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    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

    Saline County Historical Society Litigation

    This recent article from the Marshall Democrat-News gives us an update, sort of, on the lawsuit brought against the Marshall Public Library by the Saline County Historical Society. In a nutshell, the case has been dismissed by the plaintiff.

    Is it over? Probably not. The matter with dismissed without prejudice, meaning it can be refiled at the plaintiff’s discretion, and the Library Director, Wicky Sleight, theorizes that the Society will refile, requesting a change of venue.

    The good news is that, in the meantime, the disputed materials will remain at the library.