What happened to the land of GEORGE YOUKER-AMERICAN REVOLUTION PATRIOT?
George Youker made out his will on 4 December 1838, and except for a small amount of money to each of his children, gave everything to his daughter Elizabeth Hillegas. Everything; all of his real estate, and everything contained within it, house & furnishings, barn and animals, everything. George died on 22 November 1844. I believed she had cared for her father in his old age.
Elizabeth and her husband George H Hillegas lived there in St. Johnsville for the rest of their lives. George Hillegas died in 1862, her children by then were all grown and gone but her son David continued to live with her for the remainder of her life.
After Elizabeth’s husband died, she took in a housekeeper named Jane Sypher and a farm hand by the name of Gideon Osbourne. It is unclear how long they had been living with the Hillegas family, but at the very least by the 1875 census. Remember their names.
Elizabeth Youker Hillegas died 9 February 1877. She had a will and gave some monetary amounts to her grown children, but to David she gave everything.
“First- I give and bequeath to my son David Hillegas all of my real estate and also all of my personal property of every kind name or nature together with all of the hereditaments and appurtenances thereunto belonging or in any wise appertaining to have and to hold the same premises described as follows: Bounded on the west by a public highway on the North by land formerly owned by John Youker now in the possession of the widow Eve Burkdorf on the eastly William Kneaskirn on the South by the East Canada Creek containing fifty acres more or less being the farm I now live on and willed to me by my father GEORGE YOUKER and I also will and request that my son David shall pay all legacies hereinafter mentioned in consideration of the above bequeath.”
1877.
By 1880, David along with the housekeeper Jane and the ‘boarder’ Gideon Osbourne were all together, living in the house that George built.
It is not known if David was ill for a long time or suddenly became ill, but on 19 April 1883 David writes a will and bequeaths to “JANE HILLEGAS NOW LIVING WITH ME” "ALL OF MY REAL ESTATE". Furthermore, he goes on to say he has appointed a new Executor of the Will and REVOKES all former wills made by him.….when did THIS happen? This is the housekeeper…and now she is his wife? No records of it can I find…..He bequeaths to her ALL OF HIS REAL ESTATE, GEORGE’S LAND!
If that isn’t enough to rattle one's cage, the housekeeper married the 'farmhand boarder' Gideon Osbourne on 11 August 1883….the ink hadn’t dried on the new will yet! Four months after he rewrote his will, he’s dead and she marries the farmhand. She is going to court to process it all with a new name- Jane Osbourne.
Well you can bet the family found out and protested, but they didn’t get much. Three siblings got $66.04 and three nieces & a nephew got $16.51 and Jane Osbourne walked away with George’s land.
That’s a swindle, folks. No one can convince me otherwise.
No comments:
Post a Comment