1907 Deaths from the St. Joseph Gazette and News-Press Newspapers

Monica Schirmer Eshelman has sent in her abstract of the 1907 deaths mentioned in the St. Joseph Gazette and the St. Joseph News-Press. She has since commenced working on 1906 which should arrive soon, considering her dedication!

1907 Death Notices in the Gazette and News-Press

Was It Really Only $500?

I was chatting with Monica via email the other day. She was telling me that some family property was sold in the early 1900s and it resulted in only $500. I was thinking, considering how many people had to share that, it was hardly worth fighting for — she said they each received maybe $20.

I was suddenly reminded that what is “only” to us today might have actually been quite a lot 100+ years ago, and set about looking for a currency converter. Turns out, in today’s dollars, the sale brought in about $12,500 and each heir would have received about $500. Now we’re talking some money for most of us.

That reminded me of a distribution for one of “my” families in the 1880s. I haven’t yet figured out where that money came from, but it was a total of $2,000, $50,000 in today’s dollars. Now . . . [Yes! There’s more!]

1908 Deaths from the St. Joseph Gazette and News-Press Newspapers

Monica Schirmer Eshelman has sent in her abstract of the 1908 deaths mentioned in the St. Joseph Missouri Gazette and the St. Joseph News-Press. She has since commenced working on 1907 which should arrive soon, considering her dedication!

1908 Death Notices in the Gazette and News-Press