Ancestral documents

How often do you actually get to hold a piece of paper that contains the handwriting of your ancestor?  It gives me goosebumps.  It's a way of connecting across the time and space.

I never knew Irma Nelson, my mother's mother.  I met her one time when she was in a nursing home in Florida.  I was a brat of a sixteen-year-old and couldn't have cared less about meeting her.  I was being taken away from my boyfriend at the time.  I wish I would have had more sense then and realized how fortunate I was to meet her, but alas, that didn't happen.

This first receipt is dated May 15, 1919, and she puts the place in the date line - Friendship, Wis.  The amount is $450.00 which appears to be about $11,000 plus in 2017 dollars.  It is received from James F. Horan, who would have been her brother-in-law, and he is listed as the administrator of the McConick estate.  Interesting that her parents left him in charge of the estate instead of her.  I can only imagine that it was sexism at play.  Women wouldn't have handled much in those days.  My understanding though is that my grandmother was different.  She had a real estate business at one point, and my mom always mentioned that she drove her own car.  I assume that was also unusual in those days.

Grandma Nelson also had the nerve to divorce Mr. Nelson not once but twice.  That's a story for another chapter.

The rest of the receipt says 'Four Hundred Fifty and No/100 dollars.  Money record from C.H. ______, B. M____yard, and R. _______ (looks like proper names) for rec (receipts) for sale of abstract office of the McConick Estate.  She signs her name.  And it's numbered 1.

The next looks like a promissory note.  It has two four cent stamps on it, and it initialed 'McC 8/4/16'.  This says:  Friendship Wisconsin August 4th 1916.  Three years after the date for value received we promise to pay to Hattie Lawson or bearer the sum of Three hundred six Dollars, together with interest at the rate of six percent per annum, payable annually and if the interest is not paid when due it is to draw interest at the same rate as the principal until paid.  With the privilege of keeping the said sum of money for a term of five years, if wanted, there being no arrears of interest.  This note is secured by a mortgage on real estate bearing even____ herewith.  It is signed Frank McConick and Minnie J. McConick.

They paid it off. There is a stamp in purple ink that says 'Paid February 6, 1920'.  The stamp says 'The Neceda Bank, Necedah, Wisconsin.'  I wonder why they had such a formal agreement with someone who I assume was a relative?  And what did they use the money for?  More mysteries.  It's just fascinating to have these documents with the signatures.