comfort and respectability on the old home place ..." There is sharp contrast between this bucolic description and the assaults on Martin's comfort and respectability as well as his emotions.
Martin's life before his father's death in January 1871 may have matched the bucolic picture. He married a neighbor girl, Susanna Jane Sprowl, when he was 26 and had been farming for some time. Children came quickly, first two girls just 16 months apart, followed by two boys. Then came 1871. His father died and Martin began the tedious work of settling his father's estate. Was he aware of his father's financial morass? Whether he knew or not, he soon was immersed in bills presented for settlement. Typical of the time Martin and Susanna's family grew larger about every two years and they added another in September 1871. Now Martin was farming, settling an estate with more liabilities than assets, comforting his mother who was bereft of her companion of nearly fifty years, and coming home to a household with five children under seven, one of them a newborn. The worst was yet to come.
Martin buried his mother in August 1874 with his father's estate still unsettled. Susanna was newly pregnant with Irvin. Six months later, February 1875, Martin sold 2/3 of the family farm distributing the proceeds to the three legatees of his mother's will, bought out his siblings' shares of the widow's 1/3, and presented his final report to the court. His respite was brief. In April Susanna died a few days after bearing her sixth child, Irvin. By the first of September Irvin was gone, too. In one year Martin lost his mother, his wife, and a son.
Martin needed help and he did not waste any time finding a young woman to mother his brood. Eight months after Susanna's death, 4 January 1876, Martin married Celia Belden who at 20 became the stepmother of five children, ages five to twelve. A year later Celia gave birth to Eva, her first child, Martin's seventh. Celia's oldest stepchild, Sierra Nevada, was old enough to be a great help to her stepmother, and the family followed its growth trajectory, adding children. In 1880 Martin's three boys were already working on the farm which was a catalyst for Martin's buying ten adjoining acres in 1885. To purchase this property Martin paid $900 in cash and assumed a $2, 080 mortgage. Unknown to Martin, the U. S. economy was entering a downward spiral, making it a risky time to acquire a mortgage. Crop prices eroded year by year. In June 1893 banks began closing and the financial panic of 1893 rippled across the land. That same month Martin turned to his son Leander and his son-in-law Francis M. Miller for help, and they assumed the $2,000 mortgage. Two years later Martin recovered enough to resume the mortgage with Francis and Leander signing quit claims in February 1895. However, Martin had miscalculated and when he couldn't pay the mortgage, Connecticut Mutual Life foreclosed. The sheriff sold the acreage to the highest bidder for $2,554.41.
This difficulty paled in comparison to Martin's next problem. Any father would be devastated to find that his daughter had been molested. To learn that a family member was responsible for the reprehensible deed must have been crushing. Eva, Martin and Celia's oldest child, with her father as "next friend," brought suit against her brother-in-law Francis M. Miller in the Miami County Circuit Court, September Term, 1895, claiming he had molested her. The suit was dismissed with the implication that Francis's stature in his county was such that no charges would be entertained. So Eva and her father took the case to Wabash County Circuit Court, asking for a change of venue. Whether Eva insisted they try again or Martin persisted seeking redress for the crime is not known, but the venue change was granted. On 24 February 1896, all parties signed an agreement acknowledging that Francis M. Miller made a settlement with Eva and paid the court costs.
Francis was married to Eva's half-sister Rosa and they had no children. In her complaint to the Miami Court, Eva affirmed that she was under the age of 21 and that from 13 on she was afflicted with a "nervous disorder known as hysterical mania." She said that although this affected her physical health, leaving her unable to do heavy work, her mind was unaffected. She had been under the "tender care of her parents," and attended school. At 17 "by reason of the straightened circumstances of her parents," she had to support herself, so she sought a license to teach in the Miami schools. This was 1894 when Martin had such financial difficulty that Francis and Leander took over his mortgage.
Eva went to live with her sister and brother-in-law Francis who, ever helpful, promised to care for her as a father. He loaned her money to attend the nearby Normal School and promised to find her a teaching position in a school near the Millers for the 1894-1895 school year. His solicitous attitude earned her trust and that of her family. She looked upon him as "a safe guide and counsellor in all the affairs of life." In December and January this man of thirty-eight "for the purpose of gratifying his lust, declared his love for her...and she was ... reduced to a condition of concubinage.[sic]" Now she declared that she was unable to find honorable employment in the public schools and asked for damages of $15,000 dollars. There is no record of the amount of the settlement that Francis made to Eva in 1896, nor is there a record of Rosa Miller's reaction to this betrayal. It does not appear that Rosa left Francis and in 1900, a girl of thirteen is in their household, listed as a "foster daughter." A hundred years later one can only wonder at the arrangement. Eva did secure a teaching position as she was so employed in 1900 in Whitley, another county adjoining Wabash and she married that November in nearby Porter County.
Martin and his family weathered this event only to be stunned by another tragedy in 1908. Martin and Celia's daughter Grace had married Edward Quick in 1897. On Thursday 17 September 1908 the headline in the Wabash Plain Dealer screamed "Ed Quick Murdered in Night By Burglar." The paper reported a burglar entered the Quick home in Michigan City [Indiana] soon after midnight which awakened Ed. When Ed roused out of bed, the burglar shot him and fled. Ed Quick was a guard at the Michigan City, Indiana, prison, so immediate speculation pinned the blame on some recently released convict. Friday's paper announced funeral services for Saturday, the 19th, at the First Methodist Church and added "there is no credence placed in the theory that death was caused by a convict or escaped convict." There were no other details of the crime.
Two years later Grace lived in Fort Wayne with her parents and two brothers Harry and Clyde. They were all employed: Martin was a teamster, Celia was an operator at the Princess Manufacturing Company, and Grace was a seamstress in a clothing store. Brothers Harry and Clyde, Martin's youngest children, were respectively, a truck driver and a "feeder" at a box factory. They all lived at 201 Second Street. In spite of the 1910 Fort Wayne directory listing them all in the same household, only Martin, Celia, Grace, and Grace's daughter Pauline are listed together on the 1910 census. They are at the 201 address and they have a boarder who may occupy a room vacated by the brothers. Perhaps indicative of continuing financial difficulties, the 73 year old Martin was still a teamster and the family was supplementing their income by taking in a boarder. Grace was now a saleslady in a clothing store. She most likely not only sold clothes, but altered them as well.
Children of Martin V. Drollinger and Susanna Jane Sprowl all born in Wabash County, Indiana, were as follows:
i. NEVADA DROLLINGER, born 23 May 1864, died 17 April 1894 in Wabash County, Indiana.
ii. ROSA E. DROLLINGER, born October 1865, married Francis M. Miller 26 October 1882 in Wabash County, Indiana.
iii. AARON DROLLINGER, born 1867.
iv. WILLIAM T. DROLLINGER, born September 1869.
v. LEANDER J. DROLLINGER, born 1871, died 17 April 1946 in Wabash County, Indiana.
vi. IRVIN E. DROLLINGER, born 8 April 1875, died 31 August 1875.
Children of Martin V.3 Drollinger and Celia A. Belden all born in Roann, Wabash County, Indiana, were as follows:
i. EVA R.4 DROLLINGER, born January 1877, married Milton G. Bolerjack 7 November 1900 in Porter County, Indiana.
ii. GRACE DROLLINGER, born 1879, married Edward Quick 29 March 1897 in Wabash County, Indiana.
iii. MARIE DROLLINGER born 1883, died 1884 in Roann, Wabash County, Indiana.
iv. GROVER DROLLINGER, born April 1885.
v. HARRY I. DROLLINGER, born 25 July 1890.
vi. CLYDE O. DROLLINGER, born July 1892.
Kay Germain Ingalls 2003
Ref family photo of Martin, his wife and children attached to his Findagrave.com data as provided by Harry Benjamin Drollinger.
Martin Van Buren Drollinger
Note: During our telephone conversation of 19 July 2011, Ben (Harry Benjamin Drollinger) confirmed that he was in possession of his great grandfather, Martin Van Buren Drollinger's family Bible.
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1837 - 1911 (74 years)
